Return to tools of the past

I am close to that same boat or at least on the dock to that boat!
I used to spend hours in my basement shop nearly every day and sometimes late into the night.
Now I have more tools and more time but much less inclination.
I believe that the contributing factors to my lack of woodworking drive are:

• I see projects from others that are orders of magnitude better than I want to put into a project.
• I just hate the clean up after the cutting, planing, sanding, and finishing.
• I am retired and the cost of the wood seems to be going out of sight.
• My favorite lumber yard closed after 110 years and I don’t feel like creating a new relationship at another yard.
• My rheumatoid arthritis gets annoying in my cold garage shop.

-- "I never met a board I didn't like!"

I just retired…and my hobby I was going to pursue was woodworking. Been planning on spending all my new spare time on it,but nothing gets done! I understand the cleanup dislike….hate that too. I find I do more putzing around than woodworking….there’s always a tool to be fixed or sharpened, or something to be cleaned or derusted. I also got a big kick out of fixing old machines…fixed up and old (1960) unisaw, delta 14” band saw,etc. After taking them apart and putting them back together I got certain feeling of mastery over how the machine worked, and wasn’t afraid of breaking it. But now it seems driving myself is harder to do,than when I worked for someone else..didn’t expect that.

-- Al,New Jersey -To thine own self be true

Hello old novice and Big Al, thanks for responding. It always helps to know others are going through the woodworking blues, lol. A few things I’ve been doing to keep going is to watch more of the old dvd’s on woodworking, not that helpful though. Then I started ordering materials for reading and have found that I set them aside also after looking through them for a couple days. Finally stopped thinking about what I couldn’t do, or wouldn’t do, and started right back in the shop that I had come to dislike. Now I find I’m gaining on the time spent in the shop and appreciating the knowledge of what I am able to accomplish. Part of the idea of losing interest was listening to people who claim our choice of work is a thing of the past. I’m sure that the “old timers” heard that also. I praise the Lord that I have the ability He gave me, and hopefully will now find the time to pass it along to another. Thanks for listening and have fun, make some dust.