# Ever just "tinker"?



## Charlie5791 (Feb 21, 2012)

I went out to the shop today for something…. can't even remember why I went out there originally…. and "remembered" I had a good straight edge up in the rafters (where it will be safe from getting knocked around…. and, of course, I forgot I put it there).

Anyways, one thing led to another and I ended up crawling around my table saw, fine tuning the alignment of the table extensions. With the better straight edge, I got to see how far off I was when I set it up originally. Well once I had it all nice and flat, it just made sense to go back through it and readjust the miter slots for perfect width through their entire length (Steel City 35990G, granite top with split miter slots), which then led to re checking the slot-to-blade alignment (within .001 so I didn't need to redo everything… whew), and then of course I had to recheck how my crosscut sled fit. It was fine. I had set it so the runners were tight to the "blade side" of each miter slot.

Was going to do something else when I realized I had tinkered away an hour and a half.

So how much time do you spend just tuning things up? Sharpening this or that, cleaning something, adjusting something, ... making a jig you know you'll need some day…. stuff like that?


----------



## muleskinner (Sep 24, 2011)

You've pretty much just described 95 percent of my shop time.


----------



## KnickKnack (Aug 20, 2008)

I know I *ought* to do some of that, but, errrr, well, I don't - it's just not in my nature.
If I need something for the thing I'm working on, then it'll get dusted off. My hour and half sometimes goes just staring at the wood and bouncing stuff around in my head.


----------



## bhog (Jan 13, 2011)

I do quite a bit.There is no real reason other than I sometimes need to stop working on a certain project.


----------



## canadianchips (Mar 12, 2010)

I am doing it more each week. Go out to start a project, just fine tune the saw before I start, just sharpen the drill bit in case I need it for the project, just make a better table on drill press to make things go QUICKER, just, just….and then its time to come in and EAT. Somedays *THE Project *never even starts. OH WELL.


----------



## sawdustmaster (Aug 30, 2010)

Yeah, I seem to spend more time in the shop just messing around with stuff when I dont have a project going on. I can always sharpen something or re-arrange cut offs. It ususally ends up in another project when I realize I need to build a storage rack or a shelf or a cart or something. Its fun though because whenever you head out there you never really know what you will end up doing or creating, its fun.


----------



## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

You had better NOT mess with my "tinker time", and don't tell Maggie what I'm doin'. Let's see…..Wax the TS and outfeed table, check the miter gauge, clean the DC and the vac, next…...Oh, I forgot….plane irons need to be touched up.
Why did ya have to bring this subject to the front?
Bill


----------



## kizerpea (Dec 2, 2011)

thats my man cave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!if i want to work on something i do….if not then i just drink coffee an scan the lumberjocks…


----------



## Gregn (Mar 26, 2010)

I've spent so much time tinkering in the shop that now I have to spend some time cleaning up the shop from tinkering. LOL


----------



## joebloe (Feb 13, 2012)

Yep some projects take two to three times longer than they should.I start cleaning, I start organizing, I start rearanging, do you see a pattern here.a lot of starting but no finishing.lol


----------



## clieb91 (Aug 17, 2007)

I have a habit of walking into the shop and getting sidetracked by this or that and of just planning for another project. I am trying to get to the point of finishing something before starting anew, but..

CtL


----------



## stonedlion (Jan 12, 2011)

I am pretty sure that SWMBO believes that's all I ever do is tinker.

Truth be told, there is always time to double check things and make sure my effort is not wasted because I assumed something I had done earlier was correct.


----------



## ShipWreck (Feb 16, 2008)

I am horrible. I will go out into the shop with a set task in mind and get side tracked….... and re-invent the wheel.


----------



## alkillian (Mar 19, 2011)

Uaslly one full day a month will be spent cleaning and tuning the machines. This does not include changing out dull knives during normal work. Then again, my shop is to make money not a hobby.


----------



## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

If by tinker you mean cleaning, rearranging the shop and tuning the equipment then you just described greater than 50% of my shop time…

Now if you include piddling around and making mistakes instead of finished projects, we are up to at least 75% of my shop time…

I do this more for creativity and stress relief than for any actual productivity… The production of completed projects is just an added bonus…


----------



## cjwillie (Sep 6, 2011)

It seems the older I get, the easier it is to get distracted from my original task. One distraction leads to another and so on, and the original job gets forgotten about. But I got six other things done!


----------



## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

I never wander. I stay on task at all ti…..........

.

.

.

.
What was I saying?


----------



## jobott (Mar 13, 2009)

Hmmm. Gotta get down to the shop and continue working on that project. Maybe I'll just take a quick look at Lumberjocks first…............................Sometimes I don't even get to the shop before getting sidetracked! lol


----------



## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Every time I walk in the shop with no projects ongoing, another box gets made! I've got to get some help. Think there is a boxmakers anonymous?


----------



## longgone (May 5, 2009)

I tinker to relax when I am not working on a project.


----------



## GCotton78 (Dec 28, 2011)

I spend a lot of time sweeping and rearranging things. I think it's sort of physical filler, while mentally I am going over the next project in my head.


----------



## davidroberts (Nov 8, 2008)

At least an hour most nights. There is always something to clean up, wipe down, sharpen, look at, fiddle with, adjust, tighten, piddle while I remember where I put something, looking for something. Well, maybe hour and a half, maybe 2.


----------



## Brad_Nailor (Jul 26, 2007)

I hang out in my shop, even when I don't have a project currently running..which is almost never! My dad used to call it "puttering"...My shop is a constant work in progress..I'm always making a jig, or something to attach, hold, or use another thing with. My wife says if I actually worked on projects as much as I work on my shop then I would be allot more productive…I say productivity is for when I am at work!


----------



## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

I keep literally hundreds and hundreds of linear feet of metal shelving that is chock full of all sorts of things that I use mostly for tinkering with.

helluvawreck
https://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com


----------



## davidroberts (Nov 8, 2008)

Hellofawreck, you surpassed hundreds and hundreds of feet of shelf space by the second photo. That's a warehouse with a shop attached. Actually I think the shop is lost on one of the aisles. Kinda reminds me of the warehouse image at the end of Raiders of the Lost Arc. For all I know, the Arc might be stowed away in there. I think I saw it in the fourth or fifth picture. File everything under misc …howls. I tip my cap to you and have a newfound respect you so richly deserve!


----------



## moke (Oct 19, 2010)

I have built some great stuff while "tinkering"....of course I can't think of what they were…

Tinkering is good for the heart and mind….a great stress reliever!


----------



## doordude (Mar 26, 2010)

i think all of the above comments, best describe us all in more ways than i would think is possible


----------

