The Long View

Last week, when I was at the shop working on a project, it struck me how time and experience cause us to look differently at things.  I have an old Delta lathe of my father’s that I was considering replacing and moving to a new piece of equipment.  Then the memories set in.  Although Dad passed away when I was only eight, I remember standing on a stool in order to be tall enough to reach the work piece and him teaching me how to sand bowls.  I remember learning that if you pushed too hard on the sandpaper it would get really hot and burn your fingers.  I even remember the smells and splatters that came from using a sock and oil to finish products.   How could I possibly even consider replacing this piece of equipment?

The interesting thing about this lathe is that it was originally set up as a production machine, with very little variability in the speed of the work.  When I was learning to turn in a high school shop class, I learned to do rough work in the 300 rpm which wasn't possible on the lathe that I had at home.  So, what would a teenager to overcome this?  Well, go to the Sears & Roebuck catalog for a solution.  I added another set of pulleys and a shaft to create a way to vary the speed.  It worked great.  In fact, as I rebuild this project, I will do the same thing all over again, only this time I will use much better components; ball bearing pillow blocks and precision ground shafts.  The result will give me the same type of functionality though.

Now that I've talked about my project of the week, let’s get to what it caused me to think about.  As I was dismantling the lathe, I found the installation shown in the photo.  As a kid, I determined I should use lead anchors in the lathe bed to attach everything. When I made the first hole, I chose too large a drill bit and the anchor actually fell through the hole I created.  What was a young woodworker to do?  This young woodworker nailed a bunch of small brads all around the anchor to hold it steady.  At the time it was a perfect solution and I am sure that I stood back and looked at it and congratulated myself on overcoming this problem, but today it is simply unacceptable.

As I looked at what I had done, and of course considered how I would overcome the same problem today, I was struck by how our view of things changes over time, in both directions.  In this case, the quicker, less elegant way had been fine since the results would never be seen … at least not for forty years or so.  In my life, as a younger person, this was often the case.  If the solution fixed the problem, even if it was less than complete or not the “prettiest” way to fix something, that was okay.  Function WAY outweighed form.  Now I feel much differently about things.  I take more of a long view; in my personal and my professional work.  When I do things today, I think about how others might look at my work, possibly after I am no longer around, judging the kind of workman I was by that work product alone.  

In this story, I get to explain why I did what I did and the fact that at this point I would never arrive at that solution again.  But, if you were just to find the work that I had done many years ago, you would question the person who was involved.  I do not ever want that to be the case.  What this has done for me in the last few years is to cause me to strive to do better work.  Things that I cannot do at a high level, I move on and leave to someone else who is more qualified.  I think the long view of the world can push us in one of two ways; do it better than ever or just not care since in the long run it doesn't matter.

I, for one, want the things I have accomplished and created to be appreciated for decades to come, so I continue to learn and hone my skills.

OMG

There have been some big changes around here in the last couple of weeks.  Believe it or not, I am going to be a father in law.  I remember when I got married; my father in law told me that marriage was like rolling a snowball off the top of a mountain.  You kind of think you know where it is going, but there is absolutely no way to tell once it starts moving.  He was so right.  You get married, look forward to what you believe is the direction your life will go, and then bam - off you go in fifteen different directions, each of them with multiple downstream possibilities.  This includes children, job changes, geographical changes, health challenges, or any and all of the above at once.

The week before last, my son announced that he and his girlfriend of four years were going to get married.  First, let me say that we are excited about this.  We like Lyndsey a lot.  No, those words aren’t big enough.  More than a lot.  We are excited that she wants to become a member of our family.  We are excited that she and Andrew have worked together to keep a relationship going through four years of college, which is not easy by any means.

It is still a lot for this guy to think about though, a new member of the family, getting to know her on a completely different level, letting her get to know us.  Sounds like tough work all around.

But the really tough work is what Lyndsey and Andrew will face together.  They will face all of the questions that every generation before them has faced; everything from where to live and worship, to whether or not they will have children and how many there will be.  And hopefully, forty or fifty years from now, they will look back and say that most of the things they planned came out the way they expected.  If so, more power to them.  More likely, however, is that many really big questions will be answered without a great deal of thought; they will just kind of happen.  This is the way the real world seems to work.  By the time you recognize there is a big question to be answered, you have already moved in one direction or another and retracing your steps is almost impossible.  In the middle of all of that, it will be important to have the courage to be honest and open with each other, say what is really in your heart, and work through the challenges together.  If they can do this, starting now, they will build a great life together.

OK, enough of sappiness.  Let’s get to the really important issue here:  Lyndsey, my kids continue to fight over who “has” to take care of me when I get older.  It has been an ongoing battle for some time.  Neither has any issue with Sara, but where I am involved….hum.  So, I am hoping that you will choose to embrace not simply caring for Andrew, but you will also take care of me when I need it.  I am counting on you.

Seriously, I am very proud of both of you and I know you will work together to build a great life.  You have worked to build a solid foundation in the time that you have already spent together and continuing to build on those solid footings should make for a phenomenal life.  Congratulations to both of you.

Now, just in case you are curious - in the shop part of my life, I have blown up parts of the Toybox in order to reorganize.  I am sure you are the same in your workspace. After you work in a shop for a while, you get a much better sense for what will and will not work.  I have finally reached that time and I am taking a pause to get things better organized so I can be more efficient.  I have a kind of a Lean 5S project going on at the Toybox.  I need to get back to work though, as projects are piling up.  I have more to do right now than I can finish before the end of the year, and I really need to start thinking about what the kids could use as a wedding present.  Andrew and Lyndsey, this is your invitation to “hint” as to what would be helpful.

We are having a great time thinking about having a new member in the family.  Have a great week!

Success

The sweet taste of victory.  I am sure that it is different for each of us, but, in my world it was all about turning on a finished Multi Purpose Disc Sander and rounding the first corner on a scrap piece of wood.  It was so cool.  Part of the enjoyment was being able to think back through all of the challenges I had faced and overcome.  In life, I think that is a lot of what savoring success is all about - reliving the obstacles and knowing that we pushed and persevered to overcome them.

Sometimes this basic human equation gets lost in the daily shuffle.  It is forgotten that without struggles, victory can never truly be enjoyed.  Another part that sometimes gets overlooked is that a challenge to one person is never really understood by others.  Two good examples of this are my daughter and her friend.  My daughter has been through so much in the last couple of years: surgery, chemotherapy, physical therapy, all challenges that many people will never face and never understand.  I lived through all of it with Meg and I know that I really only understand it from the fringes.  She has felt it and has struggled and continues to struggle to overcome things that are thrown at her.  With every success comes the opportunity, even if only alone, to celebrate that another hurdle has been vaulted.  I am so proud of her it is impossible to put into words.  She is a phenomenal young lady and will make a difference in her world.

Now, I want to turn for a minute to her friend.  This young lady came to school in the Midwest because she found a good program.  She arrived with an Associate’s degree and needs two years to complete her Bachelor’s.  However, she came from an environment where English is not her primary language and her previous education allowed her to submit work in either English or Spanish.  Of course, this isn’t the case at the University.  Their expectation is that English is understood and will be used for every assignment.  On top of that she is far enough from home that getting back to see family is nearly impossible.  Arriving here may as well have been landing on the moon.  In the midst of all of this, she is doing well in her course work, and will more than likely finish on time.

These young women are already proving to be successful and as such have the drive to overcome things that lie in front of them.  This is what strengthens the soul and helps build young people who will change the world.

As for me, I have completed another project at the Toybox, and I can hardly wait to get started on the next one.  In the meantime though, I have a Plinko board to put together for the folks down at YESS.  This is the time of the year for their Duck Derby which helps to raise funds for the entire year.  I would encourage you to check them out. The work they do is phenomenal.  When they have a success, a child is in a better, safer place with opportunities for a brighter future than they had before.  If you are local to Des Moines, go to the Duck Derby on May 4th.  It is an awesome event.  If you are not local, get on their website and participate that way.

I guarantee getting involved will give you yet another opportunity to feel successful and to feel good about what you just did.  Thanks in advance.

The Chevron

I am taking a break from writing about my latest shop project and hope that I will be able to show you finished pictures VERY soon.

This week I was struck by an idea that I felt the need to share: “We don’t go past the Chevron.”

When we were in Kauai last August, one of the activities was SCUBA diving.  As many of you know, it went phenomenally.  The adventure was booked for us through Seasport Divers, a group I absolutely endorse, but that is not my point here.  When we went for the dive, we journeyed our way around the island and turned at a Chevron gas station down to a cove where our dive masters were located.  We liked these guys immediately.  They were comfortable in their surroundings and very good at what they did.  Each of the four times we dove with them was great and they handled everything expertly.

During the time we weren't in the water, we talked and got to know each other.  We talked about the island and where things were.  However, in the middle of one discussion, we discovered that our guides worked to make sure that they did not have to drive past the Chevron station any more than necessary.  They explained that this small finger of land we were on really had about everything they needed.  They even told us that in their circle of acquaintances it was common to announce if someone was going to Wal-Mart. They got lists together for the unfortunate soul who ended up shopping for the entire group.  It now occurs to me they should investigate online shopping.

Anyway, I remember laughing at the time and thinking how unusual it was to be so incredibly sheltered.  Then last week, Carolyn, the person with whom I work most closely and without whom I would get nothing done, commented about how far away a customer was located. We needed to test a new process and she thought maybe an easier customer to work with would be the one just down the street.  The customer located too far away is a twenty-five minute drive from our door.  The conversation really had an impact on me.

Although few of us use a Chevron station to mark the edge of the territory we are comfortable within, I think we all have a tendency to behave this exact same way.  We work, shop, and live in a small geographical area, which has become “home” to us.  We shop at the same grocery store virtually every time, and probably even go through the aisles in the same order.  We go to work via the same route, eat lunch in the same places, and come to know the same parts of our world intimately.  But in doing this, we miss a lot.  Since I am responsible for my organization’s sales, I am expected to travel and visit customers.  I love this part of the job.  I enjoy getting into shops and onto manufacturing floors to see the multitude of ways that people find to overcome problems.  Each person thinks their solution is the best, but truthfully, most times it is just slightly different than the method the next person has discovered to solve the same type of issue.  Neither is totally right, or totally wrong, they are just different.

So, why am I writing about this?  It is always good to push ourselves out of the boxes which limit us.  When I lived in Omaha, I used to drive my sales manager crazy because I used a different route to drive to work every day and then ask him about things happening along the route.  If I would settle into a routine, that would allow him to finally do the same.  I find that I settled into that routine, years later.

My grandfather prided himself on never going home the same way that he used to drive somewhere.  He always said you could see different territory that way.  That makes sense to me.  I have started changing things up again.  When I took my family to Culvers for ice cream the other night, I returned home using a route I’d never tried before.  Interestingly enough, no one said a word or asked questions about why I was going out of our way.

Go past the Chevron.  Shop in new places.  Drive the road less traveled.  We just might collectively make this big world a little smaller and find ourselves a little more interconnected.  That will make the world a bit better and a little friendlier.

OK, next week, back to work.

It's Alive

OK, I am four weeks into a project I thought would only take four to five weeks. It is going to take a few more weeks, but since I’m enjoying the project, that’s okay.  Last week, though, was a really big week at the Toybox.  It was the first time the sander began to look real.  Even more importantly, I plugged the beast in and it actually ran, assuring me there were no mistakes in the direction the motor revolved or errors in wiring. This was a monumental moment, akin to a car guy starting an engine he built for the first time. It was awesome.

With any start-up  whether a project like this, a hot rod built from the ground up, or a company purchased, there are always necessary tweaks. In the case of this project, I encountered an issue with the drive belt rubbing against the side of its pathway. As is many times the case, the issue was really created because I had been a bit short-sighted.  I decided that in order to get the correct speed at the face of the sanding disk, I would use the small diameter pulley on the motor and
the large diameter on the sanding disk, giving me RPMs I wanted. The problem was that this allowed the belt to rub at the top, making slightly more noise than hoped for. Classic shortsightedness. So, I did what you do in those cases.  First, I tried to convince myself that it was really okay and the extra noise would be part of the sander’s character.  When I realized that wasn't true and it would actually drive me crazy, I spent a few days thinking about what I could do. It struck me that if I used the second groove on both pulleys the amount of reduction achieved would be the same, yet I would then pick up about a quarter of an inch allowing the sander to run much more quietly. Tweak achieved.

Working through this exercise caused me to consider the manner I work through things in other areas of my life.  Generally before I move forward on something I spend time thinking about the way the task should be achieved, and I am usually self-confident enough to believe I have the right answer. I suspect most of us are like that. But when I stop and think about the real world example I just worked through, it occurs to me that usually, maybe even always, there is a better way to be discovered. Maybe I should look at the problem through fresh eyes or review the work with someone else.  There is nothing exceptionally new or profound there, but it is good to relearn things.

My challenge going forward is that even if I know I am the smartest person in the room, I should still listen and process information that comes at me so the end product is the best it can be. After all, that is really what we are going for … right?

Now that I am past this sticking point, I think the rest of the project will come together nicely. All I really have left to complete is the table and the dust collection box under the table. The parts are already roughed out it should go quickly. I am excited to finish this and be able to start using it. It will make my woodworking much more finished and cleaner than it has been to this point. It is also going to be a necessary tool when I start working on my next projects. These include building a router table for the shop, doing restoration work on my dad's old Delta lathe, and then begin the process of restoring an old treadle sewing machine into a case. These projects all have their own challenges and their own rewards.

Stick around. I can’t wait to see how they turn out.

The Pause

Throughout this project, I have learned something quite powerful about myself, and I wonder if others, particularly you, might be just like me.  I have found that in the middle of a project, I need time to pause and re-evaluate where I am and what I am doing.

Although I have moved forward in little ways on the Multi-Purpose Disk Sander over the last couple of weeks, I haven’t progressed as quickly as I did in the first couple of weeks.  Does this happen to you when you are working on something or are you a person that can get started and push on through to the end?

As I came to this realization, I began to wonder if I had always been this way, and even more important, is it something I can change going forward?  Is it something that I want to change?

The answer to the first question is yes, without question.  In 1975, I took apart an oak secretary my mom wanted to have refinished.  To be clear, I don’t like refinishing and always prefer to build new, but this particular piece of furniture had been around since long before I was born and was important, so refinishing it was the thing to do.  This secretary now has a place in my home and I am sure will always have a place in the home of some member of my family.  But after taking the piece apart and stripping the finish, I took about 25 years to finish the work.  I moved the disassembled secretary no less than six times.  Incredibly enough, when I put it back together, I still had all of the pieces.  This is an extreme example of a very common behavior for me.

Sara has always referred to me as a 90-95% contractor.  When I get just about to the end of a project, I tend to take my eye off the ball and focus somewhere else, leaving the current project to languish.  I did this with basement remodels and re-painting projects alike.  Sometimes I think that I found a reason for the family to move so I would have to “push” to get the last of the projects complete.  Sara had to watch an armoire sit in the shop for 6 months or more before I completed it.  It is a lifetime way of doing things for me.

But why?  I believe I finally understand my process now.  This project has let me look a carefully at and really think about why I do things: I stop so I can let things bounce around in my head. I make sure how I will finish a project and ensure I am not missing anything.  The secretary had some carving on its front that I wasn't certain how to handle.  When I finally decided on the right way to deal with it, I moved on and finished.  In the current piece, there are a lot of intricacies that have to work together.  I have taken some time to think through how all of these will work together, and how I will service them going forward.  The sander will be a better made piece because of the time I've taken to process on the entirety of the project.

So, through the process of building a multi-purpose disc sander, I have discovered there really is “method to my madness” and that I need time to make sure everything will go together as perfectly as possible.  It is part of my creative process.  Now that I understand it, I will not worry when it happens.  I will not feel that I am lazy or do not have the ability to finish things.  I will know that I am taking time to consider the project and its final outcome, in order to make it as perfect as possible.  It may take a little longer, but it is time well spent.

What about you?  Have you thought about your creative process?  Many times we do things because they are the right thing to do without really knowing why.  Now I know why I pause in the middle of many projects.  I know this will help me as I continue to do more and more projects for lots of different folks.

Irony

In building my new Multi-Purpose Disc Sander, there have been moments of frustration, fun, joy and even laughter.  One moment of laughter came when I was reading through the project instructions.  At several different parts in the project there are call outs to round corners or ease edges.  The ironic part is that the best single way to do this is using a disc sander. Well, guess what - I don’t have one yet.  You have to wonder if this ever crossed the minds of the authors of the article.  In order to write the article they actually built the sander, so when they came to items which called for rounding, what did they think?  While they were using their other disc sander did someone ever say, “I wonder how they will do this?”  Of course, this won’t stop the progress of the project; it is just one of those things that reassures me I've made the right decision in building this project.  I actually need this tool.  Good decision.

Now, the second irony regarding this project came from a conversation with my friend, Jim Bradrick.  Jim and I have consulted on and completed numerous home improvement projects over the last 3 decades.  We have either independently or collaboratively tackled decks, garages, basements, and millwork replacements in at least six states.  He has always been my go-to person when I need help tearing something down or getting over the resistance to get started.  Jim is much more exacting, though, than I am when it comes to finish work, so at that point, we have had a tendency to go separate ways.  He does beautiful work, without question.  Anyway, one of the “rules” that Jim and I have always believed in is that a new project is a reason (read: excuse) to buy a new tool.  If the project is a deck - buy a new screw gun or miter saw; if the project is a bathroom, you might need a tile saw.  When I told Jim I was building a tool, you could feel his level of concern.  If I was building a tool without buying a tool, would the balance of power in the universe be thrown off?  Maybe - we will have to see.

One thing that has come with building the sander, and this may help with the concern Jim has, is there is a LOT to buy in order to complete it.  When all is said and done, I will have invested nearly $500 and I was lucky enough to already own the motor it requires.  That saves me about $300.00 and is also the largest ticket item.  If I were to build these sanders to sell; considering shop time, my time, cost of wood and accessories, I would have to price them in the $1500.00 range.  Now, if you check costs at Grizzly.com (my go-to shopping location) you will find a comparable unit for less than $1000.00. While that seems to be a significant savings, their sander doesn't have all the features as mine does, nor is it as downright cool.

Well, there’s the third irony in this project. In a way I have also faced the challenge from Jim Bradrick.  I am spending money to buy a tool for a project.  I could have spent less money and come close to the same functionality.  The tradeoff is that I am having a blast while building this; it tests woodworking skills I haven’t used for some time, and will be a wonderful conversation piece when I am finished.

For those who are around my age, you may remember Heathkit – a company who sold kits to build anything from crystal radios to televisions.  I used to spend hours searching through the pages wishing I could afford to buy kits so I could build things, rather than just buying them.  Today, I have come full circle and I am finally building something I could have just purchase and the experience is joyous.

Look out - I am sure there is a computer build somewhere in my future.