Hello All,
I’ve done some sort of building with wood for the last 30 years, Everything from general construction to taking apart old buildings and building furniture from the materials. Last winter I started a dresser for my daughter it started life as hutch in an early 1800’s farm house that was being demolished, I took the hutch out of the house and built a top and some moldings for it out of matching antique lumber that it was missing but thats as far as it’s got. For some reason I can’t seem to get back to finishing it. I’ve done a few odd and in little jobs but for some reason I just don’t seem to get as excited as I used to from woodworking.
Has anyone else ever got so called burned out from working with wood????? I used to spend countless hours in the shop but now I seem to run in do what has to be done and then leave and I’ve relised weeks have whent by without me going in the shop,Thats just hard to swallow if you know what I mean??
Thanks in advance for your responces,
Jim C
Replies
Jim,
It sounds like you need to get away from the lackluster woodworking life and treat yourself to a couple of months working for an insurance company or perhaps an accounting firm. Maybe work on some actuarial tables or data entry or something like that. There's nothing like staring into a monitor at spreadsheets all day to reinvigorate the spirit.
Sorry, just kidding. I guess you can burn out at just about anything. There were probably days when even Ron Jeremy didn't want to go to work.
I find that if I mix up projects that really helps. Computer cabinet/W raised panels, then turn a few bowls, then a bandsaw project, to the scrole saw, find an antique to restore, build some bird houses with the grandson. Verity spices things up.Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
There were probably days when even Ron Jeremy didn't want to go to work.
DOUBT IT!
Lee
There were probably days when even Ron Jeremy didn't want to go to work.
DOUBT IT!
hey, even ron could have a day when he's feeling down.
Now that was funny, I wonder how many got that.
Walt
In my non-woodworking spare time I teach a martial arts class. It's one activity that is known for burnout. I find lots of beginers burn out rapidly, as one would expect. The real surprise is the number of high level, long term people that burn out. I burned out a few years back just prior to earning my black belt. It took me a few years, but I came back.
I think it's natural for interests to change, but I think it's stressfull on skilled people. When you start to do other things, it takes away from your shop time which stresses you out. Then you try to make the most of your shop time, which stresses you out. Then you're not getting your projects done... which stresses you out. All this stress just makes the shop time less enjoyable, and you spend less time there. Which of course starts the circle over again.
You never really said if your were excited about the project. That's allways a big factor.
I suggest finding aproject that your really passionate about, something that's yours. Finding others that are excited about woodworking is good as well, I found that mentoring is a great way to keep your interest going as well as work on your skills. Finally teach yourself some new tricks, take a class or try to teach yourself some thing new.
Finally don't beat yourself up if you can not get out to the shop or if a project takes longer than expected. It really isn't very imprtant. If you're not a pro than it's more important that you enjoy being in the shop than actually getting anything done.
Buster
I get that way sometimes too, and usually my concern is I am doing a project that I really don't care that much for, but am doing it as a favor because somebody asked me nicely to do it. Something else that pulls the steam out of a project is the wife fussing that something made for me is being done instead of something made for her, or something she doesn't like. I like to work on my own stuff sometimes and not be required to meet someone else's expectations on the finished product. Nothing dampens my ambition more than nagging. Most folks I talk to go to the shop to get away from that, and I guess I do too. I'd say change direction, look in a book and get an idea for something that you would like to do, even simple stuff and just shift gears on a project. Make it fun again. Try something new and surprise yourself.
jec, yes been there a few times, and right now haven't been in the shop for a couple of months. It always comes back. I expect to get re-energized after coming across an interesting plan or photo in a magazine, or the opportunity to make something as a gift for someone, rather than the backlog of unfinished projects in the back of my head.
I don't know about burn out in woodworking but I do in photography. I did it for years and got very good. I did large, medium and 35mm formats. I did B&W darkroom. Then one day that was it. I had no warning signs my mind just told me that was enough. I now toy with a digital camera and computer editing software but that is it. For me it is a relief. I have now started back at woodworking but I am keeping myself from letting me be its hobby.
Absolutely, it sounds like at least part of your "work life" is related to woodworking on some level. Hobby and work should be at least somewhat different as far as I'm concerned.
Go fishing or something, more relaxation for a bit. I've often thought of some sort of career in a woodworking related trade, but why screw up a good hobby by making work out of it. I work at a computer all day so that's the last thing I want to do when I get home. I work in CAD, (my moniker is mousejockey) but I still don't want to draw anything, just give me a set of plans and let me go make sawdust.
mousejockey
Jim, I don't know if everyone hits the wall, but I know I have, and sometimes it is hard to find a passage to the other side. I can't tell you how long it will last, I wish I could, because I know that might help, or at least make it easier. However, it sounds like you are onto something that is really neat, that I am sure your daughter, and her kids, and their kids, and so on will cherish for a long long time.
Here are a few suggestions that I think might help stir something up. First, Record whatever you know about this piece, and learn whatever history of the beginning of this piece? Is there some way that you can find out something about the historic vintage of the piece that you are working with? Or even of the family that lived there and bought and lived there. Try to find out some history that you can connect to the earlier life of this piece.
If you have photos of how it was when you started with it, great, then document what you have done to finish it. You don't need to play anything up, history will take care of the rest.
Then whenever that is finished, think about whatever woodworking skill that you don't possess in your bag of tricks, then set out to find a way of teaching yourself something new, and finding a way of incorporating that skill into your next project. I know I am most happy when I am learning something new and usefull.
If that doesn't work, then find someone to teach some of the things that you already know to someone else.
Good Luck, Keith.
Sure you can get burned out. I myself usually have 2, 3 , 4, or more projects going at once, and I seem to bounce back and forth. It is a really nice feeling when you complete one, especially if it's been haunting you. I didn't pay any attention as to where you were, but why not take the summer off. There is no law against it. I do find my skills and woodworking brain get rusty after a layoff, but sometimes it even helps. You forget why you were hung up on a project, or came up with another way to do something that was going to be a problem.
Good luck!
Jec- You already got a truckload of good advice- I'm only adding on because I was in a similar place earlier this year- I sat down with a pencil and decided to draw a piece of furniture that was unlike anything I had ever done. When I started, I did not have a clue what I would end up with. Long story short- I decided on a project with no 90 or 45 degree angles- all curves and tapers/compound bevels with mortise and tenons- bent wood laminations and exotic woods. I spent many hours just sitting there staring at it trying to figure out my next move. In the end I learned that it was fun to get away from my "comfort zone". Even my wife made numerous comments on how nice it was to see me excited about woodworking again.
I have a nice little table that does not fit in anywhere in the house but everyone notices it and I am proud of it.
good luck- dave
Hi Jim,
I think it happens to us all - to some extent - from time to time.
First I became bored building redwood outdoor structures and furniture after doing it part-time, first for my Mrs., and then for friends and neighbors, for almost a decade.
Next, I burned out on rectilinear furniture commissions - boxes, usually out of red oak, can be really boring.
I started to overcome the burnout by signing-up for weekend seminars and going to woodworking exhibitions where I was able to see the work of master woodworkers: can you say inspiring?
Going back to school changed everything: green wood chairmaking, bending & laminating, design, carving, urban forestry, veneering, hand-tool joinery...
I'm finding that my woodworking projects are now incorporating several nested skills, e.g., the project that's on the drawing board right now will involve bent lamination, carving, veneering, french polishing, hand-cut dovetails - well, you get the idea.
Teaching what I've learned to others has been an enormous blessing; is there an opportunity for you to mentor an aspiring woodworker?
Have faith,
-Jazzdogg-
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie
Jec;
When I used to teach guitar lessons I could always tell it was time to teach something new when the students started getting bored or uninterested in what they were playing. Perhaps it's time to take on a new skill to add to your repretiore. Go for something outside the box that you may have thaught you would never use but that you really appreciated. Maybe even try something that you need a couple new toys for or as suggested look for a class to go to. I sometimes find my self going full steam into a project just to stall out on the last few details ( right now in the basement there is a hall tree that needs the mirror put in, I have the mirror and everything I just need to cut some strips and brad nail them to the back to hold the glass in, it's sat there for three months) and sometimes its that the project doesn't come out as envisioned or maybe it doesn't spark the families interest. Ussually when I force myself to finish it it takes no time at all to complete the thing and I feel fired up for the next project.
Yeah Ron never got tired working with wood!
Jec,
Firstly, I bet that you're not "burned out", just a bit bored, temporarily. To speak of "burnt out" implies you are ashes and will never be able to go back. Such phraseology could cause you to implement a self-fulfilling prophecy. One needs to be careful with one's mental state, when it comes to words and what they represent. Just consider any politician.
Bonka summed it up perfectly, I thought: "I have now started back at woodworking but I am keeping myself from letting me be its hobby". And Jazz elaborates with practical advice on rekindling the WW flame via learning new stuff.
I would only add that my experience tells me never to obsess with only one thing at a time. I find that three obsessions on the go at once seem to balance nicely. You always have a choice of two to distract you from the third, which may be grating in your mental gearbox for some indefinable reason.
Ideally the obsessions should be very different, such as one that's all physical, one that's all mental and one that's both (like WW). Currently (for instance) I do cycling, gym or fell walking; also a cosmology course at the local university and the reading of evolutionary psychology texts - both these types of activity are far from WW, so the WW mindset gets a regular rest.
Just to make sure, I also have digital photography and the wonders of photoshop to play with. (Of course, this hobby can quite literally burn your eyes out, as well as your brain)!
Anyway, next week your mood changes and the WW will seem, once more, the best thing since Kona coffee, whilst the bicycle lies abandoned for a while and the galaxy can look after itself.
Lataxe, a dilletante.
Thank you everyone for your comments,It's deffinatly a releife knowing alot of you have suffered from what sounds to me like not lack of interest but boredom of the same repetative projects that I have already done. I'm just going to have to take the time to get the dresser finished and then I'll figure out what I want to construct next. I might have to wait until winter becouse I just took on 2 more takedows,ones an old farmhouse and the others an old hiproof barn. They both need to be taken down before cold weather so I best get cracken. Thank you all again and I'd still like to hear what more of you do in the shop to get rid of the so called hum-drums of repeditive projects.
Sincerely,
Jim C
Hi Jim ,
Seems to me most of the replies have been from hobby woodworkers as opposed to full time professionals . As a full timer for the last 25 years or so I know what BURN OUT really is . To be burned out or bored with a hobby seems much different than a vocation or job . My family depends on the income derived from me making saw dust , talk about pressure .
To be burned out on a hobby would be a lot easier to deal with imo , just lay off for a while and switch to a new or other one. What has happened to me as a 1 person shop the jobs have gotten larger over the years as the scale of homes has grown . Used to be a $10,000 kitchen was a fairly large job , the last few have been 25 - 35 for one older and tired wood butcher it is more than I really want to take on anymore .
My salvation so far is to revert back to my training in furniture , I am being much more selective in the jobs I accept lately . Imo doing a job we like and want to do can really change the attitude in which we proceed with . There is a book called "Inner game " I think originally it was meant for tennis players . The concept can be applied towards most aspects of life . Basically when playing the game and one gets mad or otherwise upset the muscles and your brain sort of shuts down or you program yourself to fail without even knowing it .
The majority of the work I have done has been custom production work on a smaller scale but non the less repetitive , that's the problem for me . I have become faster , better , more efficient and more skilled , but that is not enough . I feel like I accomplished all I set out to do , personally I did not have goals set that would keep me moving forward , I have been in sort of a holding pattern .
My strong suit is design and sales , it would be SO easy for me to settle into a position of only selling the jobs and not having to spend months in the shop on the same job fabricating it .
lay off the wood work for a while do other things you like .take a vacation or a trip get some inspiration , away from your surroundings .
regards dusty
I think anything can become boring when it becomes repetitious. I work 6 hours a day with people restoring American Muscle Cars. I get at least 10 people a day that makes the statement, "I would love to do what you're doing". My take is there job has become repetitious and they love old cars.
But.... how many times can you go over adding a lower rear quarter patch panel and blending it to the existing quarter panel, etc. etc. without it being repetitious. Average about 100 calls a day per salesman on our sales floor. Do I get excited watching Chip Foose on "Over-hauling" when I have the opportunity to speak face to face with him at least once a month.
Solution.. I work about 6 months in sales.. 6 mo. in Customer Service.. Technical Support.. Research & Development.. Purchasing.. etc.. And I take a weeks vacation every two months regardless of if I have anything planned.
Same with the shop.. 34 years and what haven't you already seen. Keep it down to a minimum in the humid summer here in Atlanta. Mainly build and assist friends with work benches, assembly tables and other shop related items. Furniture projects get done in fall and winter with spring devoted to home improvement.
Can't make the ski slopes as often anymore. Sky-diving and it's high cost have lost it's appeal with one bad knee each attributed to the two hobbies above. But that still leaves trout fishing, clubs, charity work, family, etc. etc. There's not enough time in the day, IMO.
I think the key to avoiding burn-out can be summed up in one small word...................
BALANCE....
Have a good day, I have to go explain why Mopar only put their Penta-Star on the right hand fender and by placing one on the left, you are not politically correct and could cost you points in a concourse car show. And the beat goes on. ha... ha.....
Regards...
SARGE.. g-47
Edited 7/14/2006 11:15 am ET by SARGEgrinder47
jec,
I sure as hell don't have any answers but I've been studing trends (informally) over the past twenty years and think I see a direct correlation between age and motivations. It seems that no matter what the activity everybody wants a change in their early fifties...if at all possible. It's also interesting that this was true of my fathers generation and my grandfather too.
A friend of mind recently bought a business after retiring and was shocked to find terrific businesses for sale because the owners were just plain tired of it and wanted out. So, who knows, maybe it's just the way life is...
I've definitely gotten burned out by shop work.
For me, it helps first to put aside the job at hand and do a thorough cleaning of the shop, clean shop-clear mind. Then work with materials you've never mastered but have always admired, for example I've gotten into marble lately, and before that I took a class in welding.
Do something new. This will spark your creative ability to build again.
jec,
Sounds like you either need to get excited about something or leave it alone for a while.
Maybe something beyond your capabilities is whats called for here.. A real challenge. do something you aren't good at and maybe need some coaching to get you going..
Or maybe you just need to walk away for a while and take up moose calling or basket weaving (whatever <G> )
Lookinto your own heart and see if it's wood that is the attraction, or just the ability to create stuff.
This is why God made fishing poles.
Bio,
Yeah, I guess even the Big Guy gets burned out too.
Cheers,
Ray
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