Replies

1. 
   Beasley7 | Dec 23, 2020 07:02pm | #1

   I like to make clocks: you can have a look at some of them at BeasleySevinDesigns.com . Rather than leave projects unfinished I tend to go "off script" and make it feel right when I'm done. You might want to have a look at Klockit.com. You should be able to find a movement you like better and can sub in for the cheapo that came with your kit.

2. 
   rob_ss | Dec 23, 2020 11:56pm | #2

   It is in the nature of the majority of woodworkers to feel this way.
   A funny thing, but the hobby attracts, by and large, a certain type of person, and that type of person is, generally, less likely to be a completer or finisher.
   Most of us get a bit 'over it' once the trickiest part of the job is done and the major problems have been solved, because your hobbyist woodworker is most often more interested in the problem and the exercise of skill than the finished product.
   I hear so often that sanding and finishing are the least popular parts of woodworking and it's for a good reason - your genes make you that way.

   This is one reason why I like turning - most solid wood turnings are done in under an hour. If I hate what I have made and cannot rescue it, the wood was generally free, the workpiece goes on the fire and the chickens go on the shavings....

   Don't fall foul of the 'sunk-cost-fallacy' that is also an affliction of, you guessed it, the personality type that tends to like woodwork as a hobby. "I have spent x amount of time and y amount of $$ on the project therefore I must see it through" is not a recipe for happiness. Sometimes the fireplace is calling and that call should be heeded!

   @Beasley7 has the right of it though - you hate the clock as it is, and are bored with it, so make it something special.

   Why not consider some inlay, or perhaps incorporating LED lights? With a large face, you don't have to use big hands - it could become the background for a wooden work of art...

   Fisher's shop has been experimenting with wave inlays that would look fantastic in a clock face...

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1bVVpAxF7k

   As he was too shy to give the full link: https://beasleysevindesigns.com/

3. 
   weymouth2 | Dec 24, 2020 06:46am | #3

   I've got 1 languishing project, a small project about 75% done. It's languishing because I screwed up and have to remake a part (I was teaching myself pattern routing -- it was a thin piece and I have a big flush trim bit, and it just chewed it up). I've just lost my mojo on the project. Eventually I'll finish as I'm not a serial non-finisher (quite the opposite), and it will forever be "the project where I learned about pattern routing". It's all good :)

4. 
   DRBWWing | Dec 24, 2020 08:22am | #4

   My whole shop is an unfinished project.

5. 
   elmaduro | Dec 24, 2020 08:44am | #5

   Two — a three legged dragon stool (someday.. ) and a writing desk (someday sooner .. )

6. 
   stantheman | Dec 24, 2020 09:39am | #6

   I have about 4 unfinished projects in the shop, set aside for another day to finish if ever. Sometimes I'll get 75% done and be dissatisfied on how its turning out, or the cumulative amount of mistakes has exceeded my self-respect level. Some eventually go to the trash or parts get repurposed.

7. 
   _mj_ | Dec 24, 2020 03:07pm | #7

   I have 2, one is upstairs where I don't have to look at it which is why it may never get done. The other is the spoon in the photo. A branch picked up on a hike. It was more of an excercise in "I've never tried this" than it was a need for a spoon. It will probably stay this way forever.

   
8. 
   mikefm101 | Dec 25, 2020 01:10am | #8

   Recently I completed a small campaign Chet to store stationary.

   I began it 22 years ago, then the first kid, then a move to another state, then another kid. Projects for the house took priority.

   Cleaning the basement in the fall I saw it and said it’s time to finish it. Got it done about a month ago. Sanding the mold and mildew off was a chore.

   Ironically, what it was intended for, storage of drawing supplies for my artist wife, is mostly moot as she’s gone mostly digital at this point.

   Mike

9. 
   joeleonetti | Jan 05, 2021 03:52pm | #9

   I dislike having projects only completed part way. Just makes me feel unsettled. My dad was famous for not finishing projects so I am at the other end of the spectrum. Having said that, I have uncut wood procured for a few projects (shaker chimney cabinet, spoke shave, frame saw). It is starting to bother me. Those projects are on the top of my 2021 list to do just to get the wood processed into final pieces. The good news is that will help me save some money in 2021 since the wood is already paid for and sitting there.

10. 
    gulfstar | Jan 05, 2021 04:55pm | #10

    Story of my life, an unfinished grandfather clock. My father bought the German mechanism with the intent of having me build the case, I got started on the base, 40 years ago I would draw my plans on the wood and figure things along the way. Not something that works with a grandfather clock mechanism that needs planning. He eventually bought a “real one” from the store which still marks the hours at my 91 years old mom house and I made a coffee table with the base and recently hung the mechanism in my workshop as a reminder to plan before execution.

    
11. 
    Mist55 | Jan 05, 2021 05:31pm | #11

    I love to make lawn gnomes. Just started carving a mini dragon. Got busy with my daughter's wedding and haven't touched it since. Its almost half way done. Will get back to it soon

12. 
    lat_axe | Jan 06, 2021 04:21am | #12

    All projects are unfinished at some stage in their making. The interesting aspect is how long they take to complete and why. Another interesting phenomenon is the abandoned project. What are the various causes of abandonment?

    Many hobbyists make a stream of projects that are (to them) novel - the first they've made. I don't know about you but I've never, ever made a novel project "right first time". They all have learning-errors. Sometimes the errors are minor and easily fixed (and another lesson learnt). Sometimes they approach fatal-error status.

    In one way, the fatal-error projects are the best learning lesson of the lot - especially if one refuses to acknowledge that the error is truly fatal.

    I can recall half a dozen of the 400+ things I've made that were potential fatalities. But I had-at them until something emerged, even if it wasn't what was originally intended, reduced in scope or size or even something completely different (aka salvaging the parts-made for something else).

    Such items are often far from the ideal intent one had for them at the start of the project. I'm just finishing a small cutting gauge that's like that. It works but isn't an ideal form and has some drawbacks. It's unable to perform two other functions (besides marking a straight knife line) that I hoped to achieve.

    But it won't be tossed, as it does work to knife those straight lines. And it's a reminder of the lessons-learnt and how to make the next one much better.

    ***********
    If you do abandon a project, what do you do with the parts made so-far? Are they wrecked by your raging boot or do you attempt to transform them? Are they just left to moulder in a corner of the shed, which might otherwise house another fine tool or even a cabinet full of them?

    Would you like to donate the timber in them to moi, a rescuer of abandoned projects, especially if they're made of ebony or Honduras mahogany. :-)

    Lataxe

13. 
    Jkatzowitz | Jan 06, 2021 08:52am | #13

    I don't have any unfinished projects.

    If the construction goes sideways or I'm not happy with the design direction I adapt, modify, or change my direction. The end result is almost always better than what I would have had if I had stayed on my original path.

    Several years ago while building a small drawer stand I accidentally sawed the pins off of one of the dovetailed drawer fronts. The three drawer fronts were made from an amazing piece of Birdseye Maple and I didn't have anymore left so making a new front wasn't an option. The realization was that the drawer would not be the same width as the others. I started thinking about how I could "fill" that void. I ended up making a small block that could hold a pencil, pen, Exacto knife, and/or Sharpie. It worked out great functionally and the asymmetry really improved the aesthetic.