The Impact of the Little Stuff

“But I Just Want to Work on My Projects”

My students are so anxious to get in the shop. Every day, they ask how much class time they have to endure before they can get in the shop and build.

When it’s time to clean or organize the shop, they aren’t entirely thrilled about it but at least they’re in the shop working. It’s apparent that they would prefer to work on their projects.

I confess though, that I fall into the same sort of trap in my shop at home too. Time is precious with a fulltime job, teenagers, house projects,... so why would I want to spend my time on other things besides working on my projects?

Because the little stuff like organization, lighting, sharp tools, and refining skills will help us in the long run. That’s why.

Lighting. What a difference! I took out the two light bulbs in my shop and installed outlets and then plugged in a couple rows of LED lights. Now I can see what I’m working on.

I don’t have to worry about this at school. The shop is very well lit.

Sharp tools. I finally got my grinder set back up. I bolted it to a piece of plywood so I can store it under the bench when I’m not using it. I also acquired a cafeteria food tray and use it with my water stones for sharpening. My sharpening kit lives on my Harbor Freight tool chest to make it convenient.

At school, my goal is to get a sharpening station set up within the 1st quarter back. I’m looking at incorporating it with my 2nd year students. After seeing the setup at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, I think I have a solid game plan.

Organization. Everything should have a home in order for things to be located quickly. I would give myself a B- for this. I do have some projects that need to be finished and small stacks of lumber that need to be taken care of but for the most part, I’m good. It didn’t happen overnight but I found pockets of time to build different racks for clamps and tools.

At school, the shelves that were in the tool crib weren’t helping the students and I to be organized. I had a couple of 3rd year students rip them out and install new ones. The new ones weren’t quite as deep and I left space between the 2nd and 3rd shelf to install a smaller shelving system to be even more organized.

I don’t think anyone really enjoys building shelves and racks and sorting through tools, especially when it might take you a few times to really get it right. (I’m on my 4th iteration for my home shop and 2nd for the tool crib at school. And I’m still trying to sort through the supply room at school.) But it feels so good when you can find tools quickly. Students (and myself at times) are lazy when it comes to putting tools back where they belong. Make it convenient and tools will go back to their homes every time.

Refining skills. Along with most people, I wish I could pick up new skills quickly instead of spending so much time on them. This past week I’ve been focused on learning more and refining my skills on scratch stock. I thought that it would be a fantastic, simple tool to add some decorations to student projects. I’ve tried it in the past but didn’t get great results so I had set it aside.

Peter Korn gave a short demonstration on it during the Basic Woodworking class and I picked up a few tips that really helped. Polishing the faces, edges, and ends of the steel cutter made a significant improvement. I also watched a Welsh chairmaker use it on a comb of a chair and picked up a profile that I really liked.

Altogether, I probably had six hours of time between watching videos, sharpening, practicing, and making a new profile.

Like I stated above, sometimes I feel pressured to spend all of my time in the shop directly on my project but these side quests have turned my shop into an enjoyable and productive place. I can find things quicker and I don’t have to work with a headlamp on…

Also, spending the time to set up a place to sharpen my tools and also to work on these other skills will be reflected in my chairs and students’ projects.

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I hope you don’t feel bad when you have to spend precious time on these things and I hope that you teach your students about their importance, even though they would probably prefer to work on their projects. Many times, we don’t address these kinds of things with our students, including what it takes to set up a small shop (which will be a future post).

As always, let me know what you think and if there’s anything I can do to help you out.