Welcome to our 2015 Woodworking Resolutions blogger series. Every year we invite our bloggers to share their resolutions specific to their woodworking goals for the new year. Click each link below to read our bloggers resolutions!
Terry Chapman
It is the traditional time of the year to make Resolutions and we are no exception at Highland. We do try to make them related to woodworking, however, since that is what we do.
In my profession as a Land Surveyor, I often was tasked to write a “Legal Description” of a parcel of land. One technique regularly used is to reference a previously recorded plat drawing, which pulls everything from that drawing into the description. I do that here by referring you to last year’s list of resolutions and incorporating them by reference. I think that is a valid technique since very few of them have been completed.
Resolution #1. I am going to finish something before I start another project. There are these wonderful projects sitting all around the shop and most of them deserve to be finished. The problem is that I want them to be perfect and they are not and my skills are not always up to the task. Plus, I really do not like to throw out good wood cause I might finish the job one day. Maybe.
Resolution #2. I need to sweep the shop. Still. Really well. Once.
Resolution #3. I want to take some more classes in woodworking this year. I got so busy building houses with my Habitat Affiliate, that classes moved down the list for the last few months and I intend to correct that this year.
Resolution #4. I intend to expand my Festool collection. I broke the ice this year with a Track Saw and it is a wonderful piece of equipment. Buying Festool may answer my built-in sense that getting things right one time and then not having to change is the best way to go.
Resolution #5. I will continue to expand my tool sharpening skills. Can it really be all that hard?
Resolution #6. I may perhaps start considering possibly maybe eventually throwing some stuff out of the shop. I look at pictures taken in the shop and quite often I can’t see the project for the stuff in the background. What’s the old rule? — if you haven’t used it in 25 years, you probably are not going to use it and maybe perhaps you should consider throwing it out.
On second thought, perhaps that is a resolution for next year — what’s one more year after 25?
Did you make any woodworking resolutions this year? Let us hear from you in the comments below!
Terry Chapman is a Professional Engineer (Civil) and Land Surveyor who lives south of Atlanta. He has done woodworking for many years and particularly enjoys bowl turning and making Windsor Chairs. He currently works as Site Development Manager for a local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity and has one son who pastors a Church in Connecticut. You can email him at cdeinc@mindspring.com.
Click below for more bloggers 2015 Woodworking Resolutions:
Terry,
Regarding resolution No. 4, and your desire to expand your Festool collection, after the track saw, I recommend the OF 1400 router. I have four routers, albeit one is dedicated to a router table but the Festool is the best hand-held and gets the most use.
Rich
For the past ten years, I’ve wanted to carve a native Indian. 2015 is the year with the help from John Burkes book on the subject.