Bad habits. I know I shouldn't, but I still do...

[Beatsy]

My two worst, recurring habits (woodworking related) are...

1. Hurrying up (nowhere) near the end of sawing.
After a long stretch of careful and/or strenuous sawing, I often find myself starting to put subtle downward pressure on the saw and speeding up. I know it causes issues nearly every time, makes the saw wander off the line or off square and the like (especially Japanese saws), but *still* I slip into doing it. It's mostly impatience, I suppose: I eventually think I should be further through the wood than I actually am and then subconsciously try "catching up". Still working on that one...

2. Squeezing calipers a little bit harder to make a measurement "right".
I don't think I'll ever stop that. Burnt in muscle memory now. In my defense, I only squeeze a teeny, tiny little bit harder. Just to see how close I am. Honest guv! There's a related 2a though. When I take a measurement and it's what I expect, then it's job done. But if it's not, I re-wipe the calipers jaws and surfaces being measured and check again - wiggling the calipers to make sure they're sat flush on the surfaces etc. Funny thing is, I very, very rarely doubt and recheck "correct" measurements that way, only incorrect ones. I've been caught out by that several times over the years. You think I'd learn. But...

Go on, why not 'fess-up your recurring "naughtinesses"? You know you'll feel better for it. Or at least I will - knowing I'm in good company

 

[MikeSav]

I do both these things, but didn't realise until I read this!
I'm betting I've got loads more bad habits that contribute to my often shoddy work - nearly all (lack-of) patience related.
It's tough being an impatient perfectionist some times, and trying to cut mitred dovetails that were anywhere near neat last year nearly drove me insane!

 

[guineafowl21]

When I take a measurement and it's what I expect, then it's job done. But if it's not, I re-wipe the calipers jaws and surfaces being measured and check again

Confirmation bias. Also common with information - if you see a fact that confirms what you think, you stop there. If the fact disproves what you think, you overturn the whole internet trying to undermine it.

 

[Lorenzl]

an impatient perfectionist

I hadn't thought about it but this describes me as well

One habit I have is deciding on a process/design and after a few days I think why am I doing it that way instead of this other way? I then proceed down the the this other way path and suddenly find a problem and that is why I wasn't going to do it that way in the first place!

 

[Jacob]

Bit lazy TBH. Has one benefit - I'm always looking for the easiest way to do stuff and do find it! But not always.

 

[Dynamite]

Not trusting your tablesaw ruler and having to manually measure from the blade to the fence every single time even though I knew it would be right.

 

[Dynamite]

Going gung ho into glue ups. Having then glued the peice and then running about trying to find clamps and anything else around different places.

 

[Bingy man]

Drilling to deep when counter sinking screws then having to pack the hole out to compensate. Recently purchased some snappy adjustable c/sinks which has reduced this significantly but now I have check I’ve picked up the correct one and test in a bit of scrap 1st .

 

[Jacob]

Not trusting your tablesaw ruler and having to manually measure from the blade to the fence every single time even though I knew it would be right.

I've never trusted my table saw rulers and always check with a tape. Though the ruler is handy if you just want to adjust by a known amount, e.g. slide the fence exactly 9mm etc

 

[D_W]

Trying to get every last little bit out of something you're not familiar with. With planes, as soon as the plane doesn't pull itself into the cut without anything more than a forward push, it's a fool's errand to keep working and it's easy to test that theory and find out it's more drastic than you'd imagine.

I have something like 500SF of shellac floors to scrape so that I can level them with a floor sander and I scraped about 200SF last night. Much to go and the old padding reacted or degraded into a sticky goo, so at the very least, that has to be scraped off. But it's work on the floor, so the last thing you want to do is get up and down over and over in positions you're not usually in.

But it's still more work if you resist the urge to regrind the edges of the scrapers, just like the planes.

Boy are the old scrapers so much better made for this task than new ones, despite having high hardness tool steel instead of some other whiz bang material. the group that I have is also too hard to be filed in case anyone is thinking about that.

 

[CMax]

One of mine is over-thinking and over-analysing. It's as though I need the perfect solution just to start. I think through a given project too much, and sometimes put myself off by all the ways it could go wrong. That's one of the reasons why I gave up woodworking for so long: I wasn't completing projects and got frustrated with myself.

Another bad habit of mine is making do with the wrong tool if it's more convenient than to find/buy/build the right tool. The things I've done with chisels...

 

[MARK.B.]

Continuing to disagree with my Good Lady even when I have been given "The Look"

 

[Molynoox]

One of mine is over-thinking and over-analysing. It's as though I need the perfect solution just to start. I think through a given project too much, and sometimes put myself off by all the ways it could go wrong. That's one of the reasons why I gave up woodworking for so long: I wasn't completing projects and got frustrated with myself.

Another bad habit of mine is making do with the wrong tool if it's more convenient than to find/buy/build the right tool. The things I've done with chisels...

This is my biggest problem. I'm trying to train myself to just jump in and plan certain things (the last 20% of the unknowns) as I go, on the fly. Rather than spending forever thinking about every possible permutation up front and not starting work until 'plan maturity' is 100%

I am also trying to keep my motivation high when something appears not to be perfect midway through a job, instead of throwing my toys out of the pram and giving up or starting again.

Martin

 

[Sandyn]

Doing too much. Retired now. There just aren't enough hours in a day for me. Too many hobbies, too many projects on the go at one time, but It beats working. We often go for mid-week breaks where I am forced to slow down for a couple of days. I enjoy that.

My really really irritating habit is loosing everything as soon as I put it down. The time I waste looking for things!! My partial solution is to buy duplicates. Ear protection, masks rulers, screwdrivers, wire strippers etc.

 

[Fitzroy]

Buying too little material, or trying to build something from material I have but that really is not sufficient. Oh I can squeeze a side table out of that one board, start to break it down having forgotten about legs or the apron etc, too late now I'll manage.

 

[CMax]

This is my biggest problem. I'm trying to train myself to just jump in and plan certain things (the last 20% of the unknowns) as I go, on the fly. Rather than spending forever thinking about every possible permutation up front and not starting work until 'plan maturity' is 100%

I am also trying to keep my motivation high when something appears not to be perfect midway through a job, instead of throwing my toys out of the pram and giving up or starting again.

Martin

I hear you. When I get my move over and done with and my workshop set up again, I'm going to try and be more relaxed about the whole thing. Enjoy the journey more, as it were, rather than worrying about the end product.

I don't think there's anything wrong with starting again. I've had a couple of projects where I got frustrated and left them on the shelf, but when I started again, I just viewed the first as the 'prototype.' It's only if the project never gets re-started that it becomes a problem. But it's definitely something I need to work on too.

As an aside, I see you're in Billericay. Not far from where I'm moving too—Thurrock. Well, moving back to. I grew up there and have only been gone six years. Are there any decent local timber merchants down that way these days? I used to use EO Burton in Brentwood, but they were pretty grumpy and unhelpful most of the time, mostly because I had the temerity of wanting to actually look at the wood I was buying first.

 

[Molynoox]

I hear you. When I get my move over and done with and my workshop set up again, I'm going to try and be more relaxed about the whole thing. Enjoy the journey more, as it were, rather than worrying about the end product.

I don't think there's anything wrong with starting again. I've had a couple of projects where I got frustrated and left them on the shelf, but when I started again, I just viewed the first as the 'prototype.' It's only if the project never gets re-started that it becomes a problem. But it's definitely something I need to work on too.

As an aside, I see you're in Billericay. Not far from where I'm moving too—Thurrock. Well, moving back to. I grew up there and have only been gone six years. Are there any decent local timber merchants down that way these days? I used to use EO Burton in Brentwood, but they were pretty grumpy and unhelpful most of the time, mostly because I had the temerity of wanting to actually look at the wood I was buying first.

Yep, totally agreed on the first paragraph, we are in a very similar place with mindset it seems.

Vickers timber are brilliant.

Burton's are awful, only been once but a terrible experience and never again. Made me wait in my car for 15 minutes while they all had their coffee break and they were then super rude to me. I've no idea how they are still in business.

Martin

 

[CMax]

Yep, totally agreed on the first paragraph, we are in a very similar place with mindset it seems.

Vickers timber are brilliant.

Burton's are awful, only been once but a terrible experience and never again. Made me wait in my car for 15 minutes while they all had their coffee break and they were then super rude to me. I've no idea how they are still in business.

Martin

Sad that nothing's changed. I guess the hobbyist market is just too small for them to care.

 

[niall Y]

One of mine is over-thinking and over-analysing. It's as though I need the perfect solution just to start. I think through a given project too much, and sometimes put myself off by all the ways it could go wrong. That's one of the reasons why I gave up woodworking for so long: I wasn't completing projects and got frustrated with myself.

Another bad habit of mine is making do with the wrong tool if it's more convenient than to find/buy/build the right tool. The things I've done with chisels...

Ah, yes making do with the wrong tool. Surely everyone knows that the right tool for the job , is the one you happen to have in your hand at the time I'm sure this is how the 'Birmingham Screwdriver' came into being.

 

[Beatsy]

... I'm sure this is how the 'Birmingham Screwdriver' came into being.

The slots are only for taking screws out - after you hammered them into the wrong place. Ingenious