Making a Mess
I am finally, FINALLY, almost done with the project I started in January.
It has taken me easily twice as long as I planned. Partially due to circumstances outside of my control, like a major snow, ice, and wind storm which knocked out power for nearly a week, but mostly due to things I did.
Like cutting off a portion of my thumb. That was unpleasant.
But, most of the delays were caused by me making a mess of the project.
For instance, the legs. I had planned to use the router table to round over some square material until the squares became circles and boom, the legs would be done. Now the act of rounding was tedious and slow, but in half a Saturday all four legs were done so I pre-assembled and found out I hated it.
The legs were too big.
Plan B, reduce the girth of the legs starting at the router table, spinning the round workpiece to slowly bring the radius down and clean them up by hand.
But that posed a problem as I had already attached the handles. Simple solution, cut the handles off and glue them back on later.
Routing done and hours of hand carving the legs with planes and spoke shaves and I had four nicely shaped, fairly uniform legs, and a big pile of chips and shavings. It was time to glue the handles back on.
Last time I glued these handles on I did it when the pieces were all square which made clamping easy. This time there were tapers and roundness to deal with, which was way harder than I imagined.
I tried using glue and tape as a clamp, and that didn’t work. Then I drilled for a dowel to align and support the handles, and that didn’t work. Then I tried pin nailing the handles on, which also didn’t work. Finally I cut new handles and attempted to use a combination of wood glue and super glue. The idea is the super glue dries in 5 seconds and holds the pieces together firmly, acting as a clamp while the wood glue cures and adds strength (super glue is brittle and will snap under impact).
And that didn’t work.
Finally I tried my last attempt, epoxy. The good news is epoxy fills gaps, so if I couldn’t perfectly clamp and apply lots of pressure as required for wood glue to work, it would be okay.
And don’t get me started on the curved inlay which kept breaking…
In other words, this project has been a mess. Usually a mess is a state of untidiness, but in this case I’m referring to an alternative definition.
A situation full of difficulties.
When you’re having a difficult time it tends to spill over. While this project didn’t cause problems in my life, it sure felt like it did. Thus far this year has been wrought with difficulties. Being rear ended, illnesses, injuries, appliances breaking, fences falling over, and delays, delays, delays.
It weighs on you. Seeing another thing requiring your time when there’s not enough of it to go around. Knowing the next challenge means more work, more sweat, and more frustration. It feels like the world is against you and there’s nothing you can do to make it right.
But one day the mess will end. You’ll pull through and be on the other side. The problems will be solved and life will resume at its normal pace. Projects will start flowing. Life will get better.
All it takes is belief. Belief that you can fix the mess, clean it up, move on and be stronger for it. It’s hard to get to the point where you can clear your head, but once you do you’ll see all the rushing, the unplanned action, the cavalier attitude cause the problem, but a little planning can undo the damage.
Which is exactly what I did. I stopped. I reset. And I came up with simple solutions that I know would work. When times are tough, simplify. Cast off the things causing the problem in the first place and replace them with what you know.
Projects are learning experiences, an opportunity to try something new and grow, but sometimes too much new requires too much thought. While I was pouring my energy into the wheels of this cart I ignored the things that caused me the most mess. The things that were new, but seemed simple enough.
Funny enough, I did learn something from this project, how to deal with my mess.