Procrastination

   In psychology, procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of lower priority, or doing something from which one derives enjoyment, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time.  
   I have shared with others that I do belong to a woodworking club.   One of the tasks that this club does  every year prior to the Christmas season is to have all the members complete a wood project that each of us donates to the club.   Towards the end of November, the club starts to auction off all these projects through the silent auction method.    The funds from this sale are then donated back to various organizations in the community.   Some are given at Christmas time and some later on.    It is a great idea and the club usually ends up donating over $3,000 each year from this effort.
   When going to the club's monthly meetings, we have been reminded since our June meeting that we should start working on what we plan to donate to the auction.   (June -  that leaves one with plenty of time to build something does it not?  What's the hurry?)   This week I received an e-mail that the club is moving what it calls its "Show and Tell" meeting to the 14th of November.   The "Show and Tell" meeting is similar to what we did in first grade or maybe second.    Back then, we would bring something from home to the class and tell everyone about it.   Now, all members are to bring their projects to this meeting on the 14th and tell other members the process of how they built their project.
  Ahhhh...   I think it is time for me to start working on a project.  (Seriously - I've been a bad member and have not started yet.)   It's not that I don't enjoy building something, it is just that I have other things to work on.  (I think it is definitely called Procrastinating.   I'm there.   I know.)

     Well, for this project (I think I have a plan picked out.   It should be done by the 14th only if I keep the sledge hammer away)  I plan to use oak.    I selected 3 eight foot boards that look pretty nice.    I have built this project before (I can't share with you what it is tonight just in case it fails and I have to change.   If I change, I guess I can always give away last week's paper towel holder).    It was about four years ago that I did this.    It turned out all right, but it can be a little tricky because there are several angled cuts.

   The first thing I needed to do is to make some panels out of those oak boards.   One has to be about 16 inches wide   The other two need to be about 11 inches wide.    The picture to the left shows the process of gluing those boards up.    The tall one has been sanded down, the sideways one in the back still has dried glue on it and needs to be sanded. The third one is still in the cooker.
   There are several cuts in this project that are to be made at a 10 degree angle.    The last time I built this, I had built a jig to hold the boards in place while cutting them at 10 degrees.   It worked well and I save the jig just in case I would need it again.  (Guess what.)

  I planned to use that same jig over again when making this year's project.  (Still can't tell you what the project is.)     Since that time, I have acquired a few more tools.   Previously I just used a common protractor to calculate my 10 degree layout.  (It seemed to work okay.)  That same jig is shown in the picture to the right only this time I am using my new digital protractor to recheck my angles.  It shows that rather than the angle being 10 degrees, my angle is only 8.5 degrees.   (90 degrees minus 10 should give me a reading of 80 not 81.5.)  Now I have the choice of rebuilding a new jig, or change the plans so all joints are calculated at 8.5 degrees.   ( Anyone see what the cat did with my sledge hammer??)