Woodworkers rate their happiness above average. At CareerExplorer, they conducted an ongoing survey of millions of people and asked them how satisfied they are with their careers. It turns out that woodworkers rate their career happiness 3.5 out of 5 stars, which puts it in the top 32 of all careers. Even after doing a few scrap projects, you may have a lot more wood left over than you need.
I like to do an annual purge of the shop and get rid of things I haven’t used and won’t actually use at all. Clearing out this clutter can go a long way to making your time in the shop more productive. When you work with wood, you use your whole brain: left, right, front and back, and all the wiring in between. If you have another solution, or even a different problem associated with woodworking as it ages, let me know.
There are tons of saws that are better than this one, but spending $2k on one probably wouldn’t make me a happier woodworker. There may be challenges, frustrations and hard work, but overall woodworking makes us happy. I know, you’ve probably heard people say, “Yeah, but having good, quality tools makes your woodworking better and more enjoyable”. In doing so, I have found that you have difficulty with some elements of woodworking, mainly because you have lost your hand strength.
Sure, there are some people who simply like to acquire and collect tools, but for the most part, tools rank low on the woodworking enjoyment scale. However, as hobbyists, there are many things you can do without spending a dime that will enhance your joy of being a woodworker and perhaps even improve your life a little. Most professional woodworkers start out as passionate amateurs until they decide they want to go into it professionally. The thing is, the work that many carpenters do all day, every day, doesn’t match the work they want to do.
Believe it or not, there are amazing things you can do offline and inspiration for woodworking is everywhere. If woodworking is how you spend your life, and you allow customers to dictate what you do, you are in essence allowing customers to dictate your life. With the age of baby boomers also rising, I think this is a common problem that many woodworkers will have an interest in.