Some small boxes and trays, 99% unplugged. Part 2 (Nov 2022)

I started Part 1 about a month ago. In it, I started with: "My progress is always slow, but it is progress nonetheless". I should also add that it is quite erratic. In that post, I resawed the stock for the sides of my boxes and laminated the stock for the tops. I also got side-tracked resawing some apple wood (I still have more of that to do [Squirrel!]) and doing some planing on the legs of my long-running bench project. At the speed that I'm making that bench, it'll actually be vintage by the time I finish it. I also had my semi-annual away trip (4 days) and some stump removal with the neighbour.

Around mid-month I got a new to me Veritas low-angle smoother that sidetracked me some more as I cleaned it up and used it on the new laminated panels. That caused me some problems, and my progress for the month stopped.

The new plane did a pretty good job of smoothing the faces of the laminations. Unfortunately, my sticking board/planing stop/jig/thingy worked against me on several fronts.

With my TBI, any motion or movement of the workpiece really messes with my brain and triggers some debilitating vertigo. 🤢 Damn. That means that I need to go to exceptional lengths to secure my workpieces and my jigs. In this case, the jig is prevented from moving longitudinally by clamping a board in the end vise. The board sits just proud of the benchtop and acts as a planing stop for my jig. The jig itself was held by two holdfasts. The shafts of the holdfasts go through my jig and then through the bench which provides two additional points to resist any rotation of the jig for when I apply lateral forces to my work and against the jig's fence. It worked well enough until it didn't.

I felt that one of the holdfasts was crowding my work, and that distracted me enough that I induced some tear-out and was then unable to correct it while keeping the two opposing faces flat and parallel.

So now I'm stopped while I determine how I'm going to fix this. I'm contemplating a bed/sled so that I can run this through the tailed lunchbox planer. I'm also trying to figure out a different way of securing my sticking board to the bench. Along with the possible solutions, I'm also trying to figure out how much time each would take and how those solutions would affect my progress. For example, making the planer sled would require clearing my bench, making the sled and setting up the planer. If the planer is set up, then I might as well do a few passes for the laminated benchtop panels while it is set up. My brain will balk at each change in process or activity, so each solution will affect my progress differently. And so it goes, on and on and...

When I need to get some focus or figure out how to progress in cases like this, my injured brain fights me at every step because there are just too many interconnected parts, pieces and considerations for it to keep track of. The aforementioned analysis paralysis certainly doesn't help things move along. To help me with this, I will have a friend or the Boss (SWMBO) sit in the recliner and listen as I try to explain what I am trying to do, what problems I'm encountering and what I'm going to do about them.

In a very bizarre twist of reality, describing everything out loud like this often gives me the answers that I need to proceed. I know what I know, even when I don't know that I know it, you know? 🤔 Talking to myself doesn't seem to have the same effect, possibly because I'm not paying enough attention. 😮 So my progress is sometimes dependent upon a visitor coming to my shop to listen to me blab for a while. 🤕 They don't need to understand; they just need to be there so that I can talk it out and get to the answer.

Sometimes I'll also spend some time doing a post like this, just to articulate what has me stopped. Once I've articulated it on screen (or out loud), it seems to make more sense to me and feels almost like an epiphany of sorts. As I type this, I'm seeing the picture of the Chief Inspector above and wondering if talking it out with her would do the same thing. ⚡ Doh! I'll need to give that a try...

Any side bets as to how long until I get these boxes finished? 2022? 2023? 2024?