Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. Over a hundred contributed in the last decade on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.
This time it is Charlie Bess, a repeat contributor to this series. 11 years ago, he wrote about another of his passions - mentoring youth in STEM disciplines. Here the Polymath writes about woodworking, just one of his passions today:
I have been a technologist for over 30 years, leading large groups of technologists at companies like GM, EDS, HP and most recently Raytheon. I was the Chief Technologist for a number of organizations, a fellow at EDS & HP and a licensed professional engineer.
I’ve known Vinnie Mirchandani for well over 10 years. We even attempted to collaborate on a chapter for one of his books – unfortunately, the lawyers at the company I was working for at the time had other ideas, so that effort could not continue. The material did end up as a Green IT chapter in another book though. Now that I am no longer encumbered by lawyers, I jumped at the chance to contribute in a small way to Vinnie’s blog on pursuing personal passions.
I retired back in 2018 and although I still play around with computers, my focus moved on to ham radio and maker activities like design, computer numerical control and 3D printing. Some people worry about how they will consume all that ‘free’ time when they retire. I have not had that issue since my days are packed learning to accomplishing new things.
Part of the reason for these new development opportunities is that my focus shifted to a creative, tactile and satisfying activity -- woodworking. If you have never had the chance to hand make an object in wood, you may not understand the limitless possibilities to dedicate yourself to the freedom, creativity and skill development required. Whenever you run into a limitation, it is a chance to try something new!
I grew up on a poultry farm in Indiana, so I have always had to figure things out and ‘do things’. As I used to tell folks, “When the tractor breaks down at the far end of the field – you are the only one who is going to figure it out, so just get at it.” Although I had the opportunity in junior high to take woodshop, that and 4-H were about the only experience I had using power tools with wood. I hate to think how the kids today are missing out on even that opportunity.
One thing that helped me shift my focus away from the rigor of work when I retired and develop my skills at woodworking was that I moved to Sun City Hilton Head. That has one of the larger woodshops of any over 55, active adult community. My wife and I are part of a woodworking and model making guild that has over 900 members. Like everywhere else, COVID has had its impact here and we were down for a few months. Our shop just started back up this week.
When I came to this community, I had a basic, ‘hammer and nails’ understanding of woodworking. This woodshop had all the hand and power tools I could dream of, with people ready, willing, and able to help tackle projects of nearly any size and complexity. I started by making some of the ‘standard’ projects that were required to get certified to use the shop – they have a real focus on safety. I then moved on to some furniture, like this joggling bench (a type of bench native to the Lowcountry of South Carolina) that sits on our front porch – I did take some liberties with that design and added cup holders.
Eventually, I moved on to art-oriented projects. The one pictured here is based on an Escher print – Reptiles. I designed the piece in a CAD system and used my CNC to cut the lizards out of bloodwood, curly maple and Peruvian walnut and then used epoxy to add a protective finish. Now I need to determine if I am going to make a tray or a wall hanging out of it. Six months ago, I likely would not have known how to tackle something like this. I’ve made other tessellations resembling sea horses and turtles as well.
Something that always puzzled me is that some artists view woodworking as craft, not art. If they knew how much imagination and creativity went into the process and the design, they would have a more enlightened view. The issue parallels the same discussions I had back in the working world of soft skills and hard skills. I always thought of this as: “If they can’t understand it, it must be a hard skill. If they can’t explain it, it must be a soft skill.” :)
I had the revelation as my skills developed that process and skill development can be more rewarding than the end result. Most of the designs I create I make myself and I model them in CAD tools. This focus on technique would be a valuable asset later on.
After I was here for a few months, tragedy struck and the leader of advanced training at the shop had a fatal sports accident. The woodworking guild needed someone to take over, become involved and help modernize the advanced training process, so with my background I stepped into the breach. I have been learning myself and trying to develop others ever since. Though I came to the group with a solid understanding of computing and computers, merging that background with CAD and computer-controlled machines in the woodworking space led me to develop numerous classes in 3D printing, CNC and other areas related to woodworking for our guild. Granted today almost every topic is covered on YouTube or the Internet somehow, it is not the same as being available to answer questions when they come up. The development of others eventually led to the creation of a technology-oriented special interest group and the investigation of creating a maker space in our community woodshop.
Keeping your passion fueled is not all about process, though. For me, it is about learning new things and expanding your horizons. All my hobbies have nearly infinite development possibilities, with dimensions of capabilities that you do not even know exist until you run into them. My passion is enabled by the exploration of the new, not the reiteration of things I have done before. To me that is part of the joy and responsibility of retirement – to keep expanding and sharing with others.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Life is a journey, not a destination.”
One area I have recently started to develop is lathe turning. This involves spinning wood along an axis and cutting away material using various sharp tools. I have started to make bowls and pens, accenting them with epoxy and other finishes. Unlike most of my other woodworking projects, I can create a pen in just a few hours, so this relatively instantaneous gratification has added an incentive to continue to expand my lathe work. The pens shown on left are made out of acrylic, spalted maple and Padauk.
I have mentioned several different types of exotic woods (the end table above is made from the more common oak). In a global economy, it is relatively easy to get almost any species, it just takes time and money since no one can stock everything. Most of what I have shown in this post was actually made from scrap, the leftovers from my or someone else’s projects. A good woodworker knows there is no such thing as scrap. It is just a piece of wood you have not found a use for -- yet. Below is a Christmas display cut into a poplar board with a purpleheart base
Though I do not blog as much as I used to when I was working, I do try to continue to share my experiences when I get a chance on my personal blog so take a look if you are interested in these topics.
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