i've got builders block

[yip]

  got me a new stock blank taday, but can't start inlettin da barrel  till i get the one on da bench done, but i hit a wall, darn things just about done, all but the little stuff. does any of you guys ever hit the wall?  

[PPatch]

EVERYbody hits that wall, its normal and natural. It will pass. Do something else for a bit then come back to the "almost finished" project. Clear it out, make it great, then start on that new board.

Good luck

dave

[yip]

thanks for the reply patch; i've build somewheres about 10, 8 from a blank stock. ain't none of em that pretty, but sure do enjoy it. i guess i'm not alone, sure glad ta hear it.thanks

[WadePatton]

if you are wired like me, just make yourself start cleaning up your shop and organizing everything, a day or two of that will drive me right back into ... anything but cleaning up the shop.

i don't even have a shooter and i'm stuck. sorta.  called about new blanks today.

[ken]

I hit the wall. I usually sit back and start resharpening the tools and pick up bench. Pull out the book stuudy an old gun or school and then oh-yah now I see it , time to move forwared

[Mike Brooks]

I'm presently trying to scale the wall......I thought hunting for the past month would get me over, but it hasn't.

[Roger Fisher]

Been there.... Suggest to think of some small item to do on the build in question, do that and that will get you rubbing up against her and this should get your mind on progressing with the project.  Works for me             sometimes!

[BJH]

That's why I'm here reading this thread.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

It doesn't happen to me with every rifle, but it happens often.  I find that cleaning up the shop and then building something small like an accoutrement for my own rig gets the juices flowing again.  I don't think it's lack of interest or boredom that does it - I think it's burn out or some such phenomenon.  If the project is an Isaac Haines, for example, and you've got it all done except for the polishing of the lock, and the engraving, and you hit the wall, go back and study all the reference material you have.  This often inspires and the ball starts rolling again.
I'm no good at working on more than one gun at a time, so that option is not available to me.

[greybeard]

I had that problem last year. Got lots of encouragemet from the learned members. 
Taylor said not to dwell on the big picture but "eat the elephant one bite at a time"
     Worked for me.
         Good luck.   Bob Reader

[Tim Crosby]

 Whatever you do do not start another gun or you will have two walls. BTDT, actually… still there but with 4 walls and a couple waiting.

  Tim C.

[okieboy]

 I think that at least for compulsives, such as myself, that one tenses up over fear of not doing something perfectly. And as a project goes on there is more to lose by making a mistake, like the moment you are standing there with a bottle of dye and a rag hoping that the color is going to be the way you envisioned it.
 Cleaning the bench and sharpening the tools are good, but what really relaxes me is making a "prototype" of something. For instance, you want a new knife, instead of picking up a piece of steel, pick up a piece of scrap maple. You can work quick and freely with no care about it coming out perfect, there is plenty more scrap to play with.

[yip]

  i think you guys are right maybe its time ta step back and think things out. my wife says to finish da one on the bench first, i think she wants me down in the basement more times then not.come ta think about it it taint that bad!

[David R. Pennington]

I know what you mean, and I agree the best thing is to get away from it for a little while and when you come back you will get a fresh prospective. I had the same problem with my current build. I inletted the lock and then realized that the tail had creeped down just a bit from where I actually wanted it. I was frustrated and ready to use it for kindling. I hung it on the wall and started to do what some of the other guys said. I made a little box to hang on the shop wall to keep files in and noticed my bench hand saw was getting dull, so I joined, filed and set it.
When I finally got back to the rifle I realized the mistake really was almost imperceptable and may actually be an improvement. Well at least it wasn't that bad and I was able to get back to it.

[Bernard]

Whew! And I thought I was all alone in the wilderness.The only builder that just couldn't get on with a build.
This one has been very challenging. The wood is the most frustrating I have ever seen or tried to work with. Last spring I almost decided to scrap it and start over but with some encouragement from here I pressed on and now have the carving almost finished and a lot of the wire inlay work done. I worked on it one evening last week for the first time in more than six months. Now I feel encouraged again realizing other builders have the same problems. Thanks Guys. I'll try to post some pic's when I'm done.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

Sheeeeeesh!  I am just finishing up a rifle I began nearly 4 years ago........ First this got in the way and then something else and I just found a million reasons to do the something else.. I was doing a number of things for the first time and really wanted thins to turn out better than my experience level will probably allow.  But it is looking pretty nice and I think I can live with it..... Maybe have her done next week!!!

[David R. Pennington]

The one on my bench now was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but looks like I might get it done by next Dec. 25.

[Dave B]

Well this thread hits close to home. I am emarrased to say that my worst builders block took me 12 years to get the job done. Some was hitting a snag here and there some was not wanting to final finish because I knew one part needed to be fixed.  The best way to eat the elephant  metaphor is right on. Fix  The problem and move on to the next. The other thing was loss of interest. I will never take on a job that doesn't interest me. I have a real job and there is nothing redeeming about a project that is a boat anchor. My wall took 12 yrs to climb over.  I will have fun projects from here on out.

[mikeyfirelock]

Well, I usually have a motorcycle in pieces at the other end of the shop, so I just switch projects for a while till I get the ambition back.  Usually happens when I mess something up and have to give some thought to how to work around it. ( like yesterday when I made a front sight and installed it, and realized the base was too short to span the width of the barrel. )

[rick/pa]

I hit the wall one time. It took 40 years before I picked up that half finished rifle to work on again. In that time I learned a lot that I didn't know when I started it, beginning with the choice of wood for the stock. It was for an English style rifle. About the only things I got right were the choice of barrel, lock, and trigger guard. I was tempted to chuck the whole project but went ahead and finished it according to my vision of what I wanted to do 40 years before. The wall is real. Don't let it stand for too long.   PS. The gun shoots real well. Has a Durs Egg lock and one of Jerry Cunningham's Montana Rifle Barrels in .50 that I bought back in '78.

[canadianml1]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to all who contributed to this thread. I see that I am not mental after all. Good stuff.

[Daryl]

Until today, this was a 7 year old thread.  IT happens to everyone, seems to me. Happened to me, too
and all I was doing was re-barreling my wife's rifle. That took 20 years, or so.

[flehto]

It all started when I became an indentured tool and diemaker  apprentice  and after 5 yrs became a journeyman and worked at the trade a number of yrs. Two things made my time as a toolmaker more pleasant..... making the fewest  mistakes possible  and analyzing each operation for the quickest way to do it.

So when building MLers, the above 2 things came to bear and helped me in not getting "bogged down"  w/ an unproductive mental attitude. What also helped. possibly more so in avoiding the "doldrums" , was that I only built  MLers starting in late Nov, until the middle of May. ….hunting and fishing became my primary pastimes  the rest  of the year.  Most of the time I completed 2 MLers during the "working months" but if one was not completed , it waited until the next "working months" period. 

In all the times that I built MLers, took only 3 orders from customers and the rest of the builds were all "spec builds".  This allowed me to do what I did w/ my gun building hours and was also responsible for my eager mental attitude. The BC shown in the pic was up for sale and the LHed Lancaster below it was a customer's rifle. The 2 blanks w/ bbls were  for the next "working months" period....Fred

[Not English]

Boy I can sure sympathize with Rick/Pa. I had a .36 rifle i started building for my 11 year old son and set it aside at one point and never got back to it. My son's now 40 and I just gave the rifle to a rendezvous buddy  whose son is 12 last summer. It seemed like the right thing to do seeing as how the son always rendezvoused with us. The rifle is now finished and is being well used.

[Bob McBride]

I've got one of Brad Emig's pistol kits, a Chamber's Lil Fellers for the wife, and a beautiful blank from AM and a barrel and lock lined up in the shop...walked in circles for a few days till the wife said she wanted the mud room redone from the studs up. I jumped at the opportunity. With my 3 days a week of my business, fridays on the range and shooting videos, 3 days of farm work, not to mention the daily farm chores, Sunday's thanking my creator and binging on Netflix in my Underoos, I needed something to fill up the the last 12 days of the week....