How long do you pause between builds?

[Doc]

I am just curious.  Having only done kits, I guess not really builds, how long do you pause between builds?  This is directed primarily at nonprofessionals, as I am sure people like Mr Brooks don't have the luxury of pausing.

For me, it seems like it takes about 6 months for the itch to get irresistible again.   I tend to shoot the new one, and learn it a bit.  Then I have to start something.

What's your routine??

Doc

[Mauser06]

Between 1 and 2 there was a break...just because I didn't wanna start a build till I moved.  I collected parts..had 2 barrels inlet into blanks....

Once I moved, I found a precarve and barrel for sale.  I scooped it up and put it together and finished it. 

Once it was out of the vise, one of the planks went into it.  This time of year I don't get a lot of time to work on them so it's slow going....but, getting it in the vise and ready allows me to chisel away here n there....even if I have 15mins, I will work on something.   


So, this time, I didn't take a break....and prefer not to... some of what you learn as a hobby builder is a perishable skill...don't keep up with it and your skills may diminish....or forget a little trick you learned etc.  I find that the case with gun stocking because for a hobby builder, you're talking months or years for one gun.  But the time you do that same step on the next build, its months or years later. 

I also keep planning future builds and scoop up parts if I see them for sale to avoid downtime...it's a hobby for me...but I want to continue to learn and better myself. 

[Bill Raby]

I will usually wait at least an hour or two. Then this summer I was told that I was spending too much time in the workshop and ended up taking a break that was over two months. It was horrible!!!

[sz]

About 20  minutes.

(it's my job.  I make them to earn my living)

[Clear Spring Armory]

Like Mauser06 says, I try to keep one in the vise all the time, but I may only get to work on it when time is available. I broke a hand this summer, switched jobs, got really into canoing, am raising 3 kids under 8 years old, etc., and lately I haven't done much, but there's been something in the vise for 3 years. As was mentioned, sometimes the desire wanes a bit too. I currently have parts for 4 here or on the way, and could have more if I wasn't turning people away. Along with About 20 stocks and a pile of slabs drying in the barn. I also have a bag for a guy that needs picked up, a horn to make for a charity, and a shop that needs the drywall finished, stone laid, and a new door hung. 😂Even when I'm not working on a gun it seems like I'm working on something that has to do with guns. And it is nice to break the monotony.

[stubshaft]

I usually have between 2 to 3 builds going at any given time.  When I find myself rushing one of them and getting sloppy, I'll switch to another or start building accessories.  I find that it helps me maintain a positive state of mind.

[flehto]

In 1975 I decided to build my MLing  hunting rifles  and after doing 2, decided to make some just for the sake of making them and to learn how to make them.   Well, after awhile the racks were  full of my builds and seeing hardly any were being shot, I decided to sell all but my hunting MLers.

They all sold and although I had no intentions of going full time { I had a permanent job}, I jumped into building w/ both feet. Shortly, I retired at the age of 62 and  seeing my finances were good, built again just for the sake of building and trying to get good at it.

Having been a tool and diemaker, planning the  builds came easy and was never held up because  I didn't have the parts.  The pic shows the "planning"  that took place so I wasn't stalled out because of not having the parts. 

The LR 3rd down from the top is a just finished BC which hadn't yet been put up for sale, the LR below it was a LHed Lancaster for a customer and the bottom 2 were a Lancaster and a BC LR that had the bbl/RR work done.

The pic shows my possible obsession w/ building MLers which also included a couple of Hawkens squeezed in.  Those were the good old days when learning to build MLers and becoming efficient in doing so was greatly aided by the ALR.  I was a big reader of the "gun building forum" and adopted many ideas posted by the generous members.....Fred

[smart dog]

Enough time to get a good night's sleep and play with my dog.

dave

[smallpatch]

I'm with you Dave.  Quick sanity break with the pup, then back at it.

[AMartin]

Pause .... ain't not time for pausing ... only during a good dry-fly hatch or deer hunting season ...

Sometimes I'll stain a stock and get right on the next build before the first coat finish is even dry ...

life is good ..


Allen Martin

[BarryE]

I don't quite have the last one done and the next is in the vise.  But it's time to hunt so work will just slow a bit.

[Eric Krewson]

I am primarily a bow maker/instructor, I have built 4 flintlocks, and just started another, I usually go back to bow making for about 6 months before the urge to build another flintlock kicks in.

After I finish my latest build I can't think of anything I really need, I didn't build all the BP guns in my safe. I will have 4 deer rifles, a .44, .50, and two .54s, two smoothbores, a 20 and a 12, and 2 squirrel rifles, a .40 and a .32.

My current build may be my last but I have said that before. I have a nephew or two that want to learn how to build so that is the direction I will probably go.

[oldtravler61]

   It all depends on when. Lincoln, Franklin , Jackson an Grant come to visit !!
 Otherwise one every year or so...!   Oldtravler

[Scota4570]

I always have something on the bench.  Not always a long rifle but some gun project.

[Daryl]

Going on 40 years and still paused.

[Elnathan]

About a decade since my last attempt. I've got a project planned that is still waiting for a proper barrel, while I'm still trying to figure out what else I can build with the somewhat random collection of parts I have on hand.

Money has always been pretty tight, and I can't afford to buy parts for a new build very often, which given the snail's pace at which I usually work is probably just as well.

[Blacksmoke]

Just long enough to clear the bench and assemble the material for the next build.  Most of the time I don't even get a coffee.
  20 yrs. ago I didn't think retirement was going to be this busy!??    Hugh Toenjes 

[Cory Joe Stewart]

I typically go from one to the next.  I may even have two projects and different stage at the same time. 

Cory Joe Stewart

[Tim Crosby]

 How do you figure if you start one, get another idea start another, get to a point your not sure what you ant to do next/how to do it/need to make a part and start another? I have 5 in such states and stocks, locks and barrels that are begging to be worked on. When you say finish I think finish something not The finish.

  Tim C. 

[Pete G.]

  20 yrs. ago I didn't think retirement was going to be this busy!??    Hugh Toenjes

I don`t know how I ever found time to go to work.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I don't get any gun building time in the summer months.  My creative time seems to come after hunting season and throughout our five month snow season.  Last winter I built three, so the turn around time was pretty quick.  I do a lot of things besides building muzzle loading guns, ie:  archery, both traditional and primitive,  and all of the building of kit that comes with that;  shooting and hand-loading for Victorian era firearms, and much more.  Everything I do seems to have a special spot on my life wheel which rotates slowly but surely.   When a favoured activity comes to top dead centre, everything else gets put on hold while I dive head first into that activity.  But I confess that building longrifles occupies more than one of those spots on the wheel, 'cause I've built way over a hundred of them over the past fifty years.  I also admit that once a rifle is done, I have a bit of a down time while my batteries re-charge and inspiration takes over.  In the past, I have not advised a client that his piece is done for as much as several months as I cannot bear the "post partem blues".  But I am not affected so much by that problem now.  And since I have stopped building for clients, I suddenly have a much more relaxed attitude about building longrifles.  I like it.

[rich pierce]

I once took 15 years between builds.  That was not helpful. I’m hoping to get to 3 builds a year from blanks while still working full time.

[Osprey]

I seem to always have one main project, a couple others in various early stages (somedays detail work isn't in the mind, but grunt work with rasps or inletting a barrel is), plus a few turkey calls or horns in progress, but from May through early October the shop is normally shut down - too hot, work season, grass cutting, farm work, fishing, crabbing, etc.  Some shop work starts back up in October, but only between hunts.  Always on my mind year round though, ideas for future builds, picking up parts and such.

[Turtle]

 Until a friend or someone who wants one for a kid or loved one persuades me to make one more. I have permanently stopped building 4 times now.
                                                 Turtle

[t.caster]

I always get another one started while the finish is drying on the last one. I do take breaks for other pressing work around the house & yard, and hunting, but there is always a project to get back into. Plus I do a lot of maintenance or repair jobs on MLs for clubmates. If I don't have any orders, I will be building one on spec for sale. I just love working with my hands!