How do you deal with limited bench time?

[Ace-Garageguy]

These days I rarely if ever have any extended bench time. In a few minutes snatched here and there, it's frustrating to be able to get almost nothing accomplished.

I think this is the main reason I tend to do a lot of mockups...quick and creative stuff that I can get done in a short time, and see some major progress...and then put them aside when they begin to require more commitment and discipline.

I find that I miss being able to sit at the bench for hours at a time, and focus long enough to actually finish something. The Q&D mockups let me have a little fun, blow off some steam, and enjoy at least a part of the hobby.

Most of my posting here is done while I'm working on something else on the computer...the equivalent of a coffee or cigarette break. It's nice to be able to see other folks builds progressing, even if I don't have enough time for my own right now.

Other thoughts ??

[Dr. Cranky]

Bill, I find some of the best time for me is during those nights when I have a hard time sleeping. Sometimes, I get up at 2am and get a couple of hours in. It doesn't work for everyone, but it helps to get work done when everyone else is asleep.

[Nick Winter]

The Doc is on to something, I have done that too, I try and sit down for a atleast an hour every evening after I get home from work (and have dinner, a shower and what ever else I need to do)

I feel your pain though I only wish there were 25 hours in a day

Nick

[mikemodeler]

This Spring when we had incredible weather, I didn't get enough stuff painted to carry me through the humid and hot Summer days. Between traveling for work, yard work and wanting to enjoy the summer, my build time is limited to short periods of time here and there, often weeks apart. I have so many WIPs that I should be able to get something finished but my modeler's ADD kicks in and then I start mocking up more "what ifs" and then play time is over!

I hate to admit it but sometimes I find myself building a snap kit just to show some progress!

[James2]

I just spend more time at the bench!

[imarriedawitch]

Retirement was the answer for me. Now I spend 3 or 4 hours a day at the hobby. Working for a living sure cuts into the free time.

[cobraman]

Since retiring last month time is no longer a problem. After my wifes operation last month I lost a little of my motivation while taking care and keeping an eye on her. She has been much better the last couple of weeks and I again started building. I like to build when she goes to bed. I have plenty of time to build now but must admit to getting lazy at times.

[blunc]

I've been getting no bench time due to crappy work schedule and household projects that are in the "have to do" category rather than model crafting which is in the "I really want to build/finish something" category.

however, I'm getting close to the point that I can get some bench time in and do something with all the ideas and parts I've been acquiring.

[ScaleDale]

Retirement was the answer for me. Now I spend 3 or 4 hours a day at the hobby. Working for a living sure cuts into the free time.

Since retiring last month time is no longer a problem. After my wifes operation last month I lost a little of my motivation while taking care and keeping an eye on her. She has been much better the last couple of weeks and I again started building. I like to build when she goes to bed. I have plenty of time to build now but must admit to getting lazy at times.

I'm with these guys. I did no building at all until I retired and went looking for a hobby to keep me busy during the Winter months here in the NorthWest when I'm stuck inside.

My best advice to Ace is to try to schedule a solid hour of bench time each day. When isn't as important as getting the time in.

Dale

[Dr. Cranky]

Since retiring last month time is no longer a problem. After my wifes operation last month I lost a little of my motivation while taking care and keeping an eye on her. She has been much better the last couple of weeks and I again started building. I like to build when she goes to bed. I have plenty of time to build now but must admit to getting lazy at times.

Ray, you mentioned something here that I also like to point out. Right before my girls went off away to school, I would get up in the middle of the night and get work done in the garage and it made me feel like I was keeping guard and watch over everything. It was a very peaceful time, knowing all the people I cared about and loved were all under one roof. Now, it's a different story. It's my wife and I in the house and I still feel like if I get up to work, I'm watching out.

[moparfarmer]

Since my stroke in '98 I haven't really had the big interest I did before. Did some bench time only to get p'd off and quit. On the nice summer days/nights

I like to cruise in my 64 Fury convertible..In the winter its JETS hockey..Grandkids hockey and playing cars with my 2 yr old grandson...I think maybe I will get him either a snap kit or Leggo car to help him build...Wish I could get out of this funk....

[JunkPile]

"Bench" time would be far less limited if I had a broken computer

[ToyLvr]

Ace-Garageguy:

I don't know what your personal situation is, but if you're a working guy, maybe this will help.

For a short, but productive, period of time, I was able to set up a " remote" workbench at my place of employment. Like many other companies in recent years, my company had a lot of "downsizing", and thus some offices and other work spaces were shut down. I found one that I knew for certain would not be used, and with the permission of an undertanding supervisor, I brought a box of modeling supplies to work and stashed the box in a corner of one of the unused spaces. I was thus able to wolf down a quick sandwich, and then spend the rest of my lunch hour working on a model. I wasn't able to do certain functions such as painting, but this did allow some time to do things such as scribing panel lines, body prep, etc. I felt like I was accomplishing something on my modeling projects, and it was a relaxing distraction from work for a while.

Ironically, as the economy improved, I got too busy to take a full lunch hour, and eventually had to evacuate my little hideaway so it could be used for its intended purpose....

[LOBBS]

I've been working 50-60 hours a week pretty much from the day we got married and started having kids so that my wife could be home with them until they hit school age. When I first got back into the hobby as an adult, I was buying up kits left and right and had a "plan" for each and every one. Over time, lack of actual time on the bench began to become a frustration and I walked away for the hobby for a couple of years.

We moved into a new house about a year and a half ago and I had a room in the basement designated as my hobby area as it already had cabinetry in place on which to work. Up until a few months ago, it sat largely unused with all my stuff still in boxes from the move. The idea of unpacking and organizing all that stuff into my new area when I wasn't going to have time to build anyways was a huge mental block. So I downsized. I picked about a dozen projects that I was really passionate about and proceeded to begin trading off everything else for items that I needed to go all out on the selected few. It's been the best thing, hobby wise, that I've done in a long time. Not having an overwhelming inventory of projects has energized my interest again and made it easier for me to set aside time to get in front of the bench. I started with a couple simple projects that I wanted to have cast and I'm gradually working back into full scale builds.

[slusher]

Bill, I find some of the best time for me is during those nights when I have a hard time sleeping. Sometimes, I get up at 2am and get a couple of hours in. It doesn't work for everyone, but it helps to get work done when everyone else is asleep.

l agree with Doc because l do get up T 1 and 2 AM to squeeze some time in. l am retired but with a disability you really have to feel good to build. l cannot build unless l feel good.

[Tonioseven]

I steal time here and there. Hopefully things will be a bit different once I move back to Ohio.

[CJ1971]

I really don't see what the problem IS... It's a hobby... It's there when you DO have time, be it daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.

It sounds like more of a complaint, that you don't have or never seem to have "hobby-time". If you're passionate about something, like this hobby or any other for that matter, you can MAKE time or FIND the time.

[Shelby 427 1965]

School happened for me. Entering the last couple years now and the big important exams are coming up, so modelling time will be limited for me too. Trying to make the most of it, but model time had been cut down big time already. Kinda sucks, that. I can't work late at night either, I make more mistakes! Summer time now is model time for me. I don't get out much anyway so chilling with decent weather and a cold drink with something on the bench is great!

[Foxer]

What Bill describes is the way I enjoy building. I don't sweat finishing anything and just build as I feel like it just for the enjoyment of building. Usually I'm finding I only work at it an hour or less at a time now. So limited bench time is what I do, more than being done to me. I can only say, sit back and enjoy what you get

[Chris White]

I, like Kyle, work 50-60 hours per week, husband and father of two. I will get, maybe if I am lucky, 2-4 hours a week. I will log on early in the morning, and look at the forum. I envy Dr. Cranky and Carl, who are retired (I know you earned it, my time will come). I would love to put more detail into the builds, but there just isn't that much time. But the time I do spend, is relaxing and enjoyable.

[Art Anderson]

Bill,

I feel your pain on this one! It seems like ancient history here, the times when I was able to go to the workbench for seemingly hours at a stretch--those were years right out of college, my then wife often worked different hours than me, no kids (never did have any, unfortunately), all that stuff. I seemed able to knock out perhaps 15-20 model cars a year back then, many of them my first serious model car passion of 1/25th scale Indy cars. However, looking back now, at those years 30-50 years ago, I didn't give many models the superdetailing treatment (even though building race cars from the then 60-70 years of Indianapolis Motor Speedway history required a lot of conversions, even some serious scratchbuilding!).

Then a few things got in the way, the first being opening my own hobby shop, then transitioning from that into resin casting (resin casting: Talk about a hobby killer!), both of which changed my focus and redirected my model car building interests.

Since 2000, when I was working in dining services supervision at the University, through almost 4 years of product development with the Johnny Lightning brand of diecast cars, to semi-retiring and working a 3rd shift job back at the University, my model building time got really chopped up--often not getting any time to concentrate on a project until a weekend and then finding too many other things to do on Saturdays and Sundays in the summer. Concurrent with this came my learning to use my lathe in ways never before considered, and learning the finer points of a newly purchased Sherline mill, along with a newly rediscovered need to add more and more detailing to the models I at least attempt to build--lotsa conflicts with being able to move a model car project forward from the kit box to completion.

Fast forward to spring this year: A change of shift at the University means that I have some uninterrupted daytime hours in which to sit down, actually do some serious, productive work on a model project--and it shows! For the first time in decades, I can actually have two or three projects going simultaneously (currently that '37 Ford pickup is occupying one work bench, a second round test shot of the upcoming Moebius '56 Chrysler 300B on another). The pickup of course is one of those crazy I-can't-leave-well-enough-alone projects--the 300B is coming together, OOB, with hopefully a nice paintjob and some foil work.

So over time, things do change, other interests and interferances do come and go--but that is pretty much a microcosm of life itself, IMHO. So, heads up, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, and the probability of that being truly the other portal is far higher than its being a speeding locomotive coming at you!

Art

[ScaleDale]

Bill,

I feel your pain on this one! It seems like ancient history here, the times when I was able to go to the workbench for seemingly hours at a stretch--those were years right out of college, my then wife often worked different hours than me, no kids (never did have any, unfortunately), all that stuff. I seemed able to knock out perhaps 15-20 model cars a year back then, many of them my first serious model car passion of 1/25th scale Indy cars. However, looking back now, at those years 30-50 years ago, I didn't give many models the superdetailing treatment (even though building race cars from the then 60-70 years of Indianapolis Motor Speedway history required a lot of conversions, even some serious scratchbuilding!).

Then a few things got in the way, the first being opening my own hobby shop, then transitioning from that into resin casting (resin casting: Talk about a hobby killer!), both of which changed my focus and redirected my model car building interests.

Since 2000, when I was working in dining services supervision at the University, through almost 4 years of product development with the Johnny Lightning brand of diecast cars, to semi-retiring and working a 3rd shift job back at the University, my model building time got really chopped up--often not getting any time to concentrate on a project until a weekend and then finding too many other things to do on Saturdays and Sundays in the summer. Concurrent with this came my learning to use my lathe in ways never before considered, and learning the finer points of a newly purchased Sherline mill, along with a newly rediscovered need to add more and more detailing to the models I at least attempt to build--lotsa conflicts with being able to move a model car project forward from the kit box to completion.

Fast forward to spring this year: A change of shift at the University means that I have some uninterrupted daytime hours in which to sit down, actually do some serious, productive work on a model project--and it shows! For the first time in decades, I can actually have two or three projects going simultaneously (currently that '37 Ford pickup is occupying one work bench, a second round test shot of the upcoming Moebius '56 Chrysler 300B on another). The pickup of course is one of those crazy I-can't-leave-well-enough-alone projects--the 300B is coming together, OOB, with hopefully a nice paintjob and some foil work.

So over time, things do change, other interests and interferances do come and go--but that is pretty much a microcosm of life itself, IMHO. So, heads up, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, and the probability of that being truly the other portal is far higher than its being a speeding locomotive coming at you!

Art

TL;DR: Life is short. Build when you can.

Dale

PS: For you other old dudes out there, that's "Too Long; Didn't Read "

[Ace-Garageguy]

I really don't see what the problem IS... It's a hobby... It's there when you DO have time, be it daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.

It sounds like more of a complaint, that you don't have or never seem to have "hobby-time". If you're passionate about something, like this hobby or any other for that matter, you can MAKE time or FIND the time.

I didn't intend to come off as a whiner. Maybe I am, but creative expression is important to me, and frankly it's what I live for...in my 'real' work and my hobbies. When i don't have the time for it, and can't possibly "make" the time for it because of conflicting 'adult' responsibilities, something's definitely missing in my 'quality of life'.

Thanks for everyone's input. I appreciate you all taking the time to answer.

Edited July 28, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[CJ1971]

I didn't intend to come off as a whiner. Maybe I am, but creative expression is important to me, and frankly it's what I live for...in my 'real' work and my hobbies. When i don't have the time for it, and can't possibly "make" the time for it because of conflicting 'adult' responsibilities, something's definitely missing in my 'quality of life'.

Thanks for everyone's input. I appreciate you all taking the time to answer.

As you've just stated, creative expression, IS important to you... Well when you HAVE time, express it, when you don't, you don't. That's all.

We all go through slumps, we all go through periods of time where "life" gets in the way but somehow & sometime during that "life-cycle" our hobbies remain a part of it, when we want to use our creative expressions.... ;-)

[PappyD340]

It seems there are a lot of us guys who have the same kind of time restraints, I basicly get time in when I can an hour here 30 minutes there, but I have gotten up early in the mornings myself and got some bench time in. Since my youngest son separated from his wife he moved back in with me and mom and he has two girls 3 & 4 and when they are around you don't get much done, but I get to see my grand babies quite a bit, so usually when they are here on his weekend that's when I get up early and get some work in, but it's all good!!!