Shop Journal or record book you have one keep one????

Rob Keeble

Member
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Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Larry just raised a good point about writing things down. I used to do this way back when i was in R&D and learning back then a bunch of us were trained to keep a journal with our notes and experiences of all sorts of little tid bits of info.

Dont know why but until his post i never thought of doing that again but with the memory going i can see its got huge potential.


So whats the thoughts here, do you keep a journal in your shop for things like setups or the like ?

Any ideas and tips that can be thrown in here to stimulate the grey matter in this direction??

Only thing i can think of at present that concerns me is the state of my handwritting lately now that we use computers for everything. I even get the missus to write checks for me because of my scrawl and i aint a doctor either.:rofl::rofl:
 
I have three of them. One is for labor and materail cost, one for setups and one for finishes. It really does help keep track of things. I have done this since i first started woodworking.
 
I need to start one! I just noticed some water spots on a piece and can't for the life of me remember what kind of finish I used. Good thread!:thumb:
 
I've got stacks of pics, printouts, sketches, etc of things I want to make...but nothing other than pictures of things I have made...:doh:
 
I keep diligent track of finish formulas. Beyond that I just keep SU drawings, picture folders on the PC and the posts here.
 
The closest I keep to a journal is what I call my catalog... I number each piece I make... first with a code to indicate it's category then with a sequential number for the piece... last piece was 10-1245 .. 10 meaning a bowl and 1245 is the 1245th piece I've turned since starting the log... the log/catalog is a spreadsheet that has the piece number, month/year turned, a brief description (category name, sizes etc...), materials used (name of wood or acrylic etc..), finish materials, components costs, blank costs, a column for mark up percentage or shop costs, a formula column that sets a base price, then a column for estimated final selling pricing... there's also columns for the date of sale and revenue but those columns don't show up on my written log... they are kept on the computer.

I started making notes on some of my turnings, how and problems, etc.... but it was too much trouble to keep up so only lasted a couple of months.
 
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