OT- Your significant others involvement in your shop

dkmc · Jan 26, 2011

Realize this may be a can-o- worms, but I'm just curious about others "stories" or "situations" ....whatever you'd call it.

I'm betting there is a range of degrees of frustrations, as well as (possibly) happiness...even?

Some may wish she (or he??) would at least set foot in the shop.......others might wish they would never come near the place...weather its the basement, garage, outbuilding, or business job shop.

Do the get involved?

Physically (help with work, or paperwork/book keeping, etc)

Mentally (someone to talk to, complain to, or do you just get flack from them)

Overall Positive or negative?

Ever met because of the hobby/ business or ever
gotten divorced from same?

What has this taught you?
What is your opinion on this subject?

What say ye ?

Limy Sami · Jan 26, 2011

Tried it once - that was enough, never again.

The business became the cause of friction and ultimately the cause of the breakup - which when it came cost me plenty$$$ as she knew too much.

You have been warned.

moonlight machine · Jan 26, 2011

My wifes total involvement is to say "don't talk about the shop" and "when are you going to get more money"

Toolchaser · Jan 26, 2011

Mine does 75% of the welding, maybe 30% of the deburring

i_r_machinist · Jan 26, 2011

My wife's only interest in my shop is to gain a foothold so she can packrat her garage sale crap in it.
have fun
i_r_

adama · Jan 26, 2011

I can normally get bits counted, if im lucky some times de-burred too :-) Of tern can get her to sweep up too and clean the odd machine. Thats about it though, but it does save a fair bit of time some days.

Well till you can't find something that has been put away latter any rate. Even that is getting better with practice (training :-) though.

dsergison · Jan 26, 2011

mine likes to have stuff fixed, likes to have running motorcycles (hers + mine), likes using fixed blenders, likes the fixed door latches, etc... likes the fixed riding mower transmission, paintball guns, etc.... likes living above our means because I can make things work.

I have a Tree325 cnc mill. it has no tool changer. I have jobs often lined up for it if I have time to run them. I thought (mistakenly) that she could be trained to at least change the tools and parts and that she might like to make us at least $50/hr doing it. I was wrong. Maybe my boy wil grow up more reasonable and can use the shop to put himeslf through college?

When she was a girl her father made her scrape the grease off the bottom of his nasty old semi's axles he was working on, had her drive nasty broken old equipment before she could reach the pedals, breath solvent, sort greasy rusty bolts, etc... she really does not like being in a "shop" at all. she's alergic to dirt (litterally). also alergic to mechanical work (apparently). great mother, good biology teacher. but not a good shop helper. not confident. physically weak (unless fighting me) -100lbs soaking wet. does not use man sized hand or power tools effectively. just about as motivated to help in shop as I am to sort laundry. prefers to draw, paint, or write.

married 11 years. home business/hobby basement shop. son of 5 years

Ries · Jan 26, 2011

My wife doesnt work in the shop- she has her own building- in fact, two of them.
But she does provide work for the shop, which, in turn, buys equipment, pays the rent, and pays employees, including me.

She does large scale sculpture, and when she gets a job, I usually build it in the shop.
She has paid for a good half of my shop tools, after I convinced her we needed em, of course.

Currently I am building these two light fixtures for her- they are her design, she got the job, deals with all the administration, budgets, meetings, and all I do is make em.

About ten feet tall, each, aluminum and stainless steel, with fiber optic ropes.

whamac · Jan 26, 2011

My wife pays the bills; I make the money, she spends it.
She also does a fair amount of "goon" work (don't tell her I said that) in the shop, when I have it.

She'll also come out to clean the litter box and brush the cats, from time to time.

Alloy Mcgraw · Jan 26, 2011

Ries said:
My wife doesnt work in the shop- she has her own building- in fact, two of them.
But she does provide work for the shop, which, in turn, buys equipment, pays the rent, and pays employees, including me.

She does large scale sculpture, and when she gets a job, I usually build it in the shop.
She has paid for a good half of my shop tools, after I convinced her we needed em, of course.

Currently I am building these two light fixtures for her- they are her design, she got the job, deals with all the administration, budgets, meetings, and all I do is make em.

About ten feet tall, each, aluminum and stainless steel, with fiber optic ropes.

Impressive...Both her design, and your execution.

e-fishin-c · Jan 26, 2011

First 5 or so years were a little tough, but after a meeting of the minds I have final say on jobs, prices, quotes, material and machine purchases and finished product/services......she has final say on bookeeping, paying bills, customer charge accts, organizing office duties and materials.....All major decisions are talked over but we know ahead of time which one of us has the final say on whatever......(depending on whether it's a shop or office issue)

I like to say she's the white collar worker and I'm the blue collar worker.....

Next summer will make 33 yrs in business and it does work when you know where the line in the sand is...... :cheers:

Rossco · Jan 26, 2011

Learned the hard way when I was in the service, and a messy divorce later...Don't mix your P's.

Strive to Keep your personal and professional life separate.

Wife now, plays financial advisor during the day and alleviator of frustrations at night

stoneaxe · Jan 26, 2011

50-50- I do production, maintainance in the shop, some sales, some design, she does the books, billing, website, some design, some sales.

Plus we built a house together, as in poured the concrete, framed it, sided, finish work, etc.

My wife is an amazing woman.

dkmc · Jan 26, 2011

Just for kicks....
Please state weather your shop is hobby-home, business-home based, or business located at a non-home location.

Warped thoughts:
I've got this sick curiosity about how 'looks' might compare to involvement but I might get shot at for even asking......

IOW the ones afraid of "breaking a nail" or heel may be more reluctant to
be physically involved....and consequently less interested.

Also would be interesting to hear the scale of the business IF it is a business.

:skep:

PS I find the comments very interesting as well as informative and to a degree, humorous....depending.....

MwTech Inc · Jan 26, 2011

Full commercial business

Involvement of wife..... ZERO..... and I plan to keep it that way

surplusjohn · Jan 26, 2011

my first wife was difficult [probably still is but that is someone else's problem ]. Our one business venture together turned into something that was all about her........ My idea of a business is a way to make a living, her idea was to show the world how wonderful she is. That personal business mix is really tough, more negatives than positives that I can see.

SND · Jan 26, 2011

Well, I'm not married, and current GF doesn't live here with me, but she does have interest in shop related stuff, some history of it and doesn't mind me talking about it, and also asks good questions. I machined a few simple parts while she watched and as I was explaining each step. Pretty sure she'd be happy to participate if it comes to it.

I don't think their looks has much to do with their possible interest to participate and get a bit dirty doing physical work. They either like it or they don't, I learned that quite well on a few occasions. One friend who would easily rate as a model(and doesn't need make up to do it) had no problem spending a full day helping cut trees down and logging all the wood in over a foot of snow, never 1 complaint. I do think it makes a difference if they were raised on farms or at least outside the city and got to play outside a little more when they were kids, but how they look isn't really part of it from what I've seen, so long as they're dressed for the occasion. I can also think of a few pretty cute women millwrights and welders.

e-fishin-c · Jan 26, 2011

Business located at a non-home location, makes it easier to lock up place at night and not take it home.....

Metal Head · Jan 26, 2011

My wife is becoming a proficient riggers assistant helping me move machines into my home shop. She's very supportive and when we were looking at buying a house sacrificed the home with a new modern kitchen so we could get the one with the 1000sqft. shop. She's an elementary teacher by day and I run someone else's shop to pay the bills so that relieves the business/financial tension.

Peter. · Jan 26, 2011

Every couple of hours the door opens a few inches, a hand appears holding a mug of tea, sets it down on the shelf by the door, then the hand disappears. That's about it and it suits me fine

OT- Your significant others involvement in your shop

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