The Breakroom > The Water Cooler

Please yourself

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John-Som:

I have just spent two days making a base plate for my next project, a beam engine.
The base plate or chassis is a fairly complicated piece with cut out rectangles,
curved areas, many holes with quite a few requiring counter boring. First a small error crept in, then another.

I was able to hide these to some degree but I knew it wasn't right and I could see that
bodging it up to make do would eat away at me and hang like a cloud during the rest of the build.

In our hobby we are our own quality control engineers and if we chose we could get away with all manner of inaccuracies. But where do we draw the line ?  I decided, during a restless night, that I just wasn't happy with my work and the only option was to resign the part to the scrap bin and start afresh.

We must all be victims of self criticism and I am curious to know how others handle situations like this. Anyway I have given myself the day off today and shall start afresh tomorrow. No way am I going to tackle a restart today – not on Friday the 13th !

JohnS

Bernd:
Same here JohnS. Trouble is I keep winding up with smaller and smaller parts in the recycle bin. I'm trying Bogs method of recycling the parts into other projects. If I keep that up I'm going to wind up making very small tools or machine parts that will take magnifying glasses to see. :lol:

Ah, then the mistakes won't be so big and you won't seem them.

But I'll still know they are there. :doh:  :bang:

Bernd

bogstandard:
Oh, dear me John, and you were getting on with it so well.

It is all part of the learning experience, and I usually learn something new each day I am in the shop.

But always remember my old saying.

If it looks right, feels right, and runs right, then it is right.

Plans are for guidance only, if the holes are in the right places, make what is left into whatever shape you want.


John

John-Som:
Despite my earlier resolution not to start it today I have got my Mk 2 version under way. To avoid washing off my marking out lines with WD40 I have taken the trouble to give the surface a coat of aerosol paint.  I feel better already.

Bernd - in contrast to you, the bits in my scrap box are actually getting bigger. There's a lesson there somewhere but I can't work out what it is !

John - this situation is comparable to Eric Morecambe's piano performance when he insisted he was playing all the right notes - but not necesarily in the right order. It's similar to me, I have made all the right holes but not necesarily in the right place - in fact four of them moved while I was having a coffee break.

Ah well, my paint should be dry so time for marking out.

JohnS

rleete:
I run into this all the time, with every project I do.  I'm my own worst critic.  It may look okay to others, but it eats at me if it isn't 100%. 

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