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Tips/Techniques What is your favourite part of a project?

Tips/Techniques

What is your favourite part of a project?

  • 0-20% Design phase, and major problem solving

    Votes: 13 68.4%

  • 20-70% Component making and mild assembly

    Votes: 7 36.8%

  • 70-90% Assembly and making it functional

    Votes: 10 52.6%

  • 90-100% final finish, minor kinks, and cosmetics

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • Total voters
    19
D

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
I've come to realize over the years.....I'm a project starter. It's always my favourite part. That first 0-50% of a project where big decisions are being made, and problems are solved is brain food for me. Then it's the progress being made, making the big ticket items that keeps me going through the middle, but when it comes to the last push to get it done, that's where the drive and energy fall off, and it becomes a struggle to allocate my free time towards it when there are so many more exciting things vying for my time and attention. I can usually drive myself through the 70-90% phase where you get it working and functional while working out the kinks, but that last 10% when the painting and finishing details.....Man, that's the hardest, and so often gets ignored on pretty much everything I build at home. This is the reason why I tend to have so many projects on the go, and why I bounce between them, seemingly at random from the outside, until I eventually nudge them over the finish line.

I got thinking about this this afternoon, as I've recently finished a bunch of projects and am cleaning my slate so to speak. That leaves room to get the ball rolling on a few more, and I really notice how much more excited I was today starting a new one, vs the past couple weeks finishing the old ones. I always like to have a mix of stuff on my plate so whatever mood I'm in when I get free time I can find something to do that suits it, but it doesn't always work out that way. Brain fried and just need some mindless work? Brain firing on all cylinders and it's time to do some major thinking? Brain functioning, but body wore out? Tired of moving shit around and just want to get stuff done :D ?
 
I love this poll.
On my lathe rebuild I spent quite literally hours thinking about how I could/should go about building the counter shaft bracket.
From the outside looking in it probably looked straightforward but I never had to build an assembly that had to be functional, never had to bore holes that had to align axially or consider the forces involved and how to best deal with them.
For me the thinking part is where I hope I catch most of the ‘gotchas’
 
For my electronic projects the least favourite part is switching it on the first time. The fear that it won't work. After that it's finishing it. That rarely happens. Since I like making kits or projects from directions (like following the Gingery Lathe book pretty well to the letter) or my own from scratch I think the component making and assembly is the most fun part.
 
I love problem solving and learning new things. My brain is happiest when it is synthesizing or creating new knowledge. Once I know how to do something, I often lose interest in doing it.

If finishing a project requires painting, it will never get done.
 
I think I enjoy the entire process. I try to plan the whole thing down to the final finish before I even start. I don't want to get half finished and find out I can't finish it properly because I did something wrong at the beginning. Trouble is this often makes my projects a marathon that I am unable to finish in a timely fashion. Also on many projects its impossible to see all the steps to the finish line from the start. I need to experiment with those because I don't know how it will work until I try it out. With these I either take forever to get started or they become never ending evolutions.
 
You know the whole motivation behind starting this poll was to try and suss out the guys that like painting things, so I can send my projects to them right?....So far y'all are letting me down :D (just kidding)

I knew I was in familiar company though......

I'm surprised no finishers have voted yet though. I know there are some of you out there capable of it, but they're probably out in the garage meticulously sanding, and cleaning.......
 
The best part of the project - assembling the myriad of parts that make up a fly reel, giving it a spin, checking the runout / stackup then sending the 6061 parts off to the anodizer.

My least favourite part is buffing and polishing the parts to get them ready for anodizing. Buffing is a messy job and cleaning the parts after buffing is just plain annoying.

The larger reel on the left still needs to be torn down and polished - note the difference of the reflection of the knobs between the polished reel on the right and the unpolished one which is as machined. A few hours at the buffer and the large one will be ready to go.
POLISH 01.jpg
 
eotrfish said:
The best part of the project - assembling the myriad of parts that make up a fly reel, giving it a spin, checking the runout / stackup then sending the 6061 parts off to the anodizer.

My least favourite part is buffing and polishing the parts to get them ready for anodizing. Buffing is a messy job and cleaning the parts after buffing is just plain annoying.

The larger reel on the left still needs to be torn down and polished - note the difference of the reflection of the knobs between the polished reel on the right and the unpolished one which is as machined. A few hours at the buffer and the large one will be ready to go.
View attachment 41736
Click to expand...
Lovely work. I would have though there would be a bit more of a motivating factor putting the time and energy into finishing something beautiful like that that was worthy of it, more than the utilitarian stuff that I generally make. Interesting....
 
I forgot another category, and that's parts and component sourcing. On bigger projects that can be quite an adventure sometimes. Solved easily with money, but not all of us have endless bank accounts, so then you have to scour the classifieds, and auctions. Do some digging for the deals, or maybe drywall a few basements along the way.

I have a few projects that are quite a few years in the making because I just buy components and material when I find them for cheap. That's a pretty enjoyable part of the process for me. It's not always about the end goal, it's the journey and the process, and eventually being able to step back and say "I made that. I designed and built that with my two hands".
 
I've always had trouble getting the last 5% done. I'm trying something new, which is to visualize the end, paint, latches, covers etc. when I'm planning and not just the get it working part. I usually lose interest once I get to the point that I visualized when I was lying awake at 3:30am thinking about it.
 
Hmmmm. Frustrating casting project. That reminds me that a casting project isn't just one project but two. First make the patterns. Then cast and machine. Here's an example of two sets of castings.

The one on the right is 2 years old (or more) and I haven't cast it yet. Intermediate project was a larger crucible and a holder to move it around. And the machining...

The one on the left is coming on 1 year old. And after casting there's the machining and then the software for the mechanism to properly operate the draw bar on the mill.

1702922887159.webp


Fear of failure is definitely a large part in finishing a project for me.
 
Yikes. I just looked up the date on the trial sand cast on the harmonic drive holder to see how it would pull in the sand and what sort of gating would work. If I wait until February next year it will be 4 years since I did this test.
1702923916891.webp


Of course in between there have been other projects. A face plate with T Slots for the harmonic drive. That pattern is also complete but not cast as well in order to make the T-Slots I used the 3D printer to make a core box for them. Molasses impregnated sand baked in the oven so they don't fall part with handling. I think the slow down here was I confused the taper on the core box and they didn't turn out quite right. That issue then put this project into the bin with the other 42 incomplete ones.
1702924103429.webp


In January the above photo will be 2 years old.
 
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