How long does it take you to make stuff?

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

I spend quite a lot of time thinking about the sequence of machining operations, and then still go and make a right fiddlers elbow out of it.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

It takes a lot longer now that I've retired, I seem to spend ages thinking what might go wrong instead of just getting on and doing it like I did when I didn't have that much time. as others have said, when I just get stuck in it goes much more quickly.

Looking at this forum doesn't help!

[sean logieParticipant @seanlogie69385]

Posted by Carl Wilson 4 on 12/11/2017 00:22:45:
I spend quite a lot of time thinking about the sequence of machining operations, and then still go and make a right fiddlers elbow out of it.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one ,I'm terrible for overthinking things then I confuse myself

Sean

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

 

Made this item between 9am and 4pm on a Saturday including a lunch break. The first thing I did was to square up a scrap of aluminium alloy and drill clearance holes 75mm apart and 34mm along for the M6 thread when it was made to hold the part for all the machining operations except boring for a bearing in the final op. Initially the bearing hole was made M6 to clamp the workpiece to the support block. This was done holding with the M6 and M8 threads. I used bits of metric gauge plate for am 8mm spacer when the part was turned over.

Martin C

Ps The finished part can be seen in the UK Monowheel Team's Facebook photos 

Edited By Martin Connelly on 12/11/2017 08:42:27

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

How long does it take to make stuff? About four times as long as I originally estimate, it seems like.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

A 10 minute job will require an hour of searching for the stuff you need in my chaos pit (workshop).

Mike

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

Years, but I get there in the end…

The very best work I've seen is about infinite patience and the worst was rushed. So long as you are enjoying the process, how long it takes doesn't really matter?

Steve

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

Just remember the golden rule.

When someone asks you "When will it be finished" NEVER EVER give them a date or time.

I have found this works well in my design engineering job at work too. Its all very well and good somebody with half a brain drawing a progress line on a project plan, but it never works out that way in real life does it !!

So now when I get asked "when will the design be finished", the answer is it will be finished when the customer has paid for it.

Phil

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, tell them it will be ready on Wednesday, but don't tell them which Wednesday. Seriously it's not easy to say how long things take and very many people under estimate the time needed, even in my day job the time allocated for some jobs overrun by even a day or two. There are so many variables for very many jobs, even for what seem to be simple ones. In mass production the estimates become a bit easier though because everything is normally in place and various staff who will each have just to do one or two operations on each part, so changing setups is kept to a minimum. Jigs and fixtures will also help speed large and small production runs, but are hardly worth it for many one offs. There is also mistake and change of design time to be considered.

Regards Nick.

[lug lordParticipant @luglord]

I make bait pumps for fishing and to be honest they sometimes seem to take me ages to just make one .I keep saying i will speed the operation up by say threading all the bars in one go but i just seem to make one at a time .

[NJHParticipant @njh]

How long does it take for me to make something?

Well it does depend on the “something” – functional things around the house or “commissions” from my ever loving tend to be accomplished fairly promptly. Other things like “proper” ME projects take much much longer – after all a model is of little use when completed and I find the satisfaction is in the making – so I just poodle along and enjoy the journey.

Norman

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

…I spend quite a lot of time thinking about the sequence of machining operations, and then still go and make a right fiddlers elbow out of it

… It takes a lot longer now that I've retired, I seem to spend ages thinking what might go wrong instead of just getting on and doing it like I did when I didn't have that much time. as others have said, when I just get stuck in it goes much more quickly.

​Great minds think alike; glad that there's more than me that find this. What I do now is put all the 3 jaw / collet chuck machining in plastic bag / box, 4 jaw machining in another pile / bag / box, & milling bits left 'till last … seems to work fine … for now!

George.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

In my workshop and professional experience!

• Hofstadter's Law: Work always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
• Parkinson's Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
• Sod's Law: If something can go wrong, it will.
• Finagle's Law: If anything goes wrong it will do so at the worst possible time.

Dave

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Does it matter, my Dad used to say " When they made time, they made plenty of it "

Roy

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

I may commit to having something finished "in the summer" but am careful not to say which year….

Merry

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

But seriously, it depends very much on the context and also how pragmatic (vs perfectionist) you are being. For something with a lot of features and many critical steps, it is easy to grind to a crawl for fear of screwing something up – and that may be the right approach. It's also easy to spend ages "designing" something (analysis paralysis etc) and taking ages to get started. But if the job was actually fairly rudimentary or non-critical, I feel pretty cross with myself to have spent a disproportionate time on it. So I try to force myself to achieve "good enough" ie quick and dirty wherever it makes sense. Get some steel out, eye it up a few times, spit in the sawdust then mark / cut / weld / slap it up. No prizes but who cares – job done so you can get on with something more critical and rewarding.

There's a lot of strong opinions and preconceptions about CAD and CAM but I find that for a lot of critical work, trial and error (manual fitting rather than proper design) simply isn't the most effective approach. Measuring up, then modelling in CAD can avoid a lot of effort and frustration later. CAM in particular may seem a lengthy process for a one-off part but when you machine a complex part in under an hour, an hour or so of CAM work beforehand still often leaves you better off time-wise than if you'd attempted it manually, assuming it would have been possible in the first place. And if you screw it up, it is fairly simple to make another.

Murray

[Joseph Noci 1Participant @josephnoci1]

Well, it does seem that things take time…Sometime, a LOT of time –for some…

What I did in the last 320 days – seven eighths of a year, to be 'exact' –

Made a High Speed (30,000RPM ) sensitive drill press :

Made a Dynamic balancer using accelerometers to balance the motor Rotor, using the excellent Miklos Software:

Made a Large Droplet Spray coolant Applicator:

Purchased a Nice NEW EMCOMAT 14D lathe:

Purchased an Old ALBS 2S shaper:

And Refurbished it totally, remade the vertical slide dovetails that were smashed, and fitted a computerised control to it, automating the whole machining process.

Then refurbished totally my two EMCO FB2 Mills, and made swarf/Splash Guards for them – seen back-to-back here:

And then refurbished totaly my EMCO V10P lathe, Modified the cabinet to have cupboards and draws, and developed an Electronic Leadscrew to enable fully automatic thread cutting of any thread pitch.

The Lathe Pre- refurb:

Cabinet in process:

The V10P after refurb, with Electronic Leadscrew system fitted, and DRO on X and Z axes.

The cabinet cupboard and draw mods were so useful, that I did the same to the EMCOMAT 14D cabinet:

Then I resurrected an IDEAL Bandsaw Blade butt welder – works very nicely indeed!

Since the Electronic LeadScrew (ELS) , which also does electronic feed for surface machining, was so successful and a total stress-free threading process, I am in the throes of implementing the same system on the EMCOMAT 14D lathe. This will be complete in the next week or so…

I have also helped Paul White implement the same ELS on his 100 year old lathe – he did post this on the ME site a while ago – he is a Happy-Chappy!

And now I am helping him implement a similar system on his 'Jacobs gear Hobber' – eliminating all the interceding gear train driving the gear blank.

Oh, and also chased a dozen or so Lions around the desert, helped dart and collar them with satellite tracking collars, flew a few Unmanned Aircraft missions for the Ministry here, over the National Parks in aid of the anti-poaching Brigade, etc…

Next project – maybe not done before end of 2017 – is to make a 'head' specifically to do drill bit sharpening on my Tool and Cutter grinder, bits from 0.5mm up to 6mm max – along the lines of the METEOR drill grinders…

And maybe post a users impression of the EMCOMAT 14D lathe – so far a SPLENDID lathe, perfect out the box…

Procrastination is for Sissies…

And I am 'Retired'…

Joe

[Bill MullParticipant @billmull]

Joe,
I d love to know more about that Large Droplet Spray coolant Applicator you made.
I have an application for something similar at the moment.

Liam

[Joseph Noci 1Participant @josephnoci1]

Hello Liam,

I did a number of post with more detail – maybe take a look at those and then if you have more questions, shout.

In essence – compressed air is fed to two pressure regulators – one output goes at higher pressure to the air pipe that delivers air to the cutting tool edge/workpiece. The other regulator pressurises a tank that has the coolant within. That coolant exits the tank bottom and passes via a flow regulator valve ( a conical needle and seat valve, from an old handheld gas torch), into a 4mm OD/ 2.5mm ID felxible tube, coaxially located in the the above air tube. The latter ends in a bras nozzle at the tip of the air tub outlet – a fancy nozzle that allows air to flow past the nozzle tip. There the air picks up the slow flow of coolant and deposits it on the workpiece. The fluid nozzle tip position in relation to the air outlet tip is the key..Then there is a solenoid that cuts of the air supply when the thing is turned of, and vents the pressurised tank to atmosphere, stopping both air and coolant flow right away.

I am not sure how to point you to the various posts – here are some links that may help, else if you use the search feature halfway down the HOME PAGE and search for fogless , coolant, joseph noci 1, or such like, and then dig through the gunk that appears, you will also find the posts..

**LINK**

**LINK**

**LINK**

Joe

[James AParticipant @jamesalford67616]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 12/11/2017 15:04:50:

In my workshop and professional experience!

• Hofstadter's Law: Work always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.
• Parkinson's Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
• Sod's Law: If something can go wrong, it will.
• Finagle's Law: If anything goes wrong it will do so at the worst possible time.

Dave

 

Bored at college one day, I sat and produced a mathematical formula to calculate the odds of Sod's Law applying in any given situation. Needless to say, I realised later that I had made a mistake in the formula and had to rewrite it.

James.

Edited By James Alford on 13/11/2017 07:14:40

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