'Why Projects Fail ...'

Those who posted political comments know who that they were.

Any nonsense and this will be an unfinished thread.

Neil

I deleted the political bits or censored them.

One point, most government contracts are awarded on the basis of 'best value' or the 'most economically advantageous' tender. The scoring is usually transparent and tenders are given feedback on both the quality and cost elements (in varying levels of detail). Quality is typically weighted to be 2-3 times as important as cost, at least for local authority tenders.

Neil

Dunno - I think it gave a lot of people a lot of laughs.

Although the mice were furious, of course...

Clive yesterday suggested one should do say an hour a day on a shed project if possible, in order to progress it at at steady pace. Having given this some thought I find I am in general agreement with the suggestion, but, there has to be a but. This falls down typically right now in England when it's so blooming cold outside, frost and in some places snow lying all about. (No snow down here in Somerset at the moment, give it time, but cold and frosty all the same).

OK, you clever dicks who've wangled a shed within the house all centrally heated will have no problems, but we less favourable enabled folk with outside sheds find that the shed is blooming freezing, so an hour out there is an hour to be endured not enjoyed, as it usually takes more than an hour for the shed to heat up to a temperature safe for brass monkeys to inhabit.

Otherwise, the 'hour-a-day' suggestion has considerable merit, providing Senior Management approval is given for random odd hour disappearances from other domestic duties of course.

Chris

Edited By ChrisH on 06/02/2018 22:59:02

Perhaps we all should do a bit every time we go in the shed

None of my workshops are heated, I usually spend the mornings in the workshop till dinner,well most mornings, and a snooze after dinner and I try to get an hour or so in the early evening, course being retired helps, if its cold I wrap up, mind you it is suprising that sometimes I don't appear to achieve as much as I thought but nibble away at things works for me

Mick

I have failed tonight, and i have two words to explain why projects fail.

COMPOUNDED ERRORS

Let me explain I intended on knocking out a few brass bushes tonight. (Before anyone says it's for a mamod boiler and there's are also brass).

So I set myself off tonight at the lathe, So off I went to find my brass stock.

Out came a nice 3/8" brass round ready to begin. 4 jaw on the spindle, dial it in. (This is where I should have realised I was fighting a loosing battle). I took half an hour to get the 3/8" bar trued up in two places, so it ran concentric. Then set my tooling up and realised I didn't have a left hand cutting tool that was small enough to get into the recess I wanted to machine. So to the grinder with a blank, (slow process grinding HSS tools) so half hour later onto the wet stone to polish the tip. Then set about centering it in the toolpost. Cue another 30minutes. By this point I thought I was ready, then looked up tapping size for a 1/4" BSF thread. 5.3mm drill required...only have stepped drilled in 0.5mm so tried a 5mm one with the speed on full which should open the hole by at least 0.2mm????? Finally ready I set about it. After an hour and half setting up in a cold shed. Went for tea and to defrost. Then came back to it, and began. Cut a few of them by now then realised I'd forgot to tap the buggers. (Scrap bin), then they were tapped only to realise my hole wasn't deep enough for the tap. Start again on a new one (more scrap). Drill deeper, and try to be clever, by grinding down a tap so it's more of a second/bottom tap, and doesn't need as much depth. This didnt work and it just stripped the thread. (More scrap)

Finally got one to dimentions, drilled and tapped and parted off, tried it on a safety valve, didn't fit, the threads hadn't cut deep enough. (This was due to it binding). Add to that the fact the holes drlled
?Off center, likely due to my tailstock going out of alignment one peed off Jon.
So the grand work of all this playing around is a bush that's scrap! Also around 2" of 3/8" brass that has found its way to the scrap bin through no fault of its own. In hindsight there's a lot of things I would have done differently, only spent an hour outside making sure everything was been setup correctly so I could come to the lathe and make up half a dozen or more easily. The only positive is at least I know where I went wrong for next time.

Here's what it looks like, just ever so slightly mis aligned.

Edited By Jon Cameron on 07/02/2018 23:55:25

Edited By Jon Cameron on 07/02/2018 23:55:48

"Why Projects fail"....

Quorn T&CG kit anybody?

And I thought that I was only one who did this sort of thing.

Jon: your post has made me feel so much better. The number of times I seem to spend forever producing a pile of scrap and a piece that is barely usable, when so many people give the impression that everything always goes swimmingly, makes me think that I am not cut out for this hobby.

Your tale really reassures me.

James.

Jon ....you really know how to enjoy yourself

Dismantled pallet ( serious timber) my mains drill's left hand mode wouldn't work, try my 110volt drill,can't find the transformer, ok yankee screwdriver bloody hard work then lost the only bit that fitted, in desperation borrowed a battery drill from next door,job done, gonna have to convince the wife to treat me to a battery drill. The pallet brought my boxford shaper home so worth saving

Mick