Efficient use of time

[Gordon]

I am just finishing up my build of a Snow engine. It has a centrifugal coolant pump. I was having trouble building the impeller so I thought that perhaps I should try it on the 3D printer.

I had not done much with the printer for several months so I had to reeducate myself. First I had to relearn !23D Cad. I have worked with cad but it is 2D and not a 3D program. It took me most of the day to make a drawing I could have made in 30 minutes with my usual cad program. Then I had to generate the g-code so it was off to relearn that program. After that I ended up remaking the piece three times to tweak it so it was the way I wanted it. It only took about 20 minutes to actually print the piece.

I ended up spending about 10-12 hours doing something an experienced operator could have done in less than an hour. That is part of the price of getting old and not remembering how I did it last time.

My biggest observation on 123D is that if there was a good way to enter temporary reference points it would have been much easier.

Glad this is a hobby and not a way to make money.

Gordon

 

[ShopShoe]

Yep,

That's why this is a hobby and supposed to be fun. Enjoy the trip, not the fantasy of a perfect arrival ahead of schedule.

I have had many days like that, but time spent in my own shop world is worth more than the "simple" looking object that others can see.

Thank you for sharing,

--ShopShoe

 

[Gordon]

Actually it is great to be in a position where the amount of time is immaterial. After 30+ years of owning and operating a business it is a relief to just cool it and take a coffee break etc whenever you feel like it. Learning new things is interesting and back in the make a profit days spending too much time on just a minor project was just not possible.

 

[MRA]

I see where you're coming from.

At home I've consumed huge amounts of time over the years making things slowly which I could have bought. But at the end of that logic, I'd go for a highly paid job sat in front of a computer for 11 hours a day, buy everything I need, and watch telly for an hour between supper and bed

I'm lucky in that a lot of my messing has taught me ways to make something good, or good enough, in reasonable time - and that's very useful in the quiet little job I have now. But I'm glad it's not my own business, and I don't have to invoice!

 

[Gordon]

Actually it is interesting in what we will do to build or repair our own stuff. When I was operating my metal fabricating shop I frequently had folks try to get me to repair something like weld a mower deck. It frequently would involve a couple of hours labor at a shop rate of $50/hr and they could buy a new one for $100 so if I actually charged the shop rate it was not practical. On the other hand I frequently would do a similar repair on my own equipment because it was done off the clock and was relaxing to do something without a deadline or cost restraint.

 

[Blogwitch]

As I have got older, time has become more precious.

Like most people, I would spend hours and days making just one piece part, with no thought of how much the item had cost me to make in hours at the going rate I used to charge for someone else's job.

Now, I look at what I want to produce, and if it can be bought, I will work out the man hours involved to make it, and make my decision and work it out whether to purchase or not.

A good example is a part to make an engine that I have ordered castings for, I am being offered a fairly difficult piece part (lots of different curvy machining operations) for £5, laser cut, just needs refinishing. This item would most probably take me a full day to make exactly to drawings.

A no brainer in fact.

John

 

[goldstar31]

I retired 33 years ago. Biggest mistake that I ever made. I should have retired years earlier.:hDe:

Cheers

N

 

[Gordon]

I retired 33 years ago. Biggest mistake that I ever made. I should have retired years earlier.:hDe:

Cheers

N

That is true for most of us but my family and I got into the habit of eating, living in a house, wearing clothes and many other things which requires money.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I officially retired 6 years ago. Two years prior to that, I was getting close to leaving my lifetime passion of building hotrods (1930's vintage bodies with big modern V8 engines in them) due to my arthritis. I could no longer get up and down off the floor the 10,000 times that is required when you build a hotrod from the ground up. I have been a mechanical design engineer for over half a century now, but other than 6 months in my early apprenticeship. I had almost no experience running lathes and mills. I thought it might be a good idea to buy a lathe and mill, because they don't require that you get up and down off the floor to run them. I thought to myself "That might fill up some of the empty hours I see coming in my future". At first I tried to leave design engineering behind completely, but there are an awfull lot of hours to fill up in a week if you don't get up and go to work every day.-So--I started taking on 20 to 25 hours of design each week for some of my old customers. I built my first Elmer Verburg "wobbler" and I was fascinated. Now 6 years after my official retirement I am still trying to find a happy balance between my hobby work and work that actually pays me something. It is a difficult balance to maintain.