SignalFailure said:
It never ceases to amaze me what some of you guys can build in just a few hours let alone a couple of weeks... it took me all afternoon today just to make one flanged plate for my new boiler.
I don't know about the rest of the "guys" but I'm slow... way slow.
I learned a long time ago that working fast never speeds up a project. It's a great way to create beautifully sculpted pieces of scrap and maybe injure yourself in the process but it surely doesn't produce engines quickly.
Remember that we have two types of creatures on this board. The professional machinists who do what we do as a hobby have trained all their life to produce quality parts quickly. That's fine for them but for us 'true' hobbyists (and I include myself here) it's a matter of learning technique and skill while, at the same time, trying to produce a usable part.
So much of this hobby is a matter of personal psychology. An important part of that psychology is maintaining a sense of accomplishment over a long period of time while producing, from the professional's viewpoint, very little.
Whenever I go out into the shop I try to set myself a small task that I know that I can accomplish in that session while working slowly, methodically and carefully. Sometimes that task can be ridiculously small - like jigging up a part so that I make some cut or drill some hole tomorrow and get it right because the part is held at the right attitude and is held securely enough that I don't need to worry about slippage, broken tools or shrapnel flung around the shop.
When done, I admire what (little) I've done and congratulate myself on having completed another task I set myself and having done so in the time alloted. I do this mental back-patting while I clean up and put tools away - thus avoiding the temptation to "do just a little more on the..." - an invitation to screwing something up.
This works for me. It won't work for everybody. That's where the "personal" psychology comes in. You'll have to figure out for yourself how to trick yourself to maintain that sense of accomplishment that will keep you working, albeit slowly, towards your final product.
