Why-O-Why?

I had to take a break and lament a bit. I know you guys have done this and if anybody knows why i wish they'd speakup here.
I just spent a couple hours cutting out a pattern for a complicated sheetmetal panel. I had to make a hammerform for it out of steel so i could shape it. I had alignment marks for the form and work piece is sandwiched between the hammerform, i temp clamped and was very carful about the alignment when i transferred the clamped assembly into 'mongo' my extra-large vise. I double checked the alignment and all looked ready for bending. I chose a couple very nice ballpeens - one quite large - and gave the faces a little touchup to minimize marring. I then spent the next halfhour or so hammerforming a 1/2" lip around a 6" radius and extending straight across about 10" flat and then going upward at about a 30deg angle for another 3". It is an exposed piece and difficult to form. I took it out of the hammerform and then spent another 1/2hr metalworking and finishing it. I felt that while there were problems with how it pulled metal when i formed it it has potential and might finish out ok. I gave it a trial fit.
I bent the thing backwards! It is totally opposite of what i need!
I know i am not the only one to do dumb stuff like this, how about sharing some of your goofs?

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Originally Posted by ojh

I had to take a break and lament a bit. I know you guys have done this and if anybody knows why i wish they'd speakup here.
I just spent a couple hours cutting out a pattern for a complicated sheetmetal panel. I had to make a hammerform for it out of steel so i could shape it. I had alignment marks for the form and work piece is sandwiched between the hammerform, i temp clamped and was very carful about the alignment when i transferred the clamped assembly into 'mongo' my extra-large vise. I double checked the alignment and all looked ready for bending. I chose a couple very nice ballpeens - one quite large - and gave the faces a little touchup to minimize marring. I then spent the next halfhour or so hammerforming a 1/2" lip around a 6" radius and extending straight across about 10" flat and then going upward at about a 30deg angle for another 3". It is an exposed piece and difficult to form. I took it out of the hammerform and then spent another 1/2hr metalworking and finishing it. I felt that while there were problems with how it pulled metal when i formed it it has potential and might finish out ok. I gave it a trial fit.
I bent the thing backwards! It is totally opposite of what i need!
I know i am not the only one to do dumb stuff like this, how about sharing some of your goofs?

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Don,t feel bad I just call it practicing,I have two of everything!! Pete

Oh yeah, been there done that....and after I checked it a few times to make sure I was bending things the right way!!!!!

Dave you have to know your not the only one to do this..:eek: I know I have and between you and me the older I get it seems to try and happen more.:LOL::LOL::LOL: Your mind wonders off to a better place and OOOPs!!!!

I was just cutting some hardwood flooring over the week end to fit in a complicated placement area---well----I cut the wrong end!!!!!!!!!!!!! but it was exactly the correct length/width---3 times !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been there done that too. Mine is usually custom making Z bars for clutchsetups and bending the levers to clear.......Maybe it something to do with working under the car and looking up :LOL:

Well, now you have a new panel for the other side to match the new one you're about to make for this side.

One I remember is cutting a piece of drop ceiling acoustic tile to fit a corner on the room perimeter. Had to be tapered a bit, then an odd angle a the end. Got it all cut perfectly, but upside down so that the "good" side was up, and the ugly side was in the room. The only good thing was that I had a really good pattern for the next cut....

Just this past weekend, I decided to move my seats in the coupe just a bit to the right for "balance" between the two. So I removed them and plotted / marked out the layout to the right just as I needed. You guessed it! With the seats upside down and now I'm standing in front of them... I moved them to the LEFT! :CRY::CRY::eek:

Another one, I play with old engines and my 2 horse Fairbanks Morse needed rings. When the parts came in I pulled the piston for replacing the rings.

My uncle had come over and we were chatting and I was working on the motor and all seemed well! I ran out of time that evening so I didn't get to test run the engine.

During the next day I had this nagging feeling but I couldn't explain why! But as I headed to the shop to finish the repairs to the Fairbanks it hit me like a lightnin' bolt! I hadn't verified ring end gap..:mad: Since we were talking I broke concentration and missed a step..:eek:

I removed the piston again and was amazed to discover I had broken one small piece of the oil control ring during the install!

So I guess it was lucky for me in the end! I had to re-order a oil control ring and be very cautious during "re" re-assembly but it all turned out well in the end!:3dSMILE:

Measure once, cut twice?? :eek::eek::whacked:;):3dSMILE:

I would guess I have put in way over a hundred kitchens. Everytime I cut Crown Molding the first one is wrong so I make the first one longer so I can cut it off and start again. YES EVERY TIME :eek::eek::CRY:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ojh

I had to take a break and lament a bit. I know you guys have done this and if anybody knows why i wish they'd speakup here.
I just spent a couple hours cutting out a pattern for a complicated sheetmetal panel. I had to make a hammerform for it out of steel so i could shape it. I had alignment marks for the form and work piece is sandwiched between the hammerform, i temp clamped and was very carful about the alignment when i transferred the clamped assembly into 'mongo' my extra-large vise. I double checked the alignment and all looked ready for bending. I chose a couple very nice ballpeens - one quite large - and gave the faces a little touchup to minimize marring. I then spent the next halfhour or so hammerforming a 1/2" lip around a 6" radius and extending straight across about 10" flat and then going upward at about a 30deg angle for another 3". It is an exposed piece and difficult to form. I took it out of the hammerform and then spent another 1/2hr metalworking and finishing it. I felt that while there were problems with how it pulled metal when i formed it it has potential and might finish out ok. I gave it a trial fit.
I bent the thing backwards! It is totally opposite of what i need!
I know i am not the only one to do dumb stuff like this, how about sharing some of your goofs?

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It's a reverse mold, of better yet - our friends in England, New Zealand or Australia can use it 'cause they drive on the opposite side of the road??

Wish I had a buck for every time I've done that.

Anyone ever install crown molding??

Regards All,
Glenn

Guess I'm not the only one. I was cutting new Oak wood for a new bed in my 37 and made sure I took all measurments 3 times. Cut them all to fit and when I put them in they fell right on the ground. Never took into consideration the 1" lip they were going to rest on.

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Originally Posted by chevy 37

Guess I'm not the only one. I was cutting new Oak wood for a new bed in my 37 and made sure I took all measurments 3 times. Cut them all to fit and when I put them in they fell right on the ground. Never took into consideration the 1" lip they were going to rest on.

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Brutal! Just Brutal.

Crown Moulding------I had help from a left handed friend-------by the time we were done I wanted to buy 3 more saws so I could just leave each of them set for one angle each----------

Then I ran across a friend who rented a shop that had been occupied by a casket builder---He had 7 different saws----------

I always cut things off three times and it's still to short :-) so I don't cut wood anymore hard to weld it back. wife say's call somebody when it comes to woodwork I'm not allowed anymore.

I am also guilty of making a pattern and forgetting what side goes out. I like the term I read above practice, that fits.

Had a door in the house that had sagged a bit and scuffed the carpet when it was opened.
So I drove the hinge pins out, took it outside and planed a bit off the bottom.
Put it back in...and it still scuffed.
Drove the pins out again, took it ouside again, and planed some more off.
And it still scuffed.
So I went through it all again.
And it still scuffed!

Stood back, getting a 'little' bit irritated by now...looked hard at the damned thing...oops!

I'd been planing the top.

It was about here that She Who Must Be Obeyed passed some comment about my Irish ancestry.

.

Have done that with bending brake lines. You know where you are bending and you know which way to bend. So you put the line in the bender and do it. Only to find out it's the wrong way............it's part of building a car.

I made a custom metal base that followed the contours of the floor boards in my truck to mount my shifter to. I traced out the patterns on a piece of cardboard. Cut those out for fit, everything looked exact. Cut the metal, tried those for fit worked well. Got all the pieces assembled with angle magnets, tack welded in place went to test fit, and found I welded the left side to the right form, etc...Cut it apart and started again! Yep I've been there! Funniest thing, a year now later, I've decided to go with a completely different shifter that mounts to the tranny, and doesn't require a base!

uʍop ǝpısdn ɹo spɹɐʍʞɔɐq ƃuıɥʇʎuɐ ʇǝƃ ʎlǝɹɐɹ ı

All this reminds me of the time my wife and I selected some beautiful white marble-look vinyl floor for our master bath.

I decided I was smart enough to cut it to fit.

I wasn't.

Then there was the time I drained the radiator in my truck and poured in a gallon of nice fresh new anti freeze ....... without closing the drain tap.

Jim

Huh!?!?? That's just plain scary, Pro, I read that without even a twitch.

Thinkin' on all of the different stuff we all cut and fit: wood, metal, plastic, tile, concrete, I've worked in all of them, and think I have done something backwards, or too short too many times to remember. I built the shifter mount for my '59 Chevy twice before I got it right; I truly do not like trimming out a room because I always make a boneheaded mistake, sometimes more than once - I believe crown molding has a vendetta against me; fitting tile along a wall or an edge is a real brain killer to me. Just the nature of the things we do, methinks.

Just so that you guys know, i did prevail. The panel that ties the seat bottom and driveshaft tunnel is the bugger that started the whole thread!

Look at it this way, you're one panel ahead on the next one you build just like it!!!!!!!!!:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::LOL::LOL::LOL:

BTW, I have one extra wheel tub for the left side of a '57 Chevy!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Look at it this way, you're one panel ahead on the next one you build just like it!!!!!!!!!:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::LOL::LOL::LOL:

BTW, I have one extra wheel tub for the left side of a '57 Chevy!!!!!

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Front or rear? HarHarHar!

rear---just please don't ask how I ended up with an extra left!!!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:

I thought I was the only one that cut molding wrong. I finally made a set of templates that I can use - but unfortunately, had misplaced them the last time I needed to cut some pieces - and of course, cut them wrong.

And that $50 an 8 foot length of extruded aluminum I used in my freshly tiled bathroom .............cut the wrong angle direction, but thankfully the piece was a bit long for the counter so all is well, just barely - phew - thank goodness for a bit bigger grout line on the ends

My usual worst is vertical ranch or colonial door and window molding - just counted those that have a 2-1/2" filler piece on the bottom - I just made it up to 6 - and have done every door and window in this house - and there are lots.

Car screw ups are well documented in various posts here tho there really weren't too many except for a changes of direction (maybe that's why it took me almost 9 years to build it :CRY:)

I do that all the time. Recently I was building the frame for my tow behind ( garden tractor ) gas powered compressor. I cut the triangulated drawbar support arms, cut the wrong angle on them. Cut a new set and did the exact thing, I got it right for the 3rd try.

About 20 years ago, I mis-measured a rear axle for a narrowed rear end and wound up with a beautiful Mark Williams boat anchor. I didn't tell the wife about that one.

Yep I have done the reverse pattern thing my self a few times.
Worked as a electrician's assistant when I first moved to Florida about 30 years ago and bent alot of electrical conduit.
I was working on a big power panel for a Caterpillar Plant in Florida and reversed or bent about 20 sticks in the opposite direction
of the way they were supposed to be going. Oh fun fun, I'll tell you the boss was really happy about that.
Ended up using those 20 pices of conduit for nick nack stuff where we needed little pices here and there and could cut them up.
Then we had to bend the other 20 sticks for the power panel all over again.
Lots of time wasted by me that day.
Kurt