Lacking Confidence?

Uglydog

Uglydog

Active User
H-M Supporter Gold Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2012
Messages
2,677
As I write this I'd like to emphasize I am not a machinist. I'm a hobbyist who read some books on how they did things before so much went digital and CNC. I've been blessed with the opportunity to ask endless annoying questions of humble patient persons who I will dare call mentors.

This evening I got an email from someone who is struggling to parent a growing family on a tight budget. This person has huge zeal for being safe, and doing good work while being thrifty. He really enjoys his metal work as an escape from work. He needs to do a project which he deems way above his abilities. I don't believe that it is. And I intend to help him slowly wade through the challenges the project will bring him. The following is my cut/paste email response to his humble floundering. It wasn't so long ago, that I was where he is now. I thought some of your HM noobs might find this helpful. Anyway please be encouraged.

"I started woodworking when I was about 17years under the auspices of a retired long haul trucker.
I made a huge boof. I cut some boards two small for the project. Boards for which I didn't have time or money to replace.
He taught me many things.
One of which is that the difference between a master craftsman and a novice is not that the master craftsman makes fewer mistakes.
The difference is that the master craftsman knows how to hide them so no one ever sees them.

There is a long history of machinists not wanting to share their tricks.
I attribute this history to the idea offered by my wood mentor Everett Bruce the trucker. These machinists/welders don't want to be found out....
Your abilities are good. Like the Lion, TinMan, Scarecrow, and Dorthy all you lack is what you already have."

Be safe, spend your money carefully, do your best and have fun.

Daryl
MN
 
Last edited:
Sound advise. I have been machining parts for more then a half of a century and I still make mistakes. Anyone that doesn't make mistakes, is lying. When I was an Tool and Die apprentice, we had a machinist that used to say "It's not how you make it that counts, it's how you save it". I never liked that saying, but it does have some truth to it!

Richard
 
A quote that has been resonating a lot with me lately is “He who has not failed, has not tried”

There have been a lot of times in my life that I either didn’t do something, or waited too long to do it due to lack of confidence, or worrying about how much it cost to fail. My son does the same thing, and I don’t want him making the same mistakes I made, so I try to give him the confidence to fail, and it has helped me to realize that sometimes you need to not worry about the cost and think about the future benefits. I explained to him that all the great inventions we see around us are the result of someone failing and learning from it. The actual number varies, but the story of Thomas Edison is he failed 5,000 times while perfecting the light bulb. He didn’t look that as failures, rather learned ways that don’t work. While it might hurt to throw something out that you spent good money on, and I am one of the biggest tightwads out there, the lesson you learn usually far outweighs the cost of the materials.

If your friend is afraid that his mistakes are costing him money, he can get some totes and put his mistakes in them. One day he will need exactly that size piece of material for a project he is working on. So he is not wasting material, he is creating future project supplies :)
 
If mistakes were money, I'd be a rich man, but I make a lot fewer than I used to. I attribute some of that to all those previous mistakes, and the critical thinking you develop working your way through them. Good on you Dayrl.
 
Last edited:
I learned the metal working trade from my mentor who got his training in England in the 1920's and I can hear his word's in all the statements above above! I'm now over 80 & every mistake I still make I hear his words every time in my head. I will hear them forever! Thanks because he cared!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Tom1948 said:
A machinist once told me if you make a mistake, just make it look like you planned it that way.
Click to expand...
LOL! In my jazz class the teacher said if you make a mistake do it twice so everybody thought you meant to do that! If left to my own devices not working from others plans most projects are a floating sum as I compensate for mistakes. At least most stuff doesn’t end up in the “future parts“ drawer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top