How often do you really screw up?

[Frisco 57]

Thankfully, not too often but I've always remembered that I've leaned way more from a good screw up than I ever learned from blindly getting it right the first time. The "screw-up memories" stick with you for a very long time!

BTW there's a small sign hanging in our co-op hot rod shop that reads, "CAUTON, LOW FLYING TOOLS"

 

[hd09]

I try to look at it like tomorrow is another day and move on. Sometimes I can fix it, others not. I too get in a hurry but it is what it is.

 

[Ricky D.]

You need to be “in the moment” working with tools. Your focus was not there. The blunders you described were expensive and frustrating. But they are just a short step away from a mistake that could cause a serious injury.

 

[Rusty Spanner]

September, last year.
I took on a second Nursing Degree.
By February, I was suicidal. Genuinely.

Just couldn't cope with online learning. No one to talk or really relate to.
I called out and was accepted back into my old job. It's wonderful.


Thank you all for accepting me into your community.
It's been lovely and I can't thank you enough.

Rock on!

 

[Greenmachine]

I feel your pain OP. When I screw up I usually screw up big.

 

[P Thought]

This body has problems.

 

[robistro]

I just stripped the poly off a strat strat body. I put 'wood conditioner' on it so it would take the stain evenly. After I let it sit for an hour I went back to check on it, picked up the can of wood conditioner, to put away and saw the label...it was polyurethane! (I thought it was going on a little thick)

So, I sanded that back down, put wood conditioner on it, then started to apply stain. Stain was going on a little thick, so I looked at the can and it was the wrong stuff! It was that minwax with poly mixed in with it! Back to sanding down again. By the time I get finished screwing up, the body will be the thickness of a Squire.

For some reason this guitar wants to be covered in polyurethane.
Im gonna call her poly when I'm finished... or fubar

 

[tele_savales]

Stuck my hand in a hot chassis the other day and got blasted. Felt pretty good about myself.

 

[eallen]

Not for at least 60 seconds, or wait 30, no 10, oops 5 seconds.

 

[Moodivarius]

Someone once told me,
“There are no problems, just solutions”.

Just figure out a solution, and continue on.


Scott

 

[epizootics]

Back in September this year I found myself building a guitar for my favorite band. Tight schedule, a bit less than a month from start to finish. Ten days before their tour stopped in my city, I managed to screw up the neck by blanking out while beveling the fret ends. Five or six swipes of a very aggressive file were all that it took to eat up too much of the frets & fretboard on the low E side at the body end of the neck.

I cursed once, looked at my options, somehow found a spare short-scale trussrod in a corner of my workshop, selected another neck blank & fretboard and got started on a neck no. 2, knowing I only had two days to spare if I wanted put paint & clear coat on it before the weather turned to rain. I can have a temper in real life, but no amount of raging helps in the shop. I learned that I could, indeed, make a neck in a couple of days. The band got their guitar.

As the others say...It's not about not making mistakes

 

[hopdybob]

Mentally bad week in the shop last week. So much so, I nearly raged in my shop and started smashing things. I left it at slamming a bad neck onto the ground. First, I mis-cut a 5A birdseye neck I was using for a new build and rendered it useless. THEN, I foolishly used my long 14" radius black to clamp a 12" radius board onto another neck and had awful gaps all the way around. I had to heat it up and peel the board off. This was after constantly radius sanding the board and getting one high corner every time. I don't think the board is salvageable, which pisses away my time, wood stash and a set of abalone markers. :/ (I also screwed up a cutting board glue-up and didn't notice what I did until the next morning.) Three strikes for me.

I hate making stupid mistakes at this stage, more so when it results in wasted wood. I'm getting better at fixing things, but having to go back and spend x-amount of time on a re-do really burns my ass and makes this process so very frustrating.

/rant

stupid mistakes are mostly done when not focused (worries ore you have done it so often)ore are done in hast.
i will give it a positive turn.
you are not damaged, got your fingers, your eyes etc. (just your pride)
because the reasons i wrote, many lost those and not without reason.

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[JohnnyThul]

Define mistake If mistake means, the part or guitar you are working on is completely ruined, then I'd say it happened a few times at the starting of the hobby, but the learning curve is steep. So, "lethal" damage does not happen nowadays, I'd say (but never say never...).
If mistake means: something did not turn out exactly, as I wanted it, then this happens constantly To make these things work in the end are very good lessons.
I have a lot of lessons due to that, because I am impatient and often find myself wanting to do something in a hurry and that is the direct path to a mistake.

 

[Skyhook]

I hate making stupid mistakes at this stage, more so when it results in wasted wood. I'm getting better at fixing things, but having to go back and spend x-amount of time on a re-do really burns my ass and makes this process so very frustrating.

Probably why I don't build guitars. Power to those who can and do, though! You're more than I'll ever be!
I'm just gonna save my sanity and pay somebody to make it for me. I hear Fender has some nice models.

 

[Newbcaster]

Be GRATEFUL that it was 5A maple you screwed yourself on.

My mistakes with people, often those close to me, are so astronomically, chasmically large that I cannot bear to think about them.

Maybe that's why I like wood so much. I feel like the time spent screwing up there means I'm less likely making errors involving lives.

Effed up some maple? Would that my life be so pristinely clear and free of catastrophe.

Sometimes it's all about perspective.

Wood heals my soul.

 

[printer2]

Have to know when to step away. If you’re tired, cranky, hungry, overworked, underslept… it’s a tough thing to learn.

My sister thinks I have a natural ability making things. More a lot of experience at doing things over again. I did beat myself up when I had a useless day where I can not do anything right, I learned to walk away in those times. My brother in law is totally useless at doing things, he is too afraid to screw up. I would rather screw up the occasional time than not have the ability to do things.

 

[Medeltids]

Mentally bad week in the shop last week. So much so, I nearly raged in my shop and started smashing things. I left it at slamming a bad neck onto the ground. First, I mis-cut a 5A birdseye neck I was using for a new build and rendered it useless. THEN, I foolishly used my long 14" radius black to clamp a 12" radius board onto another neck and had awful gaps all the way around. I had to heat it up and peel the board off. This was after constantly radius sanding the board and getting one high corner every time. I don't think the board is salvageable, which pisses away my time, wood stash and a set of abalone markers. :/ (I also screwed up a cutting board glue-up and didn't notice what I did until the next morning.) Three strikes for me.

I hate making stupid mistakes at this stage, more so when it results in wasted wood. I'm getting better at fixing things, but having to go back and spend x-amount of time on a re-do really burns my ass and makes this process so very frustrating.

/rant

My state of mind is directly proportional to how well I do in the shop. Sort of a pissed off to f#€k up ratio.

Case in point:

Here she is now.

I almost put her in the trash but decided to resurrect. I play her almost every day. Her name is Peggy.

Step back, regroup, and be reminded that we do this for the pleasure of building and the gratification that stems from making music with something we built. Building constantly tells me to slow down. As the old saying goes, ask God for patience and you’ll get something that helps you develop patience...usually adversity.

 

[chaosman12]

My sister thinks I have a natural ability making things. More a lot of experience at doing things over again.

Exactly. I think less people today build/fix things than lets say 100 years ago. Thus it's easy to mistake motivation plus persistence for talent.

As Thomas Edison said, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"

 

[Ronkirn]

How often do you really screw up???

As little as possible.. 'cause when I do.. the blood in my arms rushes down and they get tired and achy fast.. so I try to remove whatever needs the work to the work bench so when I'm screwin' I'm screwin' down ..

 

[JohnnyThul]

One additional thought crossed my mind: the curse and blessing of the internet is, that you can connect with people with the same interests all around the globe.
That means, you can learn a lot of things at a fast pace, which is an incredible advantage to the past.
The downside is, in this small community/bubble the absolute masters of their trade are all well known, and you constantly watch pictures of those pieces of art all the time, making you think, everyone out there is a master, besides me.

At least for me I can say, I tend to lose perspective, always comparing my work to that of the better and best builders out there. And in that comparison I always suck. But I tend to forget, that nobody starts of with these abilities, everyone made and make their mistakes and maybe some of them twice. I'm pretty sure that even a John Monteleone sometimes screws something up (well, I guess, what he thinks is screwed up would still be diamond league for me).

Just lean back for a moment and see, where you come from. For me that would mean, I never worked with wood until I was 34. And seeing, what I am able to do now is quite an achievement for me. And I don't do it as a profession, it's a hobby with limited time to spare on besides a full time job.

And going further back, when I was in my teens, I wanted to be a guitar builder, but everyone I knew said, no way, too complicated and you want get an apprenticeship anywhere. It was like pure magic. And I believed it.
Now I am doing it, which is like a miracle for me. To do some something, that everyone told you cannot be done (by you).

Maybe you come from a similar place and then I think it's a good idea in times, a mistake happens to lean back for a moment and think about the journey you made so far and see, what you achieved, and what you are capable of.

And being upset about a mistake is a good sign anyway as it shows, you are committed.