Failed projects anyone?!?

[Sevenhills1952]

We all have projects that turn out fine...but what about the failure ones? Especially ones that make no sense.
I have mostly DeWalt 20v cordless tools but do have a Greenworks G Max 40v chainsaw and leaf blower. One battery pack was giving problems so I decided to take it apart (security torx screws, 3 labels).
Inside are 10 unmarked batteries and circuit board. Two batteries corroded, so after figuring size (18650, 3.7v li ion) I replaced the two. Now it charged, measured 42v, all LEDs lit showing full charge. It barely worked[emoji21].
So I order, replacing all 10 batteries. I took pictures, made drawings plus I had good battery for comparison. After hours soldering in all batteries and all the wires, it took a charge! New batteries came recharged measuring about 3.95v each.
Now this pack barely runs either motor[emoji34].
What weird is good pack measures 42v...same as this one. Under load about 41v...same as this one.
Anyone else have waste of time and money projects, especially ones that should have worked?

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[bczygan]

My whole life is a partially failed project.

The good thing, is that if I work on it really hard, I think I can make it a completely failed project!!!

Bill

 

[Skiff Builder]

When 18, I completely disassembled the Remington Nylon Model 66 Grandpa gave me. Couldn't get it back together. Brought to local gunsmith, listned to his lecture, and left it with him. Told me he needed 2-3 months to get to it. Got deployed. A year later I'm back and his shop is gone, he's gone, the 66 is gone.
I think through the years it drifted in and out of being an "assault weapon" either federally and or in NJ.
I still have the repair ticket in my wallet......

 

[gungatim]

I built a motor pusher to attach to a bicycle. it was top heavy and over powered and nearly killed me...i'd seen it done successfully but I thought I had a better idea...I didn't...

I tried one wheel, then two, then shifted from a low frame to a high pipe like a trailer...A for effort though...

 

[Steve W.]

I have NEVER had a failed project, EVER.






And, if I did, do you think I would admit it here?

.

 

[Bert_]

It isn't a failure, it's just not done yet...

 

[Sevenhills1952]

I built a motor pusher to attach to a bicycle. it was top heavy and over powered and nearly killed me...i'd seen it done successfully but I thought I had a better idea...I didn't...



I tried one wheel, then two, then shifted from a low frame to a high pipe like a trailer...A for effort though...

I motorized a bicycle about 20 years ago. Briggs motor on a hinged plate over rear wheel. Horizontal shaft motor I mounted a wide pulley on it. Lower motor down it contacted tire. It worked great, to start choke motor, pedal lowering motor, start, choke off and it went. On highway flat level a friend clocked me at 64. I had a kill switch that was like a Jake brake.
One night it made it into our driveway then bike fell apart! No helmet...lucky to be alive!

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[fordkid88]

All kinds of them, I tried to fix my mistakes as best as possible, wasn't always able.

I think this thread might be one hell of a thread if people jump on it

 

[WinMod21]

My whole life is a partially failed project.
The good thing, is that if I work on it really hard, I think I can make it a completely failed project!!!
Bill

Hear! Hear! I second that admission! That's exactly what I was gonna say! Especially being that it 'should have worked' out so much better!

 

[gte718p]

We all have projects that turn out fine...but what about the failure ones? Especially ones that make no sense.
I have mostly DeWalt 20v cordless tools but do have a Greenworks G Max 40v chainsaw and leaf blower. One battery pack was giving problems so I decided to take it apart (security torx screws, 3 labels).
Inside are 10 unmarked batteries and circuit board. Two batteries corroded, so after figuring size (18650, 3.7v li ion) I replaced the two. Now it charged, measured 42v, all LEDs lit showing full charge. It barely worked[emoji21].
So I order, replacing all 10 batteries. I took pictures, made drawings plus I had good battery for comparison. After hours soldering in all batteries and all the wires, it took a charge! New batteries came recharged measuring about 3.95v each.
Now this pack barely runs either motor[emoji34].
What weird is good pack measures 42v...same as this one. Under load about 41v...same as this one.
Anyone else have waste of time and money projects, especially ones that should have worked?

Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk

18650 are a pain to solder. You most likely got to much heat in at least one cell. Destroying one cell will kill a pack. Unfortunately you need a load tester to know which cell is bad.

I fail all the time. If you are not pushing the edge of your knowledge and experience you never grow. No one succeeds all the time.

My last failure was my camera tumble assembly. Huge complicated design and 3D print. Looks really cool, but the gears don’t mesh correctly, it’s loud, and the motion is not smooth. Waste of a good 50 hours. Still, I learned a lot and it looks great sitting on the shelf so not a complete failure.

I had an epic failure making carbon fiber stand up paddle board paddles two years ago. Technique failure could not separate the part and tool. Still need to revisit that one.

 

[homebuilt burner]

I spent too much time and money trying to make my own “free” pellets for a pellet burning stove.

I was coming off a pretty big high after making my own corn burning furnace, that saved my wife and I a bunch of money.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

Thanks for the kind comments![emoji16]
What's weird is I have lots of variable chargers...so I even load tested and charged batteries individually and then loaded & charged battery pack itself. It just doesn't make sense. I'm thinking by design manufacturers don't want people changing out the batteries.
But failed projects, as other's so kindly said that's how you learn.
It's human nature to brag about successes, not easy to say something was a goof! What really hurts is when the wife says "I told you so!".[emoji38][emoji848]

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[dwall174]

Well hopefully this doesn't turn out to be a totally failed project, But it sure has been giving me some challenges.

I started to work on a hydraulic press project about a year ago & I unintentionally ended up drilling the holes for the adjustable table/support off-center! Since then the project has been put on hold until I get time to try & fix the issue.

Here's some more info. on what I was planning!
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=434078

Basically I set-up a temporary jig/fixture on my drill press to locate & space-out the holes 4-1/2" apart.

in hindsight I set-up the jig/fixture way too lightly for the heavy wall tubing I was trying to drill & I should have made it stronger & more ridged! The lower pin support was just clamped to my X/Y table & eventually got knocked out of alignment.

This misalignment meant that each hole was off-center to the next one by about 1/16" , Add that X 8 holes and the last hole was off-center by well over 1/2" from the first one.
here's a picture with 1/2" drill bits in the holes, note the off-center from the carriage bolts at the top & bottom!

Luckily the problem didn't arise on the first piece of pipe which came out good! But unfourntaly the problem must have happened near the middle of the second pipe.

Being the first pipe came out good, I was able to use it as a template to square-up the second pipe & re-drill the holes using a larger drill bit.
I ended up with two columns with evenly spaced & aligned holes.

The other two pipes/columns will probably need to be re-drilled with a hole-saw or possibly a end-mill since the misaligned holes will cause a regular drill bit to try & follow the original hole.

Doug

 

[engineer2]

Lots of them!
I built a system that automatically switched your sump pump over to battery power in case of a failure. It used a common power inverter to operate a regular sump pump instead of a 12VDC bilge pump. It had a trickle charger on an Omron timer to keep from constantly overcharging the battery. It had a voltage display and status lights.
I discussed it with an engineer at a backup sump pump company and was told "You can't do that because it's never been done before!"
Well, the inverter had a built-in GFCI and my mods triggered it constantly, so into the bin of failed projects it went.

Purchased a used server and spent $300 upgrading everything on it to make a home backup server using FreeNAS. Couldn't get FreeNAS to work properly. Found out from their forum that FreeNAS isn't for automated backups. About then I found a wireless router with a USB port can do automated backups just by adding a small external hard drive. DOH! Also found a used server with all new internals is about impossible to sell on the used market. DOH!

 

[brianh]

I have many, but that's how we learn. May seem like wasted time but you learn something. Oh and the ones that were started 10 years ago and still are not done.

 

[TimTaylor75]

When 18, I completely disassembled the Remington Nylon Model 66 Grandpa gave me. Couldn't get it back together. Brought to local gunsmith, listned to his lecture, and left it with him. Told me he needed 2-3 months to get to it. Got deployed. A year later I'm back and his shop is gone, he's gone, the 66 is gone.
I think through the years it drifted in and out of being an "assault weapon" either federally and or in NJ.
I still have the repair ticket in my wallet......

Oh man, this story hurts. So sorry.

 

[bdbecker]

Here is the dinner table I built that was ultimately scrapped after being ruined with by a hot batch of bar top epoxy. The person who was helping me by mixing didn't understand that you can't just dump the rest of both containers into the cup and assume the proportions are correct. It was my fault for not explaining the process better. I also didn't need to dump that last cup on, but I'm too much of a cheapskate to let a few ounces of epoxy go to waste. In the end, I threw away $300+ in materials because I couldn't leave well enough alone... lesson definitely learned.

View media item 71067

 

[dwall174]

Oh and the ones that were started 10 years ago and still are not done.

Well I think you got me beat on the 10 years, But I have about a dozen projects that are in various stages of repair or needing parts.

Doug

 

[niget2002]

I have a 20g pump shotgun that only holds two rounds. one in the chamber, one in the loader. If you put more than one in the loader and try to cycle a round, it tries to load all of them into the chamber.

I ordered a replacement part for the one that was broken and tried to fix it myself. In the end, the shotgun would no longer cycle the next round.

I gave up and did like the other person and took it to a gunsmith. The guy kept it for 3 months. He finally called me and told me to come get my shotgun. He couldn't get it fixed either, so he just gave my my shotgun back with the original broken part.

Technically, it works just fine as a 2 shot pump. Just annoying.

As far as other failed projects... I have a few. I usually get it right the second time around, though.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

It occurred to me it takes a big person to admit a failed project! Then I think of things friends I know have tried and failed. One thought he could make his own 12ga. He used a pipe the right diameter with a spring loaded hammer. We pleaded with him not try it...but he insisted. Without a chamber, the shell explodes both directions as he found out! He got extremely lucky! It blew part of his hand out, but over time healed pretty well. Wow!

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[BigMike782]

Oh and the ones that were started 10 years ago and still are not done.

I have a friend that started a street rod build in 1978.....it still isnt done. He works on it every couple of years for a week or so and then moves on to other projects.

 

[jsaw]

I tried to make a custom gas tank for my home built bike. My buddy that was going to weld it for me hurt his hand and could not weld it. He told me to give it a try, (TIG weld) and that he could fix any mistakes that I made. Needless to say , all the seams were like Swiss cheese, and he could not fix it.

 

[Honda guy]

Kept trying to fix my marriage, but it finally took a dump after about 25 years. Does that count?

 

[TimeWarpF100]

I run about 80/20 on failed vs ok. Although most are HUGE projects I fail total or fail to complete 80% of what I start.

Or about 5 yrs minimum on big project and only 20% are completed. Cannot count the times I have started a big project and sold it off before finishing.

Trying to change that last few months by selling off "projects" for years down the road so I can finish a few of the more important ones.

 

[383]

I spent just about every evening this week on this one, and finally gave up yesterday. I read on the internets about mounting a garage door remote in a hidden place on my motorcycle, then wiring a remote button into the garage door remote and installing it in a convenient location. There were even pictures of where it could be mounted on my particular bike.

I got the remote switch wired in, worked perfect. installed it on the bike and it didn't work, took it of the bike and it worked intermittently. I thought the metal cover might be messing it up, so I found where to install an antenna wire that I could run outside of the cover. It seemed to help, I held it inside the cover and walked down the driveway about 150' and it still worked. Mounted it to the inside of the cover with double sided tape, installed it, didn't work.

I finally figured out that the remote didn't work if it was within 1/4" of the metal cover. Unfortunately, there isn't any extra room in the cover to mount it anywhere else.

Gave up and removed it, but had to leave the switch installed since I drilled a hole in the cover.

 

[danielbuck]

you don't fail a project. You just take a long break from it, move it to the back of the garage, forget about it for forever and start another project.

 

[J1b3h0]

Decades ago, I worked in a metal fabricating shop where someone had pulled a chevy small block from the shop truck and just left it sitting in the dirt. Having just read “HOW TO HOTROD SMALLBLOCK CHEVYS,” it seemed that lump of wornout cast iron was just calling me. My boss noticed my wistful look everytime I walked by that engine, and said “Dude, do you want that? ‘cause it’s just cluttering up the shop!’.

I didn’t have much money in those days, but I put together a nice 327. Alas, I had no vehicle in which to run it. Every time a “sensible” car (Camaro, Nova, etc,.) became available, the math just didn’t work: Put my $3000 engine in a car and together it’s worth 3500.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I bought a TR6 Triumph from a guy who had put a V8 in it but had blown the motor. Years later, when I finally finished it, I had built yet another smallblock (a ZZ430 clone), rebuilt the Muncie 4spd. It had a Corvette 3.55 rear end, spliced to the original Triumph stub shafts. The driveshaft was under 3ft. long. It didn’t have any roll-over protection. Had the original brakes. I never weighed it but estimated it to be under 2500lbs.

At under 6lbs per horsie, the car was ridiculously overpowered. Looked to all the world like a cute little TR6, but turn the key and the charade was over.

Put your foot in it in 3rd gear and the car would accelerate very hard until in came on the cam, and then start lighting the tires around 60mph. Even in second, at about half-throttle it would shred the tires.

I had driven it maybe 40 miles before my lead foot and inexperience got me in to trouble. I just rolled on the gas in second gear, lit the tires, and completely lost control, spun out, and careened-backwards over a curb and into a cyclone fence. And just like that, my years long project was totalled. Looking back, I could easily have lost a good deal more than a car!

 

[tym]

Here is the dinner table I built that was ultimately scrapped after being ruined with by a hot batch of bar top epoxy. The person who was helping me by mixing didn't understand that you can't just dump the rest of both containers into the cup and assume the proportions are correct. It was my fault for not explaining the process better. I also didn't need to dump that last cup on, but I'm too much of a cheapskate to let a few ounces of epoxy go to waste. In the end, I threw away $300+ in materials because I couldn't leave well enough alone... lesson definitely learned.

View media item 71067

One lesson I've (slowly) learned is figuring out when to stop with a project. Usually that effort to get from 99% to 100% carries a high risk of messing up and going back to 0%. Been there, done that, have the t-shirt.

 

[metaleltr]

When 18, I completely disassembled the Remington Nylon Model 66 Grandpa gave me. Couldn't get it back together. Brought to local gunsmith, listned to his lecture, and left it with him. Told me he needed 2-3 months to get to it. Got deployed. A year later I'm back and his shop is gone, he's gone, the 66 is gone.
I think through the years it drifted in and out of being an "assault weapon" either federally and or in NJ.
I still have the repair ticket in my wallet......

That is one complicated little rife. Took 3 of us one night who all had a good hand in firearms experience to reassemble one

 

[tym]

I spent just about every evening this week on this one, and finally gave up yesterday. I read on the internets about mounting a garage door remote in a hidden place on my motorcycle, then wiring a remote button into the garage door remote and installing it in a convenient location. There were even pictures of where it could be mounted on my particular bike.

I got the remote switch wired in, worked perfect. installed it on the bike and it didn't work, took it of the bike and it worked intermittently. I thought the metal cover might be messing it up, so I found where to install an antenna wire that I could run outside of the cover. It seemed to help, I held it inside the cover and walked down the driveway about 150' and it still worked. Mounted it to the inside of the cover with double sided tape, installed it, didn't work.

I finally figured out that the remote didn't work if it was within 1/4" of the metal cover. Unfortunately, there isn't any extra room in the cover to mount it anywhere else.

Gave up and removed it, but had to leave the switch installed since I drilled a hole in the cover.

Faraday Cages can be a B, man.

 

[MushCreek]

Not too many out-and-out fails, but a LOT of unfinished projects over the years. I do remember one epic fail when we were kids. We cobbled together a bicycle front end with a rear axle with two wheels for a trike. Power was an ancient little cast iron Briggs. No clutch; you just push-started it to go. No brakes, either. At any rate, both rear wheels were solidly locked to the axle. Being kids, we had no idea that when a vehicle goes around a corner, the outside wheel makes a much larger circle than the inside one. My buddy took off down the street, (towards the boat ramp), wide open (of course). When he got the corner, he laid the handlebars over, only to find that the trike kept going straight! I remember the front wheel shuddering sideways. Remember the part about no brakes, either? He managed to get it stopped before he went for a swim. Still not a fail, though. We figured out the problem with the rear end, and went back to playing cat-and-mouse with the local constabulary.

 

[mrpizza]

When 18, I completely disassembled the Remington Nylon Model 66 Grandpa gave me. Couldn't get it back together. Brought to local gunsmith, listned to his lecture, and left it with him. Told me he needed 2-3 months to get to it. Got deployed. A year later I'm back and his shop is gone, he's gone, the 66 is gone.
I think through the years it drifted in and out of being an "assault weapon" either federally and or in NJ.
I still have the repair ticket in my wallet......

You never tracked it down?

 

[MarkG]

My closest brush with garage stardom was when I did my first and only engine swap armed with a couple high school auto shop classes, and reading too many CarCraft magazines!

Swapped a 455 into my '78 Cutlass after re-building it (bone-stock). Although it DID work, and sounded great, I didn't have the money, knowledge, or skills to really get the ****** and rearend properly built and tuned, so it 'failed' in MY estimation. In hindsight, it probably saved me a lot of tickets and trouble to be driving a 'undertuned' hot rod project....

 

[NUTTSGT]

I've made a few things that didn't turn out like they should or atleast to my liking. One was an adjustable stand to hold a fluorescent trouble light in a wheel well. Good idea but just didn't work out the best. It went into the scrap pile.

Another was a ceramic heater fabbed with ceramic flower pots and heated with a candle. I knew that candles produced more BTUs that what most people realize. I found some Youtube videos. It didn't work like I thought it should and was taking up bench space. Off it went to the dumpster.

 

[bad_idea]

I'm too hard headed to really have failed projects, I typically see them to completion. My biggest failure on projects is budget and timeline. My pressure washer is my latest example. Bought a $600 pressure washer, a nice Simpson. Did my research and picked out a quality unit. It is only six months old. Third time I used it the hose galled onto the wand, happened to be JUST outside the 90 day warranty (was day 92, not kidding). I then spent a solid month getting a new hose and wand setup. Again I did my research and picked out quality components. BUT, with COVID shipping from Amazon turned into a nightmare and they sent me the wrong parts a few time. Then I had to put the works together as I bought the best individual parts instead of a kit. All of this for a pressure washer hose and wand. Works now but was way too much effort and cost.

 

[unknownroad]

I read on the internets about mounting a garage door remote in a hidden place on my motorcycle, then wiring a remote button into the garage door remote and installing it in a convenient location. There were even pictures of where it could be mounted on my particular bike.

Seems like it should be do-able in a different location, though... find some kind of small plastic project case and mount it under the seat? Not sure exactly what bike you've got, but I've worked on a few and there's usually enough dead space for something that small.

If it's any consolation, I would have screwed up soldering in the extra switch and ended up with a dead remote.

Most everything I work on ends up failed or abandoned... At best I'll get something 85-90% "done", to the point where it works adequately but still looks like ***, then have to leave it to move on to some new disaster.

One of my more epic moves was buying a perfectly functional old Honda CX500 motorcycle with the intent of turning it into a custom bobber. Spent a bunch of money on ebay buying used parts (mostly brand new take-off parts from Harleys at pennies on the dollar ), got most of them fitted, built a custom seat, etc. It was a little sketchy, but it was pretty satisfying. Sounded great.

While I was working on that, I came across a deal for three more non-running CX500s for $200, and figured that with my experience working on the bobber I could turn them into a running bike for my brother-in-law. Set aside the bobber, took them all apart, combined the best bits, etc. Never got it to run right.

Out of frustration, I took some parts off the bobber since I knew those were good. Then took some more. Now neither bike would run. This was over the course of months and months. Then some crisis came up with one of the cars and I needed the garage space, so I pushed everything under my back deck.

Finally came back to them a couple years later and learned that my chosen storage area was just incredibly humid (I live on a marsh; a clever person would have figured that out). Everything was rusted and corroded to hell. Now it's all garbage that I'm going to have to spend days digging out of the mud and dragging to the dump.

Everything I've ever touched ends up being worth less than before I got involved. And yet, i persist...