Ever Had One Of Those Days.......

[Gary Byrum]

Actually it's been one of those weeks, where you just can't win for loosing on a certain project. I got all kinds of irons in the fire here and they all seem to be coming along quite well. THEN, there's this one split fin job I'm working on that refuses to quit pissing me off. It's my first split fin rocket and both sets of fins are a 2 piece construction. The first failure was on the forward fins where I glued them together wrong. ALL 3 OF THEM! They didn't look wrong when I glued them together. Next day is when I noticed what I had done. RE-DO! 2nd time was the charm. YAY!!! I had already assembled the aft fins and glued them on the tube. Great alignment, good solid mount. Left them to dry overnight. Next day, I put fillets on and let those dry. I had a real nice looking start, just not a real good one. Something didn't look right again. So I positioned one of the forward fins in front of an aft fin, and my gap/split was totally wrong. I had glued the damn aft fins on upside down. ALL 3 OF THEM! They didn't look wrong when I installed them.

No I didn't drop kick the rocket or feed it to the tree shredder, I got busy and meticulously cut them away from the tube, prepped the edges and tube surface and glued all three back on again. I left those to dry this evening and I am praying I didn't &#%@ something else up. Fillets in the AM and if they dry, I'll mount the forward fins. Been so humid that glue is real slow to dry this week.

Anybody glue a motor mount in backwards lately? Been there, done that!

 

[TopRamen]

The past few weeks have been like that for me, but It has been mostly due to external factors beyond my control, like my Dog developing Diabetes, my Truck needing repairs, and stuff like that.
Three weeks ago I developed a ringing in my ears that will not go away, and thing after thing seemed to pile up to the point that I was misplacing tools and everything was a mess.
I even had to step away/time out, from a couple of projects that require precision, due to my lack of a steady hand.
Anyhow, Dog's Glucose numbers are consistent now, and I just traded in the money pit mobile for something with a 36 month service protection program/warranty.
Adversities will always arise, but they are just there to force you to learn to find better solutions and adapt.
I thought I was right back on track the day before yesterday, and then an itch on my left ankle turned out to be I'de encountered a caterpillar in my walkings, so a sleepless night of pain ensued, but that too has passed, and yesterday I finally got a good nights rest without worrying too much about real lifey things.
I have a feeling that by the end of today, I may very well be able to once again see the surface of my workbench.

No backwards motor mount, but plenty of similar embarrassments lately. Things will get better, and I'll look back and laugh.

 

[Bat-mite]

My sympathy to you both. There have been days when I wanted to quit rocketry because the frustration level just seemed to exceed the enjoyment. Many's the time I sat and work and mentally planned what rocketry stuff I would do that night when I get home, only to find that my wife has a "honey do" list, or my kids are misbehaving, or someone calls on the phone, or whatever .... And by the time I can get to my rocketry, I either don't do it because I am too tired, or else I try anyway and screw things up because I am too tired.

Step back, take a deep breath ... here comes tomorrow!

 

[neil_w]

I have been fortunate thus far that none of my rocket projects have tortured me this way. Home repair tasks on the other hand... Stupid simple stuff become gigantic projects peppered with many carefully chosen expletives, usually due to factors beyond my control. Ability to step away and let the blood pressure settle back down becomes a valuable life skill in such instances.

I do also find that having a forum such as this to vent and sympathize is extremely helpful to maintain some semblance of sanity. The worst thing is suffering through some monstrous frustration in isolation.

Be careful when you launch that one, and don't use an E9.

 

[Cabernut]

That is why I'm least at ease when things are going good - too good. That's about the time that something hits the fan. Calm before the storm.

Here's one of mine lately:
Night before, was getting a lot done. Everything was going well. Before going to bed, just had to glue one more fin. Tacky wood glue should hold it upright just like the others, ok good to go. In the morning, find that the fin tipped over before glue dried, now it's stuck. Set aside and "fix later". Then go to a launch and lose two rockets to recovery separation at apogee. One launch that did go well, the onboard cam video was corrupted. :eyeroll: What in Sam-H-E-double-toothpicks is a goin' on? Felt like a "cursed" day.

 

[Gary Byrum]

The past few weeks have been like that for me, but It has been mostly due to external factors beyond my control,

Sometimes life just gets in the way.

There have been days when -snip- because the frustration level just seemed to exceed the enjoyment.
Step back, take a deep breath ... here comes tomorrow!

If I'm not in the creative mood or simply, don't feel like messing with it, I just leave it alone and find something else to do. I've already tried and failed when working an idea when I'm too tired or not into it. Just causes mistakes and I forget to do certain steps

Be careful when you launch that one, and don't use an E9.

I don't have any of those exploding motors best I know. And I know which ones they are too.

It's not my mojo, that seems to be humming pretty good. My creative juice cup runneth over lately and I'm pretty ambitious about building and such. Mother Nature is a problem though. Been too humid to paint and glue takes longer to dry. It's just this one rocket that has a burr in my saddle. For some reason, every time I touch it, it'll get screwed up. It's a really simple design too. It's not like my lander model which is over the top with critical areas that need to be watched. I think this one's out to get me.....:y: