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How does everyone keep themselves motivated on a project?


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Sorry, OT Welder porn, not really worth an entirely new thread!

Its a Type 25 Euro gun (good for 250 amps) i like the bigger guns as they don't get anywhere near as hot as quickly

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gas and regulator on their way!

This welder has been sat in my workshop since i bought it (second hand) its the big daddy (but same amps) of my SIP T150P trade, which i get on reasonably well with, the lead on that one though sometimes jams the wire feed, other than that it welds nicely! will be looking forward to its first use!

on a sad note, the whiteboard arrived, bent in the middle, and dropped on one end!

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So what do you guys write on your white boards ? Just a list of the next jobs and leaving some with big ticks to focus and motivate progress ?

Some ex office ones are for sale nearby for £10 each and I'm thinking I'll get one.

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Nice torche and helmet. Auto dimming is the way forward. Had mine a few years now they take some abuse.

I have a couple of auto dimming masks at the moment but they have seen their fair share of abuse, and when you can't really see the puddle anymore even with new lenses it's time to get a new one! I wholly agree though, once you get an auto darkening mask you never go back!

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Interesting thread! I have a lifetime history of not quite finishing things so I've read through and taken the advice seriously.

My current 110 project, which I thought would take two or three months, has been eight months and still is some way off. However, that is more to do with not evaluating it properly when I bought it (it had had the bulkhead replaced and just needed putting back together - how hard can that be?). However, I have a few things keeping me motivated:

1) all my "vehicle" money is tied up in it and it is worth very little until it's legal and usable!

2) It's in an open-fronted shed, leering at me several times a day. I can't ignore it or forget it.

3) I have a work car which costs me nothing to drive but I REALLY want to be driving a Land Rover much of the time.

Yes, I do have an ultra-budget Series IIa which does good service as a (very) local off-road hack and my work car is also a 4WD but they're not good enough. I think some people lose motivation because they have other alternatives which are perfectly adequate for their uses, so their Land Rover project is only something intellectually stimulating or romantic. If that's the case, probably best to get real and move it on. Life is too short to waste it on pointless indulgences. Aim at a target you have a chance of hitting instead.

The whiteboard concept is interesting. I use something much smaller but similar - a little black book, which has endless lists of jobs to do and things to buy. Every few weeks, I recompose the lists and it is hugely gratifying to see how much does get crossed off, even with my minuscule budget and limited attention span. The good thing about the book is I can grab it when I got shopping or head to the phone or computer to order yet more parts.

My project has been one in which every time I complete a job, I seem find a new one to do. However, chipping, chipping, chipping away has made serious progress. Like everyone else has hinted - if you don't actually do some work, no work gets done!

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I go through notebooks at quite a rate as well as having multiple whiteboards!

Whiteboards are for listing jobs, parts lists (to buy, to find, to sell), when things were done (EG last service), sketching ideas, drawing speedcocks, etc. etc.

Notebooks to remind you what you went into the parts shop / nut & bolt store / screwfix / sodbury for, or for when you remember half way through the day some job that needs doing or thing that needs buying. Also measurements of things and the like so you can track them down on ebay or find something in a scrapyard, or just fondle the produce in B&Q looking for a whassname that will fit.

Prime example: I ended up blanking holes in the floor of the ambulance using kitchen sink tap-hole blanks found for ~£1 each at the hardware shop, having exhausted the options from the nut & bolt shop, electrical factors, car parts place, halfrauds, hydraulics shop... I was wandering round with the measurement (diameter & depth) in my notebook for a week, and if I passed anywhere that sold stuff I'd nip in and wander round to see what inspiration struck.

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I treat the whiteboard as a mobile phone accessory. Every time I think "I'm covered in oil, must buy more swarfega and blue roll" or make a little sketch of some widget I need to make or buy, I scribble it on the whiteboard without having to get cleaned up first.

Then at the end of the day, before I lock up the shed, I take a snapshot of the whiteboard - with all the vital numbers and notes in one place.

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Well guys, even Nige has politeley commented on my progess in my profile, lol.

I have 2 large whie boards, both erm, blank.

I derent even think about when my build will be finished to book an event.

But, i am desperateley trying to sort the caravan out

with a view to get to the King of Wales in it to re-ignite the build.

(its been laid up longer than the project)

I have never thought about getting rid, but when folk ask me

when the project is likeley to be finished, i remark 'its a retirement project now'

I do need a good kick up the backside, just to remember where i left off

But in 3-4 weeks hopefully it will be full steam ahead once again :i-m_so_happy:

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By working on sections at a time, for example the engine, gear box or an axle, you get regular milestones of completion, which is self motivating. Keeping a blog or at least photo records is also a good motivator as you can see before and after comparisons to see how far you have come, and encouragement from followers of the blog is a help. Both of the above also help you finish reassembly of a section before you forget how it came apart.

It also helps to occasionally visit another restored vehicle or relatively new one, and ideally go out with the owner, as a reminder of what your aiming for and how enjoyable the parts will be once they're back together.

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  • 8 months later...

Whiteboards are awsome I realise i have too many projects and am not well enough organised. But bang a few dozen tasks to do one there and you start appreciateing the fact that you are getting stuff done.

Warm, dry, radio, mate, good tools and a chance to use whatever your plugging away at will make a difference.

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Interesting read, I'll give the whiteboards a go.

Personally, I'm easily distracted and have a million projects on the go, all somehow landrover completion related.... For example

After building the CNC plasma, which was quite adequate... But not quite right as far as torch height control being too slow, I now have a very fast z axis... And better torch height control via a better controller, all of which needed to go into a purpose built CNC cabinet with 8 drives (4 for the plasma, 4 for the small (new) CNC mill to make all of the aluminium parts from adapter plates to gear change mounts... Other LR related parts of the same project)

Where as I could have just contracted out given the costs are probably the same but the time spent becoming proficient as mach3 CNC, sheetcam and the hardware all take time to learn and understand.

Well I'm back on making gearbox and engine mounts now using trailing arm bushes.... Much easier with plasma + CNC, no sawing filing and grinding, plus no great shakes if the first ones are off as just change the cad drawing and recut, and the second batch should be spot on.

The blog is an interesting one, I guess the problem I see is the actual project moving forward is so slow because some nights are just spent drawing stuff in cad and measuring up... Hence little progress... Or designing / making a CNC controller enclosure, faster z-axis, engraving axis, 4th axis tube cutter, pneumatic gear + hi/low + difflock change ... Off LR topic the updates will be not very frequent.... And probably disheartening...

When all I really want to do is drive the landy again (some nights you just want to slap the 3.5 + lt85 back in & be done)...but then you think about the joy of having something unique... And keep on chipping away at it.

Rob

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Worst thing I did when I needed to revitalise my S1 again was put it in a workshop on a almost local farm, then buy a cheep but well known hibred LR in order to travel to it. Ten years later (transport replacement LR was great off road) I found out that the needed axle rebuild was in fact down to a seized steering joint!

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Interesting read, I'll give the whiteboards a go.

Personally, I'm easily distracted and have a million projects on the go, all somehow landrover completion related.... For example

After building the CNC plasma, which was quite adequate... But not quite right as far as torch height control being too slow, I now have a very fast z axis... And better torch height control via a better controller, all of which needed to go into a purpose built CNC cabinet with 8 drives (4 for the plasma, 4 for the small (new) CNC mill to make all of the aluminium parts from adapter plates to gear change mounts... Other LR related parts of the same project)

Where as I could have just contracted out given the costs are probably the same but the time spent becoming proficient as mach3 CNC, sheetcam and the hardware all take time to learn and understand.

Well I'm back on making gearbox and engine mounts now using trailing arm bushes.... Much easier with plasma + CNC, no sawing filing and grinding, plus no great shakes if the first ones are off as just change the cad drawing and recut, and the second batch should be spot on.

The blog is an interesting one, I guess the problem I see is the actual project moving forward is so slow because some nights are just spent drawing stuff in cad and measuring up... Hence little progress... Or designing / making a CNC controller enclosure, faster z-axis, engraving axis, 4th axis tube cutter, pneumatic gear + hi/low + difflock change ... Off LR topic the updates will be not very frequent.... And probably disheartening...

When all I really want to do is drive the landy again (some nights you just want to slap the 3.5 + lt85 back in & be done)...but then you think about the joy of having something unique... And keep on chipping away at it.

Rob

Something I think I'm guilty if is not always recognising my own achievements. I frequently have to look back at all the things I've made or fixed, or cleaned. Even sorting out my bench is rewarding, especially the next time I go out to the garage and find I actually have somewhere to work on parts.

You refer to evenings spent drawing parts up - these are achievements too and should be included in the white board/ to do list. I like to break every job down into tiny bites, so I have more frequent job done feelings as I cross off another item.

Currently I've just cleared enough carp from my garage and into a new shed. I can now not only get to the shelves in the garage, get into the RRC that's living in there and even get to my lathe that's been unused for over 2 years since we moved in.I'm now cleaning the lathe up, attending to some rusty handles etc.

The feeling is great - almost like being able to breathe again after the suffocating frustration of not being able to get to anything.

When I look back at the last 2 years I've done one heck of a lot, but it hasn't stopped me feeling darned miserable at times, because all I was seeing was what lay ahead rather than all my achievements. It's taken a lot for me to see things in the right light, and I'm sure I'll need to give myself a talking to again at some point .

Sorry for the rambling , I hope there's something of use in there.

Good luck with your projects.

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My youngest brother was in a similar situation, years ago his series 3 came apart for a new chassis and only partially went back together...

Recently he took a week and a half off work to get it back together and myself and my Dad pitched in as much as we could. It got its MOT pass about two weeks ago.

That's the first one it's had for 14 years! Time did run away a bit on that one...

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What Michael says about recognising your achievements is something you have to do to keep up the motivation. I mentioned before about my 'bible', the blue book I take all sorts of places and contains my to do and shopping list.

Its easy when doing a task to think of something and do it without it ever being written down in the book. So I'll always write down the things I've already done and tick them off straight away. It makes it more rewarding as when there's a less productive day you can see that actually I did achieve something in the last session.

The other point is about tidying.... its my one annoyance with having a secure workshop is that I'm not forced to put things away at the end of a session. By having the odd evening just tidying up can make other visits far more productive. Its also a good opportunity to plan things in my head and scribble stuff on the whiteboard.

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About taking time of work: this could work if there is a lot of things to get on with, but I always find I run out of bits to fit to the car. I once had to burn off 5 days of holidays, and I asked for 5 Fridays off in a row. This way, you can spend the 4 days to make sure all the bits are there, then the Friday you can fit everything to the car. Worked very well. Your boss likes it more to.

Daan

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