Building Time is the Best Time - When Is It For You?

BuddytheReow

BuddytheReow

Moderator
When do you guys like to build? First thing in the morning? After dinner? Are you guys weekend warriors? Any waking moment possible?

Recently my building time is usually after dinner while my wife reads before we spend some time together. Usually about an hour. Sometimes more.

If work is slow for me in the afternoons (still working from home due to COVID but getting word that may change) I may take an hour or so there.
 
JamieJ said:
I normally build when the kids go to bed. I always say I’ll just do an hour or two but more often than not I can’t stop until the build is finished. I need to get better at pacing myself.
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I can definitely relate to the "I can't stop til it's done", but the longer I work on it the more mistakes I make. Fresh eyes make all the difference. Especially when troubleshooting; after 15 minutes I call it quits until the next day. Otherwise 15 minutes turns into an hour and I've gotten nowhere
 
BuddytheReow said:
I can definitely relate to the "I can't stop til it's done", but the longer I work on it the more mistakes I make. Fresh eyes make all the difference. Especially when troubleshooting; after 15 minutes I call it quits until the next day. Otherwise 15 minutes turns into an hour and I've gotten nowhere
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It took lifting several pads on a few different boards when I first started to get better at self control on this. Never solder angry!
 
For me it's Saturday afternoons. I usually do component soldering one week (either two light PCBs or one hard one), then offboard wiring the following week, so I break up the tasks over two weeks--I seem to be less error prone (and less frustrated) doing it at this leisurely pace.

I'll prep a build on weeknights by gathering the components and taping them to a sheet.
 
spi said:
For me it's Saturday afternoons. I usually do component soldering one week (either two light PCBs or one hard one), then offboard wiring the following week, so I break up the tasks over two weeks--I seem to be less error prone (and less frustrated) doing it at this leisurely pace.

I'll prep a build on weeknights by gathering the components and taping them to a sheet.
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You must go through a lot of tape if you're building the backfeeder or the low tide :p
 
@Big Monk I work through resistors+diodes, then box caps, then electro caps (I'm guessing most people learn it this way, as it's suggested in most tutorials). I stuff about 4 components at a time usually on opposite corners. Then solder, then clean, then re-stuff.

If I attempted to stuff the whole board, I think having all the leads poking out everywhere would frustrate me. Usually when I stuffed components near each other, the lead of one will interfere with where I want to hold the iron.
 
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I do it on the weekends, mostly. The kiddo takes a nap around noon and I head out to the garage then and spend a few hours out there, till its time for the kiddo to have dinner, usually around 4:30, so I get about 4 hours or so, usually. Sometimes I will do that both Saturday and Sunday, but it relies on my wife watching our daughter so I try to be respectful of that time for her as well.

If it is a smaller PCB and I already have a decal I can, in that 4 hours, build the PCB and get the enclosure artwork and drilling done, leaving the offboard wiring and instillation, which takes about an hour and a half, so if I go to the garage on a Sunday it's usually to finish up a build.
 
BuddytheReow said:
I can definitely relate to the "I can't stop til it's done", but the longer I work on it the more mistakes I make. Fresh eyes make all the difference. Especially when troubleshooting; after 15 minutes I call it quits until the next day. Otherwise 15 minutes turns into an hour and I've gotten nowhere
Click to expand...
I've been in the habit a long time to finish assembly or wiring one day, and test it the next day when I'm fresh so I don't rush anything, can think clearly and don't make more of a mess than I already did
 
I get much more done in winter, they're generally mild here and work is slow, but I should have a little more time now that I'm back in system design and sales, hours are a little more regular and I can work some from home, we live off the beaten path so commuting takes a hunk out of my me time. I generally get a creative spurt and do up a bunch of enclosures, I probably have 10 or so ready to go just need to populate some boards, just did a couple of Paragon mini's I thought had noise issues, turns out it's my little spark amp, plugged them into my twin reverb, with a Strat and flourescent lighting get a little hiss at higher gain, onto a couple of Randall Reds, I too, populate low to high and if doing multiples of the same board I do them all at once
 
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JamieJ said:
I normally build when the kids go to bed. I always say I’ll just do an hour or two but more often than not I can’t stop until the build is finished. I need to get better at pacing myself.
Click to expand...
Same. Except, I normally do board one night and wiring the next.
 
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