Slippery slope into DIYaholicism

Friends,
I have a problem.

Last year I completed my first DIY project, a G1176...it's not the prettiest, it doesn't have the fanciest components in it, but it's mine and I love it. It's currently a permanent resident in my bass-rig.

Early in Feb I started on my G9. I've got the components on the board, got the wires soldered into the holes for the XLRs. Still waiting to do the instrument jack mod though, and I've not attached the control boards either. I've done the CAD drawing for the front panel and passed it to my friendly mechanical engineer to drill for me in his fancy milling machine. He's doing it for free (as in beer), so I don't know when it'll be finished. Probably no time soon, so my soldering-iron hand is getting itchy and my eye is wandering to other DIY projects. In short my G9 has stalled.

My situation was worsened when Gustav put Calreq boards up for sale, so I bought some. Think they're gonna be a rainy-day project....I started getting an order together for the components, but it got kinda expensive and I got bored and binned the basket at Farnell.

Furthermore I've bought some new headphones which I'm fairly sure are going to be difficult to drive, so I went looking for a headphone amp. Commercial ones are awfully expensive so I looked a DIYing one and found Perander's rather sexy looking QRV07...I'm waiting for pay-day to try and order one of his boards. Then I'll need to buy all the components and find time to stick it all together. Or maybe it'll just sit in the drawer with the calrec boards.....

Part of my loss of enthusiasm is down to work being terribly busy and a need to do normal life stuff. I know for sure if I said to my girlfriend..."can't go out this evening, I'm soldering" she would either kill me to death on the spot or burst into tears and run for the hills.

I really enjoyed making my G1176, and so far I've had fun making my G9. But since it's stalled I just seem to have started hankering for something new. I think it's because my plan for my mostly DIY bass-rig (G9, Calreq, G1176, bought-power-amp, DIY cab) is getting more and more of a reality I keep jumping towards different parts of it. I think I just need to stick to one thing at a time.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems? How did you re-motivate yourself or did you just go with the flow and work on different things as you felt drawn to them?

Colin

oh yes....I have the same problem.
I've got so many partially completed DIY projects.... ???
Lately I've been forcing myself to finish a project before I start another one as a strict rule....and it's working....kind of. I have to admit it's getting better, a little better...all the time
Seriously, just try to steadily plug away at it, and it will get done. Then when you post a pic we'll all salute you with a Guinness smiley     hey! where did they go

Colin

Compared to some of us you're problem in alcoholism terms is just like having an ocassional glass of wine !

Also comparing it to alcoholism at least you're only damaging your wealth & not your health as well !

there is a certain sense of feeling like you're in the game
by being Active [ having something on the go ]

as i've mentioned before everytime i want a marshall again
i just go play for a while and enjoy myself , it's enough

the record version of that is record a song [ use what ya got ]
for me it's always at least as good as the song & perfromance

I thought you meant having your own bathtub gin for breakfast or something. As long as you keep your teeth brushed and the rent paid, in, proceed.
Call Dr PRR only when you want to spin your own speaker wire.
Mike

I like to *always be thinking* of something. I've found that DIY keeps the brain active in the off hours when there's nothing else to dwell on. I often fall asleep wondering how to solve a certain DIY dilemma. And I often awake with the answer. I guess that's the purpose of hobbies.

In your case, I would try to keep 2 or three projects in mind at a time. While waiting for parts to arrive for one project, you can be drilling a chassis for another. But I'd cap it at 3 - don't let unfinished projects build up. 2009 is my year of finishing those unfinished projects... You can always throw in a stompbox project when you need some immediate gratification.

Fun isn't it? I love that there's always a new promising project on the horizon...

I'm sliding fast, went on frenzy of buying boards last year, then decided to build everything in parallel so I could benefit from buying large quantities of components, it has kinda paid off as I now have over 30 boards almost fully stuffed, so close now to finishing something.

Today I worked out I need to buy 32 audio transformers to finish many of these projects and it's kinda like I am going to have to 2nd mortgage the house to buy and ship them! So close but now it feels so far away.Today was not a fun DIY day, reality hit and hit hard.

Michael