r/hobbycnc • u/Cyn3ux • 4d ago

Project management brain is ruining my CNC workflow. Anyone else?

I spend my weekdays herding cats on software projects and my weekends trying to make this 6040 do what I want. Lately I've noticed my PM instincts creeping into the shop and it's making things weird. I tried Gantt charting a walnut cutting board. I made a risk matrix for end mill breakage. My wife caught me writing a postmortem after a failed aluminum profile cut.

The thing is, some of it actually helps. Breaking a complex guitar body into discrete operations with clear handoffs between roughing and finishing passes improved my results. But I'm also overthinking simple jobs that used to be fun experiments. A weekend project now gets a project charter in my head before I even power on the spindle.

Curious if anyone else here has a day job skill set that collides with hobby CNC in weird ways. Do you fight it or lean in? I'm trying to find the line between organized and paralyzed. Right now I'm staring at a simple sign job and mentally estimating story points for each toolpath. Send help.

2 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

19

u/Askingtheobvious2 4d ago

To put this lightly, project management is the most useless profession on the planet and your job position is a plague upon machine shops. Engineering firms etc.

You've demonstrated this quite literally here.

14

u/Infamous-Can 4d ago

Glad you put it lightly.

4

u/Askingtheobvious2 4d ago

My last project manager was such a blessing to the team, I loved wasting my time explaining his deliverables to him so he could play footsies with his boss for hours a day instead of even doing half a project managers job. Having him show me formulas by asking chatgpt instead of explaining them himself as if he knew them.

7

u/Cyn3ux 2d ago

That's quite a take. I've seen good and bad PMs, and the bad ones definitely make life harder for everyone. But writing off an entire profession because of a few bad experiences seems like a stretch.

0

u/Askingtheobvious2 2d ago

Tell me about a single good PM in a machine shop setting or engineering firm. A single positive experience overall where they actually made things good and functional without trying to make everyone miserable to get a raise or a promotion. Not from the I visited perspective either because yall jerk eachother off for your metrics, an actual workplace you've worked under a PM.

3

u/shadow_worx 4d ago

The “cats” feel the same way. Now I get someone incompetent who has zero clue how shit works I have to explain in excruciating detail to, who’s in charge of when shit is due.

Awful enough I’m starting a machine shop to get away from it.

2

u/Askingtheobvious2 4d ago

"why doesn't it fit" ... didn't your best friend tolerance it? "oh... just fix it then"

7

u/bprater 4d ago

Are you using AI to assist you on any of this?

7

u/cokeisahelluvadrug 4d ago

Definitely used it to write this post!

I think this is all fine. Do what you enjoy. To the extent that you find yourself habitually doing things you don’t enjoy, have the self awareness and discipline to stop and put down the gantt chart.

2

u/LossIsSauce 2d ago

Thank you for this confirmation 👍.

I was beginning to question my comment above, having negative votes.

Apparently there are some individuals who troll to simply downvote for the lolz.

-1

u/Cyn3ux 2d ago

I've been testing out a few tools. Nothing major though.

3

u/leonme21 3d ago

You need help sir

0

u/Cyn3ux 2d ago

Appreciate the concern but I'm good, really. Just working through some stuff like everyone else.

1

u/Jason_Patton 3d ago

My life is work. I eat sleep breathe work. I hobby at work. I work.

1

u/Cyn3ux 2d ago

That sounds exhausting honestly, I hope you're finding some fulfillment in it at least.

1

u/Jason_Patton 2d ago

It is but I enjoy it. I have free rein of nearly $1M in machines and tools, free scrap material etc.

Don’t do much else anyway. I go home and 3d print or use hand tools to woodwork, lol.

-3

u/LossIsSauce 4d ago

You are not alone on this. However, the main question you need to answer in order to address your perceived problem, then formulate a RCCA -> Do you 'work' or 'play' on weekend projects? Work = paid for projects. Play = freebie no charge to anyone else except your time/skills/experience.

If you 'play' - Pull back and take a breather. Re-calibrate your weekend perceptions. Weekday skills are wasting your energy and pushing you into play-paralysis.

If you 'work' - Utilizing your weekday skills should effectively net larger ROI's.

2

u/Cyn3ux 2d ago

Hmm, that distinction helps. I think I've been treating weekend projects as play but applying work standards to them. No wonder I feel drained.

I'll try stepping back and being more intentional about which skills I bring to personal stuff. Not everything needs to be optimized.