Yesterday, I wanted to finish up a new hardness tester and all I wanted to do was make a threaded ring to screw onto the threaded point. As the thread pitch is 3/4 x 10, I wanted 20 divisions marked on it to show .005 advance for each mark. I put it in the index head and proceeded to mark them every 10 degrees. That gave me 36 divisions, so scrap that one. I make another and put in the index head, then mis-index about halfway around. I scrap that one and start over. I get the index done successfully, put it in the lathe to chamfer the edges, get the first side done with a threading tool and start to do the other side. The ring is threaded against a shoulder to hold in place, and guess what, the ring comes loose and unscrews itself running backward over the threading tool scrapping that one. I finally got one made and marked without messing up. This should have been a five to ten minute job, tops. Instead, I spent over an hour on this while I had two jobs promised to deliver before the end of the day to two important customers.
I did eventually get the two jobs done and delivered. I made it to the bank at 10 minutes 'till closing time.
I'm just glad I didn't start on the customer's jobs first. One was a 1917 Harley single cylinder that needed bored and honed. It took the customer more than a year to find an original cast iron piston and this for a very rare 1917 single cylinder bike. Harley had basically quit producing that engine in 1915, so to find one to replace it is just not going to happen. This kind of thing is just about enough to make one a nervous wreck.
Both jobs got done and delivered. Today, I get to work on MY stuff. (I hope)