Funny in college my lab partner always joked that I didn’t own a shirt without a coffee stain on the chest. I’m 47 now and I’ve finally learned,…to not buy anything except dark colored shirts!
On with the topic at hand. I have plenty of friends that think my 3D printers, SO3 and laser are machines that I somehow turn on, go grab lunch, come back and a perfectly made “product” is just somehow sitting on my workbench waiting for me. I come from a background of sheet metal fabrication, all hand work, always custom. To me at least that sort of work (albeit different) is easier for me and much more natural. It’s like drawing with a pencil and paper versus drawing in CAD. I can draw and sketch all day long with a pencil, but for the life of me I can’t draw anything “organic” in nature on a computer. CNC versus hands on is the same way, it’s a whole different “strategy” to make the same thing on a CNC. It takes time, and lots of scrapped material before it works consistently. Stick to it, it’ll come.
Dan