The Rabbit hole project

When One Project Turns Into Three

It’s been a while since I last sat down to write one of these updates.

For a while I kept thinking, I’ll write something once I’ve finished this project. But that moment never seemed to arrive. Every time I thought I was getting close, something else appeared around the corner.

That’s probably the biggest lesson from the last few months.

Making isn’t a straight line.

Sometimes you start with one idea and, before you know it, you’re redesigning half the workshop, learning entirely new skills and questioning whether the original project was ever really the project at all.

The YouTube Project That Grew Legs

The intention was simple.

I wanted to build a rotary indexer for the overhead router and film the process for YouTube.

It sounded straightforward enough.

Design the mechanics.

Build it.

Film it.

Edit the video.

Instead, that single idea has gradually turned into three separate projects.

The mechanical build became only one part of the story.

Then came the electronics.

Then came the software.

What I expected to be a relatively simple controller quickly became a deep dive into coding, user interfaces, motion control, serial communication and machine logic.

I don’t come from a software background.

Engineering and making have always been where I feel comfortable, but coding has a way of exposing every assumption you didn’t realise you were making.

There have been evenings where I’ve spent hours tracking down a problem that turned out to be one missing line of code.

Frustrating?

Absolutely.

Rewarding?

Also yes.

The project has taught me far more than I expected, but it’s also consumed far more time than I ever planned.

Why the Videos Have Been Quiet

If you’ve been wondering why the YouTube channel has slowed down, that’s the honest answer.

I haven’t stopped making.

I’ve simply been making things that don’t always translate into quick videos.

It’s difficult to film progress when the progress is buried inside thousands of lines of code or another evening spent testing one tiny change.

Sometimes an entire weekend results in nothing visible at all.

But underneath the surface, the project keeps moving forward.

I’ve realised that’s part of documenting a workshop honestly.

Not every step is photogenic.

Some of the most important work happens where nobody can really see it.

Then I Bought a Milling Machine…

As if one rabbit hole wasn’t enough, another opportunity appeared.

I bought a milling machine.

It wasn’t exactly part of the original plan, but it was too good an opportunity to ignore.

Of course, buying the machine turned out to be the easy part.

Getting it into the workshop was another challenge entirely.

That meant a complete rethink of the layout.

Machines had to move.

Storage had to move.

Power had to move.

Walkways changed.

Tools found new homes.

The workshop ended up having one of its biggest reorganisations since I first set it up.

Then came the electrical work.

The machine needed rewiring, a proper control system and integration into the workshop’s electrical setup before I was happy using it.

It’s still a work in progress, but it’s already changing what’s possible in the workshop.

I’m looking forward to having accurate milling alongside the CNC router and the lathe.

Building Something You Can’t See

Another project that’s quietly absorbed a surprising amount of time has been something called Oakfields Compass.

For a long time I’ve struggled with the feeling that ideas disappear faster than I can develop them.

Projects overlap.

Experiments get forgotten.

YouTube ideas become workshop ideas.

Workshop ideas become coding problems.

Everything starts living in different notebooks, scraps of paper and phone notes.

So I decided to build my own system.

Oakfields Compass has become a custom workspace inside Notion that’s designed around how I actually work rather than forcing myself into someone else’s productivity system.

It’s becoming a place where ideas grow into projects.

Projects are broken into sessions.

Sessions create the next action.

Experiments get recorded.

Lessons aren’t lost.

It’s still evolving, but I can already see how much clearer everything feels.

Ironically, building an organisation system became another project that needed organising.

Learning New Skills

One thing I’ve noticed is how often making pushes you into learning completely different disciplines.

This year alone I’ve spent time learning about:

• Embedded programming

• Motion control

• Electrical control systems

• VFD configuration

• Workshop power distribution

• Machine restoration

• Better project management

None of those were on the original plan.

But that’s often how these things work.

You don’t just build the thing.

You become the person capable of building the thing.

That’s the real project.

Looking Ahead

The encouraging part is that these projects are beginning to connect.

The milling machine opens new possibilities for future builds.

The coding work will hopefully become the foundation for several future machines, not just one.

Oakfields Compass is already making it easier to manage everything without feeling overwhelmed.

Most importantly, I feel like I’ve stopped chasing the idea of finishing everything before sharing it.

The process is the interesting part.

The problems are part of the story.

If anything, I think this period has reminded me what I want Oakfields Creative to be.

Not a channel that only shows polished results.

A place that documents the real journey of figuring things out.

Sometimes that’s woodworking.

Sometimes it’s machining.

Sometimes it’s wiring a control cabinet.

Sometimes it’s staring at code for three hours wondering why one button refuses to work.

That’s all part of making.

One Step at a Time

Looking back, it’s easy to feel like progress has been slow.

Looking a little closer, I realise the opposite is true.

The workshop has changed.

My skills have grown.

The projects have become more ambitious.

And although it’s taken longer than I expected, I’m building foundations that should make everything that follows that little bit better.

The goal over the next few months is simple.

Finish what I’ve started.

Share more of the journey.

And remember that sometimes the most interesting projects are the ones that refuse to stay small.