First about the cot - about 2 months ago I decided to go up the EAA airshow in Oshkosh WI and camp for several days with my older brother. Being that I love to build things, I was going to be sleeping in a tent and that the EAA is the mecca of home builders I thought "I should build a cot to sleep on." Not just any cot of course - it would have to be well designed in style and function.
Now for the lesson mentioned in the title - the lesson being that designs fail - in fact it can be truthfully said that a good design is basically the result of many previous failed designs.
As the day for departure came closer (tomorrow morning to be exact) I spent the afternoon today putting the final touches on the cot and finished the sewing. Late in the afternoon I finally got it all assembled. Now to test it out - I gingerly spread out on the cot - nothing happened and it was actually very comfortable. Then I rolled over - "SNAP." One of the long rails cracked. I was dejected my design (even though aesthetically good) had failed in function. I was crushed - immediately I knew what I would try next (and I'm fairly certain it will work this time) however, there wasn't enough time to get it ready for the trip.
But wait - about an hour later after nursing my crushed spirit I thought "I can't give in this easily."
In the eleventh hour what came to the rescue? A role of twine. I gave the cracked stretcher a tight twine rap and tested the cot again - so far so good. I hope I won't be reporting that I spent the next three nights sleeping on the ground - we shall see.
The point, I guess, of this story is that design never works on the first try (rarely). But then again if it always worked right the first time where would the challenge be? I know I'll be working on the cot again soon and of course the idea I now have on how to improve the cot will work perfectly (sure!).
Current Cot
Ideation Sketches
