If at first you don't succeed

There's a piece of equipment I want (one of many) that in theory would make the production of my product significantly easier. But it costs upwards of $10k not to mention how much space it would take up in my production space so it's really not a realistic option at this point.

In a moment of what I considered - at the time - pure genius - I found an $18 machine that would, I thought, mimic what the $10K machine would do so I could at least see if said machine would, in threory, work. I figured it would speed up production slightly but it would also give me insight into whether - when and if - I had a spare $10K laying around, the big beautiful machine would be a smart investment.

So I got the $18 machine and set it up in my kitchen yesterday figuring that if it went haywire the kitchen would be the easiest place to clean up. Rather than using the "typical" raw material I use, I decided to first test it out on some "other" raw material I had bought some time ago but hadn't exactly worked the way I needed it to.

I don't know why I thought that if it didn't work the first time it would miraculously work the second time with this brand-spanking new $18 machine but I thought it did. Let's just say the only smart part of this plan was the fact that the kitchen is, in hindsight, the easiest room in the house to clean up.

So after trial run #1 I took the dogs for a run (which is like tying two screaming banshees onto your waist and letting them go wild) and figured:
1. My husband was going to be working late that night and
2. The housecleaner is coming next week

Which in my mind meant that yesterday evening was the perfect time to try again.

So once again I went through the process of preparing the raw material (this time using the "real" raw material and praying that it worked otherwise I'd just lost a fair amount of expensive raw material) and getting it into the machine. To my surprise and amazement it actually worked! And I was right, it does cut down production time a surprising amount. In fact the $18 machine works so well for my current purposes that I may just hold onto that extra $10K when I happen to find it!

Lesson learned - sometimes thinking outside the box can lead to a giant mess. But sometimes being stubborn enough to not let the idea go means you may actually find success!