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What was your biggest project Disaster? We are asking e14 in our Join, Share & Win Competition

e14phil

Calling all makers, engineers, and tinkerers!
We are back for a second, and more SPOOKY month, asking you about your projects, spaces and adventures in engineering!
Last month we asked you about your workbench tips RE: What are your Tips for an Organized Workbench? [Ask e14 - Join, Share & Win Competition] September 2025 

This month we want to know about the biggest project disaster you have experienced. 

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Photos: Historically "accurate" engineering accidents.  

Competition
Join the element14 Community today and take part in our latest “Join, Share & Win” challenge.

It’s simple:
1. Register (or Login) for FREE
2. Answer this question by adding a reply / commenting:

What was your biggest project Disaster?

3. Be in with a chance to WIN!

Share with us your best (hopefully lighthearted) watercooler story of how that one project sank, fell over or failed to start!

The Community Judge team will select our 3 favorite answers to win one of the prizes below. 

Here’s what you could win:

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Arduino Uno R4 Minima

General Terms
What: Win 1 of 3 Arduino UNO R4 Minima
How: Sign up  or Sign in and Comment your answer to What was your biggest project Disaster?
When: Before October 31th 2025. 
Anything else: Full terms are below, but we must be able to ship to the address in your account. 

Entries close October 31st, 2025, so don’t wait!

Terms & Conditions
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Parents

  • The biggest project disaster of my career, a failure of due diligence, happened while volunteering with Engineers Without Borders, and it all came down to a shocking failure to do our planning homework. We were excited to plan a solar irrigation system for grain fields in Morocco and secured a significant Spanish government cooperation grant to fund it. We relied on a partner introduced by a previously vetted Moroccan NGO.

    The project imploded when our engineer went for the site survey. He quickly discovered the partner was not planting grain but illegally cultivating marijuana. The entire project was a front to secure our funds and technology for their operation. We immediately canceled the project. The real disaster for me was the administrative fallout: I spent over a year working through the endless bureaucracy to successfully return the grant money to the Spanish government.

    We were too young, too eager, and trusted a secondhand partner without doing enough independent verification. A tough, expensive lesson, but one that drastically changed how our association now evaluates partners.

Reply

  • The biggest project disaster of my career, a failure of due diligence, happened while volunteering with Engineers Without Borders, and it all came down to a shocking failure to do our planning homework. We were excited to plan a solar irrigation system for grain fields in Morocco and secured a significant Spanish government cooperation grant to fund it. We relied on a partner introduced by a previously vetted Moroccan NGO.

    The project imploded when our engineer went for the site survey. He quickly discovered the partner was not planting grain but illegally cultivating marijuana. The entire project was a front to secure our funds and technology for their operation. We immediately canceled the project. The real disaster for me was the administrative fallout: I spent over a year working through the endless bureaucracy to successfully return the grant money to the Spanish government.

    We were too young, too eager, and trusted a secondhand partner without doing enough independent verification. A tough, expensive lesson, but one that drastically changed how our association now evaluates partners.

Children