I’m a pretty good fabricator.
Notice I didn’t say I’m a great fabricator. That’s because I understand, and possibly even embrace, my limitations when it comes to the creation of things from nothingness.
My dad used to work as a power plant fire and safety inspector. He basically had the same job as Homer Simpson, though he didn’t share that character’s less-than-exceptional approach to project management. After amassing a pretty decent career, he quit and decided to go into business for himself as a building contractor. Through summers of assisting him in that industry, as well as a lifetime of being around his love of craftsmanship, I picked up just enough knowledge about making stuff from scratch to be truly dangerous.
Looking back, I probably should have given the attention to the planning phases of jobs than I did the actual construction phases. I love the building: seeing a form arise from the nothingness, feeling structure take root from otherwise flimsy materials. But the planning part–you know, the part where you figure out what exactly you want to build and how it will look–did not sink in the way it should have.
Case in point: I recently constructed a new aviary for the five parrots my wife and I share a home with (yes, I’m one of THOSE people). My mind could easily conjure a view of the finished product and the various fancy features that would enhance the lives of my avian pals. But no matter how many times I sat down to make sketches and come up with an accurate supply list, I just couldn’t wrap my head around the project.
Once I actually started construction, though, I could easily fill in those blanks. There’s probably a fancy science word for it, but I guess I just needed to see the aviary taking shape in physical space–to actually feel how the various tubes and connectors mated together–to be able to properly finish the job in my head.
And despite the lack of any drawn plans, my creation turned out quite lovely–if I may be so bold as to speak for my tropical friends. Despite my intellectual inability to properly plan a project, I take no less joy in seeing a job well done. There’s really no satisfaction like the satisfaction of creation, even if the first few steps consist of trial, error and repeat.
If anything, being a poor planner has taught me to overbuild most of my fabrication projects. When you’re armed with only a rudimentary knowledge of construction technique, you tend to just keep applying reinforcements–no matter how many trips you have to make to the hardware store for more self-tapping screws–until your project no longer moves, bends, flexes or sways.
And I know I’m not the only one who approaches a fabrication project with a “build-to-fit” spirit. If everyone out there is so good at planning projects, why does Home Depot sell trim in more than one width? Do you really think expanding foam was made with the “Pocket Ref” crowd in mind?
I’ve learned to pick my battles, too. No way would I ever build a roll cage from scratch. I’d feel comfortable welding up someone else’s work–my welds may not always be beautiful, but damn it, they stick–but no way am I going to be in charge of measuring, cutting and bending. I have no doubt that if I built a roll cage, the car would be safe, but it would also weigh 6000 pounds and you wouldn’t be able to get in or out without deploying the jaws of life.
So please let my bad example be an inspiration to all of you. Go out to the garage and build something, no matter how small and insignificant. If it doesn’t work, keep putting self-tapping screws into it until it does, or at least until it becomes too pointy to hold. You learn a lot about yourself when you’re making something out of nothing. For example, I’ve learned that my best weld beads always occur when I’m welding the Vise-Grips to my work piece. But when I see that beautiful, symmetrical bead being laid down through my darkened visor, I’m not stopping for anything.
If you see me at an event this summer, stop by and share some of your fabrication tales. I love to see what other people create with their bare hands and skill. I’ll even let you sit in the fancy new Momo race seat I just installed in the 350Z project. Just please, God, do not look at the seat bracket. The guy who fabbed it up–well, I’m not so sure about him.
Comments
te72
Reader
4/23/18 11:10 p.m.
Enjoyed the article Tim. Was talking to my fiance the other day, and she happened to say that I could have been an engineer. Apparently I have the right mindset for it. This made me think… I’ve always had a knack for structurally sound design, even going back to a kid with legos.
Wish I had realized this at a much younger age and applied myself toward such a goal, but in my youth, I had no idea what I wanted out of life! It’s only been in recent years that I’ve discovered a love of working with metal, both for artistic and functional pieces. Started with fabricating a duct for the heat exchangers on the Supra project. Sure, it may look like a bbq lid, but it works quite well!
Since then I’ve taken on some welding. Mostly artistic pieces, as the Supra was more or less done with the fabrication phase, but I did figure out how to recirculate my wastegate. Cured a nasty boost creep situation and built a high level of confidence all at once! 🙂
In short, don’t be afraid to try new things guys, just make sure you’re being safe about how you do it, and try to think ahead to what happens if your creation breaks. Most importantly, try to have fun with it, no need to let school get in the way of education, as a much wiser man once said…
JG Pasterjak said:
For example, I’ve learned that my best weld beads always occur when I’m welding the Vise-Grips to my work piece. But when I see that beautiful, symmetrical bead being laid down through my darkened visor, I’m not stopping for anything.
That’s beautiful.
I thought I was the only one who could see the finished product and not see the steps required to get there. Again I also need to keep ‘adding’ pieces because I lack the artistic skill to draw it for others to see.
Thankfully my boss who is much more adept at fabrication can understand my explanations of “I wanna put this thing over that thing to do this” tho it still helps greatly if I have the pieces to demonstrate what I ‘want’ to mean.
SVreX
MegaDork
4/25/18 10:49 a.m.
I was a design major.
In my senior year, I looked around at my classmates and realized they were all better than me. I would have a tough time competing against st them in the real world. They were great designers. I have a love for design, but I don’t work well with a blank piece of paper. I am much better at implementing other people’s designs
It took me a lot of years to realize that 99% of people can’t understand plans. Owners pay designers to draw stuff, but don’t have any understanding of what it will look like when finished. When I look at a set of plans, I visualize it in 3D. I didn’t know most people can’t do that.
I am excellent at planning a project and implementing it, but I am best when someone else is involved in the design process.
te72
Reader
4/25/18 11:41 p.m.
In reply to SVreX :
I had a revelation along similar lines today, having a discussion with a coworker. It would seem that I have a thing for recognizing patterns in numbers, and extrapolating meaningful data from them. Apparently it’s also not something everybody’s brain does… Perception is a weird thing sometimes! I take it as a gift though. =)
In your case, with design, it makes me wonder how much longer engineers will be needed. Given what programs like Solidworks can achieve, could a good designer effectively replace an engineer these days? Personally, I hope not, as I’m definitely mentally more on the engineer side of things than the design side…
te72 said:
In reply to SVreX :
I had a revelation along similar lines today, having a discussion with a coworker. It would seem that I have a thing for recognizing patterns in numbers, and extrapolating meaningful data from them. Apparently it’s also not something everybody’s brain does… Perception is a weird thing sometimes! I take it as a gift though. =)
In your case, with design, it makes me wonder how much longer engineers will be needed. Given what programs like Solidworks can achieve, could a good designer effectively replace an engineer these days? Personally, I hope not, as I’m definitely mentally more on the engineer side of things than the design side…
Considering that most people who call themselves “engineers” these day’s can’t even engineer…I doubt very much a designer would be able to.
(And yes, I am an engineer. And yes, I have had my share of stupid moments, too.)
If one doesn’t have a good foundation in core engineering, no amount of Solidworks sorcery will make up for that. The computer will happily let you design something that looks pretty and might work, but costs 3x as much as more elegant solution and isn’t serviceable and causes the production guys to take your name in vain when they try to put it together.
SVreX
MegaDork
4/26/18 7:19 p.m.
In reply to te72 :
If we had all designers and no engineers, I’m certain we could expect lots of things like this:
(brought to you by Solidworks)
volvoclearinghouse said:
te72 said:
In reply to SVreX :
I had a revelation along similar lines today, having a discussion with a coworker. It would seem that I have a thing for recognizing patterns in numbers, and extrapolating meaningful data from them. Apparently it’s also not something everybody’s brain does… Perception is a weird thing sometimes! I take it as a gift though. =)
In your case, with design, it makes me wonder how much longer engineers will be needed. Given what programs like Solidworks can achieve, could a good designer effectively replace an engineer these days? Personally, I hope not, as I’m definitely mentally more on the engineer side of things than the design side…
Considering that most people who call themselves “engineers” these day’s can’t even engineer…I doubt very much a designer would be able to.
(And yes, I am an engineer. And yes, I have had my share of stupid moments, too.)
If one doesn’t have a good foundation in core engineering, no amount of Solidworks sorcery will make up for that. The computer will happily let you design something that looks pretty and might work, but costs 3x as much as more elegant solution and isn’t serviceable and causes the production guys to take your name in vain when they try to put it together.
Lots of engineers don’t even use solidworks. I never really learned CAD in school, and have never used it in the 26 years I’ve been an engineer.
Just want to point that out.
In reply to alfadriver :
Good point. I learned ProE in school, and never touched a CAD terminal after college for about 7 years. Then I got heavily into Solidworks design – went through the factory training and everything…did that for 5 years or so. But for the past 5 years now I use it only sporadically- perhaps once or twice a month.
That being said, there’s no reason to not be enthused about being able to design stuff. The big thing is to picture what is required, being able to roughly put it on paper, make the proper measurements so that you can translate that to a CAD program, which should make sure it will fit.
The other things that engineers to is understand the calculations and measurements. You have an idea of the loads, chemistry, electrical load, etc (depending on what kind of engineer), and can calculate what the outputs should be. Which really means, today, is that you really understand the outputs of models, so that you can either confirm your ideas or modify them to be better.
All of that can be learned, te72, so if you are really interested in being an engineer, look into those calculations to see if you are interested in learning the process. Then you have the choice to “know enough to be dangerous” to be a home engineer, or actually pursue a degree to do it for a living.
If you learn enough to be a skilled fabricator, you can have a lot of fun doing more advanced design in this hobby. Mind you, even a lot of us engineers let previous people to some of the work- like I’d buy my brackets from a circle track store instead of design and cut them myself. Some things it can be worth the hard work, many others it’s worth letting other people do the work a long time ago.
Which is a segway into my favorite advice- when starting out, copy the leader. Then understand how it work, and do it better. Even if you think you can do it better out of the box, it’s WAY better to not assume you can out design the hundreds of not thousands who came before you.
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