Master carpenters use incredible tools tools they make. Its amazing what can be done with a piece of string and a weight a level and a straight edge. Kind of like drafting on a grand scale. I am good with metal I suck with wood. I still cant get over the fact that a two by four is really 1.5 by 3.5 or there abouts.... drives me nuts that i have to design on center..... But master carpenter do heady things like figuring a hip on a roof Compound angles fo eves and how in the heck do they make those birds mouths come out in the right place..... Or framing up a post and beam roof.... I am in awe...
With regard to no training....I wouldn't say no training... Like your grandpa people taught me.... good math skills and understanding a little about geometry helped. And listening carefully when someone took time to teach you something. When I took the equivalent of an apprentice job at Teledyne Ryan I was terrified all those big bucks tool designers would find me out..... Back then they made 50-75 K a year... Me Waaay not so much.... LOL Minimum wage was around five or six bucks back then.
So I read every manual that accompanied the project. Having to do with ANSI Standards and what Boeing required with regard to their drawing protocols. Six months in I wound up telling a Drawing checker he was wrong when he marked my drawing in red..... And proved it. He hired me away when he left to start his own company....
Also in all the places I have worked the best ones had machine shops on premisis.... I learned more from those guys as well. Especially when I messed up. But often they would tell me tricks about designing according to how it was going to be manufactured... There is a difference between a hand brake for bending sheet metal and a press brake.... and even if it can be made with the machinery in house.
I would love to be back in the business of drawing and designing..... My last job took me in the relm of Sustaining engineereing which involves a huge amount of paperwork that has to be appoved by a stupifying chain of people with special interests and standards. You see Europe has a different EPA standard than us.... Theirs is called ROHS.... Dont remember what the acornym means.... But they wont allow manufacturing with lead of any kind.... That job intailed converting products existing and being sold here in the US over to the ROHS standard because we were beginning to sell those products over seas. Not only did we have to find equivalent parts and swap them out we had to proove those parts were compliant to the ROHS standards. Plus since we were sellng internationally we had to comply with ISO9001 standards.... basically documentation and accountability through the whole process from first article to end of life. This last was also required by the AMA because we were producing equipment for the medical industry.
I burned out.... I would love to work in house lend some of my design skills to a start up company for part time wages. Or even go through some place and convert their paper drawings to CAD and provide Form Fit and Function checks. Sadly I cant work for myself..... tried it didnt like it.
No right now I am writing a book. Living with Grandma and giving her the support she needs. Even though she is 97 she has every spark she was born with. I cook dinner take her to the doctor and sleep with a baby monitor at my head incase she falls again. She broke her hip last year.... sigh. She gives me a little money that feeds the animals at my house and handles the utilities and fuel.
I need to build another computer though and get my software up and running again so i can practice.... The coop project is keeping me motiviated for that.
deb
We made soaps, sugar and salt scrubs, bath salts and such and it was a fun time for me and my sisters. The lip balms had shea butter, cocoa butter, Vit. E oil, ect., the usual kind of balms used to promote skin softness. I'd add honey, vanilla, etc. so they tasted good if you accidentally licked your lips.
