My grandfather could fix things, and he imparted this upon my father, who imparted it upon me.
I have an uncle that will deconstruct a car's engine to every individual part, clean each one, replace and repair anything that is worn, and put it back together again.
I haven't dissected an engine like that, but I imagine I could. I think the biggest obstacle to fixing things isn't lack of knowledge, but lack of confidence.
Neat idea. kleinbl00, I think you would like this article. Additionally, we’ve been forced into shallow relationships with our material possessions and have become increasingly dependent on manufacturers. And finally, overall craftsmanship has declined, and we possess fewer objects worth taking pride in and passing to the next generation. (No one’s going to inherit my $32 athletic watch.)The societal shift toward products that are untouchable, robotic and useless when single parts break has given rise to a number of unfortunate consequences. First off, our landfills have swollen: The average American throws away 4.4 pounds of trash per day, compared to 2.68 pounds in 1960, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
I'm actually of two (maybe three) minds about it. On the one hand, I blithely tell people I've forgotten more about cars than they'll ever know, which stops the conversation quickly and appropriately. If they press, they learn that it's true. And I can say with fairly frank honesty that there's no object in my life that I don't understand at a basic level… and my life is full of fairly complex gadgets. Could I build the Engine Control Module for my fuel injection on my motorcycle? Not without a lot of time and a lot of trial and error… but I know what it's supposed to do, I know how it does it, I know what components it uses to do it and I have a rudimentary understanding of the way it all goes together. And I honestly don't see how people go through life not understanding how their engine works as clearly as they understand how their heart pumps. Anything else is to live in fear. On the other hand, because I have that level of understanding of how things work, I know that one thing the past 100 years have built up is efficiency and that when one component goes, the rest of the components aren't very far behind. It's like that coffee grinder - yeah, dude, if the shaft is fried, chuck the fucker. The bushings on the motor aren't far behind. Many times the parts you need simply aren't available. I had a rogue Roland JV-1000 for a while because not only did someone spill beer on it, but because the repair shop correctly deduced that the problem was with the I/O board but incorrectly blamed one little chip (the keyscan IC) on said board. So they pulled the chip. Never mind the fact that SMT rework is a stone cold bitch; Roland has their own chip factory where they roll their own ASICs and if you needed a keyscan IC, you were buying the board. Or, because it's Roland, another JV-1000. Which they didn't make any more. So just because you can fix it doesn't mean you should fix it. Because: On yet another hand, what's discussed here: Is called the Ikea Effect. In other words, just because you stuck a screwdriver to it does not mean it's worth more. It means it's worth more to you because you have sunk costs. And oh god. I've got sunk cost fallacies. There's probably six years of my life on that one pathetic page. You should have seen the patchbays. Sweet holy fuck. Just because you can take it all apart and put it all back together again doesn't mean you should.
“This is the highlight of my day,” Vegdahl said as he waited for the chrome Sunbeam, probably a 1950s model, to cool off so he could take it home. “I’m a software person; I don’t have a lot of mechanical aptitude. I’m not good at taking things apart.”
I think it's super cool that the one Soundboard that you spent so many man-hours of work on ended up on exactly the message board you surf. Your refurb also reminds me a lot of what my Dad does for a hobby - Fix up a metal working machine with the machines he has, then sell one of the old ones and keep the new one. He puts so many hours of labour into each one, it's impressive.
Oh, man. If he doesn't know about Dave Gingery you've got your Christmas gifts covered 'til rapture. There's something joyous about machine tools that woodworking or plastics just can't touch. I've actually never been on those boards before; I was looking up a "Wheatstone Audioarts LM-80" for some other conversation on Reddit and stumbled across that thread, live. The amazing thing is two days later the guy who pulled the board back in '96 showed up.
| I've actually never been on those boards before; I was looking up a "Wheatstone Audioarts LM-80" for some other conversation on Reddit and stumbled across that thread, live. The amazing thing is two days later the guy who pulled the board back in '96 showed up. | that's amazing. Also, i'll ask him about Dave Gingery>
Don't ask. If he had a vast assortment of "crotchety-old-man-with-a-metal-shop books" you'd know. Gingery has a series of books that's basically "how to turn beer cans and used shovels into a mutherfucking car factory." Sucka does not fuck around.
He DOES have a ridiculous amount of back issues of Home Shop Machinist, but i don't recall Gingery's name. I think I know what he's getting for father's day.
The only thing that gives me more satisfaction around the house and office than fixing things is building things. I can't say I find it fun, as it usually involves a lot of screwing up, starting over, and liberal use of every curse word I can think of. But in the end, when you have a beautiful, new hardwood floor, or you've saved a million dollar microscope from the scrap heap, there's no better feeling. I bought my condo out of foreclosure from the developer, and there was very little finished on the interior. So I can look at almost every room (except the bathrooms, which were done, and which are my least favorite rooms), and say I did that, which is awesome. It's not perfect. I'm sure any professional would scoff and laugh at some of my work, but it's all workable. I did my best, and it didn't cost me anything more than the price of materials (including the copious amounts of beer I drank while doing it, which is the best part of doing any home project).
I haven't dissected an engine like that, but I imagine I could. I think the biggest obstacle to fixing things isn't lack of knowledge, but lack of confidence.
I am starting to realize this. I just moved and in doing so I had to fix and replace many things in the home we sold. I had to do the same in the home we moved in to. I'm starting to enjoy using power tools, which makes me feel.... old.