September 9, 2002

5:55 PM

Churning out code all day is all well and good but for a feeling of a job well done nothing can take the place of making something with your own hands. Dave Gingery will show you how to build a foundry to cast parts for a lathe which you can use to make a shaper which you need to build the milling machine etc etc :) Also worth a mention is Ron Reil who knows a thing or two about propane burners for foundries (last link has a very cool pic).
posted by zeoslap (10 comments total)

What a great post, wonderfully different.
posted by Blake at 6:20 PM on September 9, 2002

very nice set of links, thanks Zeoslap.
posted by advil at 6:27 PM on September 9, 2002

MY friend Dennis who I've known since grade school actually does a lot of this stuff; he and his brothers have their own metal forge and an ungodly amount of wood and metal-working tools in their basement. They've done everything from simple wood carvings to entire suits of armor- all from the comfort of their own home. Some of his stuff can be seen here and here.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:36 PM on September 9, 2002

I'd wanted to build a nice desk and was trying to figure out how to fabricate some pieces when I stumbled into this whole little community, really interesting stuff. I'm midway through building the gingery forge which is a fun little project (until I lose my eyebrows that is)

Liked your friends work Xquzyphyr especially the rings.
posted by zeoslap at 7:23 PM on September 9, 2002

This is great! A surplus store just opened up down town and I've been looking for projects that I can use old industrial equipment and scrap metal for.
posted by Nothing at 7:57 PM on September 9, 2002

Holy cow! Wotta post! I'm going to be reading all night ... I'm in the middle of trying to figure out how to finance my own metal studio.

I had a friend in college whose father was a banker, but built intricate wooden models as a hobby. He was constantly building tools to make better tools.

You've inspired me, zeoslap. Thanks.
posted by mccreath at 8:09 PM on September 9, 2002

This post made me think of one of the countless websites I would love to build. It would be a guide to how to progress technologically from a pointy stick to the current age. Kind of a post-apocalypse How-Things-Work(ed) guide. I presume Mr. Gingery would be able to handle quite a bit of the Iron Age material. Of course if it was ever completed you would want to have a hardcopy...
posted by hifimofo at 8:12 PM on September 9, 2002

Churning out code all day is all well and good but for a feeling of a job well done nothing can take the place of making something with your own hands.

So, what do the rest of you use to write code, if not your hands? I'm getting some mighty funny mental pictures over here. And I'm worrying that maybe I was doing it wrong all those years.
posted by kindall at 9:08 PM on September 9, 2002

Pointy Stick book would be very cool hifimofo, I once read a story where some people managed to snag somebody from the future, unfortunately they just got some average joe who could tell them about all these wonders that surrounded him but had no idea how any of it actually worked.
posted by zeoslap at 12:43 AM on September 10, 2002

I worked in a machine shop for a period of about 6 months and it was a very rewarding time. Building prototype parts for a larger creation was a great feeling because with no OEM parts it is 100% yours and you have something to ogle over in the end.
posted by Dr_Octavius at 5:13 AM on September 10, 2002