[TheForge] Build it or buy it

[Dan Rathburn]

Ries
I look at it this way, if I have the time to make the tool and it's within
my abilities to do so then ok I may make it but if I need a job done quick
and no time to make the tool and it can be bought with out to much of a lose
on one job but will be used over and over then I would buy it if funds can
be made available.
Though the CNC plasma cutter looks like it would just be fun to do.

Dan Rathburn
Elgin, IL USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "RIES NIEMI" <Rniemi@fidalgo.net>
To: "theforge" <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2002 1:08 PM
Subject: [TheForge] Build it or buy it


> One of the reasons I read the forge postings is the incredible range of
> approaches to working with metal to be found on it.
> When Shannell Sugrue posted his photos of a homemade cnc plasma cutter, it
> made me think about the wide range of reactions to building your own.
While
> I have built several tools in my shop, including an english wheel, a
treadle
> hammer, and recently a large hydraulic press, they have all been mostly
> fabrication projects- not really full fledged building of machine tools
from
> the ground up. While I probably could, at this point, muddle my way
through
> building almost anything- a pick up truck from scratch maybe? well, if I
> built my own V8 i kinda doubt it would last very long.
> But because my particular focus is on making finished products, I usually
> buy my tools, particularly if I have a job that needs and will pay for
them,
> which I have been lucky and persistent enough to usually have.
> Some people I know collect tools as an end in itself. I certainly can see
> the attraction of that, but in my own life I have decided to forgo that in
> favor of other things- I really like making stuff and sending it out into
> the world, but I also like the ability to take the kids to see the new
harry
> potter movie, or to read the sunday paper on the couch. So I dont spend
> every hour of every day out in the shop. So I buy grants tongs and swage
> tools instead of making my own. Sometimes I feel guilty about it- It would
> be more true path to make all my own tools, and the pride of making a tool
> from scratch is certainly great. But for me, (and this is only me,
everybody
> has their own approach) I am more interested in making what I make- be it
> furniture, or a fence, or a sculpture, than in making every tool that
makes
> it. So I spent 10,000 bucks on a plasma cutting system, but in turn it
> enabled me to take a $100,000 commission, and lots more in the ten years
> since then. Yes, I probably could have made my own, although you gotta
value
> your own time in the equation, and so it would have cost a little more
than
> $300. But at the time, I had a big fence to make, and that took me a solid
> year to do, with no time to be building machines. That doesnt make me
> respect someone who can build one from scratch any less- in fact more.
> Again, I guess my point is how amazed I am at the different ways people
> work, how some of the folks on this list continually amaze me with the way
> they do things, and how much I can learn from that variety.
> Ries
>
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