[TheForge] Re: [TheForge]Do it yourself versus hire a pro

[RIES NIEMI]

on 5/20/03 9:45 AM, Paul Hewitt at bugnco@lighthousekeeper.com wrote:

I am often dismayed at sometimes the do-it yourself attitude, pay
> some dude with the right equipment for 3 hours work and 50.00 and hour,
> he'll burn about 2 bags of soda an hour, or go buy cheap equipment and 25.00
> a bag soda and spend 10 hours at it burning the same 2 bags and hour.  Which
> is more expensive?


I think this is an interesting dilemma. I know people who will do it
themselves no matter what, often costing lots more and resulting in an
inferior job.

I am of two minds on this. On the one hand, I almost always buy the
specialised tool and try to do it myself- or at least I used to.

On the other hand, I am a professional at what I do- metalworking. I have at
least a couple hundred thousand dollars invested in equipment, 20 years of
experience, and pay lots of money to train my employees. When we do a job,
we do it right, and get paid appropriately. I have nothing but scorn for the
amateurs who hack out metalwork with a buzz box and a chop saw.

Or do I? after all, I started out with a buzz box, took little jobs to buy
more tools, and learned as I went.

I must say that as I get older, creakier, and busier myself, I find myself
paying other pros to do jobs I would have done myself 20 years ago. I used
to drop tranny's and change clutches- not so much because I liked it, but to
prove to myself that I could, and because I didnt have the money to pay
anyone.
Now I gladly pay the guys with the computer diagnosis machines and the
specialised tooling and the lift to work on my car. I have spent enough time
lying on my back in an oily gutter that if I dont have to, I wont.

Same with a variety of specialised trades- I just paid a roofer to reroof my
house, I buy my firewood already split, I pay sandblasters, powdercoaters,
galvanizers, electropolishers, and the like, because they are tooled up and
know what they are doing. I have friends who have built all of the above out
of junkyard parts and lots of time- yes, you can build your own
powdercoating oven from a gas barbecue, your own electropolisher from a
battery charger.

But If I have one motto in my shop, its
"look at the donut, not the hole"
got that from Ken Kesey, long ago, and the way I interpret it is kinda
similar to keep your eyes on the prize- which is to say, focus on what you
really want to do, which in my case is artistic, functional metalwork on a
large scale, then dont get distracted by trying to reinvent the wheel and
build everything from scratch. I have a hard enough time getting everything
done as it is.