On Feb 1, 1:13*am, "CW" wrote:
"RicodJour" wrote in message

...
On Jan 31, 8:44 pm, "CW" wrote:



"RicodJour" wrote in message

Power tools are just an extension of the industrial revolution's aim
to obviate operator skill in favor of cheap labor. There's also the
question of cost in outfitting a shop. A complete joiner's shop back
in the day fit in a 3'x2'x2' box. Now a guy figures he can't do any
work unless he has ten grand in tools - to start. Journeymen
carpenters walked around with a roll with their tools inside, often
just the blades and bits, and made handles, benches and whatever else
was needed on the spot.

We've gained some with power tools, but we've lost just as much
because of them. I still wish that carpenters wore corduroy suits so
we could see at a glance who was in the brotherhood.

It is very obvious, by the above, that you do not build things for a
living.
I design and build everything I do.

Such as?

What have I designed and built? Oh, fine, we're in the quiz portion
of the exam. BTW, you can check out my posting history if you want to
verify any of this, as you seem to be a skeptic.

As I said, I design and build everything I do - that was not always
the case. I built my first home addition with two friends during the
summer of 1975, after our junior year in high school. One friend's
father was in construction and he got the job, designed it, and we
built it. Concrete, framing, siding, roofing, the usual. By the time
I got to college we'd built a couple more additions, patios, decks,
etc. During college I worked for a construction manager and did
surveying work for my internship programs in Boston. Immediately
after college I worked for a professional model builder in NYC (a
recent thread over in alt.home.repair has more detail on that). After
that I worked for what was at the time the largest construction
manager in NYC to get experience. South Street Seaport being a
notable project, but the most enjoyable was a landmark renovation on
the UWS. I was project manager and superintendent (go figure) and
collaborated with the clerk of the works architect on designing the
details and selecting materials and hardware (the project was for that
architect's boss' firm's own offices).

Fast forward a bit, and I left and started my own design firm. Almost
all of it was renovation and remodeling work - some commercial, most
residential. Did freelance estimating so I could sit in front of the
tube, drink beer and earn $60/hour. I backed into contracting when I
got fed up with contractor's saying the things I designed couldn't be
built, or couldn't be built within the budget, and upsetting the
owners. From that point on, and for the next 15 years, I designed and
built everything. I only built two projects I didn't design, and I
did that for the money. On one I felt like a whore as it was a
commercial hairdresser on the second floor (interesting project for
other reasons, though), and on the other I enjoyed it because it was
for some ridiculously wealthy, yet surprisingly normal people's guest
house (who has a $2 million dollar guest house?!) entrance portico.
That was a wonderful place to work - stables, old landscaped grounds
and a grounds crew of 12.

On larger jobs I'd sub out some of the work, on small jobs I'd do it
all with maybe a helper or two, but I always was wearing boots,
getting my hands dirty and on several occasions getting blood on the
work. I always subbed out electrical and plumbing as this is required
by the building departments around here. They're also a helluva lot
faster than I am, though both would always ask for my assistance in
layout and fishing things through the buildings. I know how old
buildings are put together and can visualize in 3D really well. Other
than that what I did personally depended on the project and how much
money I wanted to keep in my pocket. Except for the two trades listed
above, anything else in the CSI was done by yours truly at one time or
another. Particularly the Specialties category. I would design
things into a project so I could learn how to do it. I would have
people pay me to learn on the job. So I picked up stained glass work,
fine woodworking, leatherwork, copper roofing, all sorts of things
where I felt there was a hole in my education.

An engineering degree and a degree in architecture do not in any way
provide the skills to build, and, to me at least, there's an
artificial separation between the different aspects of the built
form. I'd seen way too much of the finger pointing that goes on
between trades and between the designer and the contractor, and too
many compromised projects and budgets. I have no one to point a
finger at but me. I am one stop shopping.

Since this is a woodworking group, though you didn't say it, I would
suppose you are really asking what sort of woodworking I've done. A
lot. From tchotchkes to kitchens, from chests of drawers to steam-
bent laminated windows, custom doors. I haven't done hundreds of
kitchens or anything like that, as that would bore me. I do what I do
because I want to try new and different things and incorporate the
skills and talents that make me me.

As the years have passed I have found that what was exciting to me
back then is no longer as exciting. The whine of power tools annoys
me, and I have some hearing loss from being on job sites as well. I
find that my enjoyment comes more from (re)discovering the old ways of
working wood and using old hand tools. I like it, and obviously I
don't owe you or anyone else an explanation or an apology on that
front. I have also discovered that as I've gotten older I've become
more efficient in many ways, and that using power tools less
frequently hasn't greatly diminished my speed at all. I have no
interest in banging out kitchens for a buck or ten thousand bucks. It
just doesn't interest me. I realize in other circumstances I might
not be so fortunate and would have to accept work that I found
onerous, but, well, I am fortunate and I don't have to accept work
that doesn't interest me. Everyone should be so lucky. Even
skeptics.

R

BTW, your newsreader is doing some funny things when you quote, and/or
you're cutting out some formatting.