Tools

WilliamA

I have a pet peeve. Nope! Really! I'm not kidding here. As hard as that is to believe, I'm not the even-tempered philosopher you've been lead to believe that I am. Those of you who have suffered long at the hands of my writings might think it's the rush to "volt-up" in the battery department but even that one runs off me like water off the proverbial duck. No, it's this; I chafe at the sound of this next sentence:

"I don't have the skill for......." (fill in the blank there)

From the most dedicated (that would be me) modder to the casual "poke and hope" type, we are all in the camping category of problem solvers. It's part of the process and I delight in it. So much so that, when all the mods are done (NEVER!) if I never went camping, I'd consider the time to be well spent.

It's easy to look at some project or other and think; I'd mess with that if I had more skill or more tools, but I don't have a #7 double-cut masher and I've never done something like that so I won't. The truth of the matter is that none of us (that would be the number 0) laid about in our cribs bored and decided to just do random calculations into load-bearing structures or amperage ratings of electrical systems. We learned all of this stuff. The vast majority of things that get written about here and elsewhere are pretty straightforward things that anyone with more than a room-temperature I.Q. can figure out how to do. The major stumbling block here is that one of the most common commodities of human problem solving is the innate ability to look at any problem and quickly elevate it to the level of a Space Shuttle launch.

Observed problem: "This dome light doesn't work".

Common human response: "That's electricity. I should probably go read all of the writings of Tesla and Volta and get a degree in electrical engineering."

Here's an example of standard human over-complication using myself as a subject (If I use myself for examples, it's not because of an excess of hubris but rather because I am the only one upon whom I have any significant data):

I'm down at West Marine fondling some of the new $985 dollar Victron twentyleventhirtythree-fifty quantum, infrared, wireless voltage analyzers on the shelf. OOOOOHHHHH! AHHHHHH! If I had this thing, I could......well. I could ah, say, check the battery voltage. (Air all runs out of the balloon) Or I could simply get out my $12.95 digital multimeter, or an auto parts store digital dash meter with built-in amp gauge for $19 bucks and accomplish EXACTLY the same thing to EXACTLY the same level of accuracy. Okay. The Victron has auto-dimming. I don't have auto-dimming on my multimeter. There's that.

We tend to solve problems by over-burdening them from the start, before we ever actually get to the job. If I watch myself in the field and in my workplace, I often find that most of my "brilliant" ideas come from grabbing a roll of duct tape and keeping the dangling thing from hitting me in the face while I'm doing the other thing. From that solution, something a bit more esoteric and attractive grows up. By the time the duct tape starts to fall off, I've come up with something a bit more attractive and permanent. This is my favorite kind of problem solving. I like to call it "Proof of Concept" engineering.

Okay. I LIKE gadgets! Can't get enough eye candy from time to time. Sometimes I put things in because they are useful. Other times, I'll install something just simply because I think it's cool. For my money, each of these things is as important as the other. But I never, ever try to convince myself or anyone else that I NEED a thing when something else will work for less. I put things in because they are useful or because they are shiny. Often, if I'm clever and do my homework I can accomplish both at the same time, but I don't try to convince myself that they ARE the same. Duct tape is ugly, sticky and awful....But it works surprisingly well until something better comes around.

It's the same with tools. If you watch any "reality" (HA!) show or youtube video, the gear-head garages are stuffed from floor to ceiling with complex tools; metal brakes, welders, mills, and on and on. By comparison, my workspace looks like McGiver making a surgical unit out of a rock. I have done a lot of pretty cool and useful things to my trailer. What might surprise you is that, with these exceptions:

Skilsaw (7 1/2" Milwaukee. Belongs to Kathy)
Welder (It's my brothers and is at his house. I use it over there)
Angle grinder 4 1/2" (It's mine and I use it for various things, but don't haul it around with me)
4' sheetrock square for laying out plywood cuts etc. (It's too big to haul around so I leave it at Kathy's)

With those exceptions, I carry ALL of the tools I use to do my modifications and maintenance around in my Jeep, all the time. I have a standard sized toolbox with handtools, a small Sears socket set with a couple of wrenches, a couple of deep-well sockets and breaker bar for tire repairs and that's about it. I will occasionally borrow tools like the set of clamps I just used to do the gluing for my screen project, but they were not mine. I'm not a tool collector. I don't like buying tools "just for a job" and rarely do so unless absolutely necessary.

It's surprising how much a person can do if you put the clever first and the tool-list second. There's no reason that a piece of trim or pvc can't be cut to length with a metal hacksaw. A mitering chop saw is faster. It's not better.

The most important tools we have are tools we all have. Heads and hands. When I started mucking about modifying things, I was still young enough to need a diaper change. One of the things that has never left me in all of my years of making stuff is the delight in how clever we can be (not just me, but most of us) if we just get out some cardboard, a roll of tape, a little string and start putzing about making patterns of whatever we think will work to solve the problem we are trying to solve. It's within that process where insight and revelation reside, not the floor-to-ceiling workshop. Solutions cannot be found before the problem is clearly identified. Once the problem is identified, the down-stream work of either working to get the skills necessary to do it or finding someone who can are more clearly defined. The rest is just administration.

Don't kid yourself. You're smarter and handier than you think you are. Smart enough to work something complicated out and, just as importantly, smart enough to decide when you want to develop the skill to do it or when to hire it done. Even if at the end of the process you decide to have it done elsewhere, the more you understand, the better your explanation of what you want and hence, the better the results when your contractor, craftsperson gets it back to you. There is growth, and death, and nothing in between but time.

WilliamA

LuckyJ

Ok, I am at about the 3 rd paragraph here. So I will continu when the tablet getts between a coffe mug and me.

But I will finish this.

CampHub

Absolutely agree with @WilliamA all of us need to recognize our needs, wants and budget then just start. I will guarantee every mod each and everyone of us do, does not fit the sortie each and everyone of us need to carry out with our little bed/kitchen on wheels. Critical thinking is easier then you think. For me I carry all my tools on the road.

When I am not working on the T@G I am selling tacos!