Artist or Engineer

[Swingman]

Like!

BTW, you're well hidden on FB.

[LdB]

If you use a pink hammer you're probably an artist. :)

LdB

Bill wrote:

[Kevin]

For some the planning and drawing portion of the project is an enjoyable endeavor itself or at least part of the process as a whole, for others it's a means to an end.

I'm definitely more on the artist side of things, even though I studied to be an engineer and was terrible in art classes. I'll do a drawing in sketchup to help me visualize, because I can think in 2D easily enough but I have a harder time keeping everything straight in

3D. But I don't model everything, just enough so that I have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done, and where I can start and how much I can do that has to be done regardless of what comes next, and then the saw dust starts to fly. Then I have something tangible to work with along with my partial drawing. I like going into the shop without knowing all the answers, so that I'm free to make changes as I go along.

-Kevin

[Robatoy]

I can't speak for 'most' woodworkers, but I seldom do anything without making a drawing first. Where that drawing goes, or to what extent I develop it (3D) depends on the project. I draw 1 or 2 full size kitchens per week, some of those get the whole

3D photographic-grade rendering if the job and/or client warrants that kind of hand-holding. Often they're just plan views to be sent to a cabinet manufacturer for pricing. Sometimes my drawings are my models to be machined directly from the data they contain. Those plan-type of drawings is all I need for countertop pricing as my program gives lineal inches of edges, square feet of material and they become a white-board for further instructions as I do the templating on the actual job-site. Drawings are tools.

[Luigi Zanasi]

Strange, I just looked up my privacy settings and everyone should be able to see me. And I am the only Luigi Zanasi on FB, "Luigi Dena Ch'=C5=8F Zanasi", which also includes my Kaska First Nations Name, given to me by an elder a few months ago.

I do have two other former? wreckers as friends (O'Deen & Groggy).

Luigi

[Phisherman]

I have degrees in Software Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, and paint with watercolor on paper. I guess I'm both and hopelessly addicted to woodworking and mountain hiking. I found myself flustered with most software programs and use an obsolete drafting table with T-square, French curves, and triangles. Certainly not against computers, but It works well for me.

[Swingman]

Past few years I've gotten the same way. "Time" is such a big factor that any of my time spent on drawing/planning generally pays for itself two or three times over down the road - in cutting back on mistakes, with scheduling where getting a thing done on "time", means the next guy up can get his job done, and with waste and as in "... why the hell do we have all those tubafours/tile/whatever left over?"

Probably the most important tool in the construction process ... in the final analysis, lack of a detailed drawing/plan will _always_ end up being the single most expensive item in the project.

[J. Clarke]

I'm glad I'm not the only one. If you want someone to build you a computer I'm your guy. But if you want someone to use a computer to draw pictures look elsewhere.

[Gordon Shumway]

I'm a retired engineer. I can't design a round hole without creating a Pro-E model of it first :-)

One time when our daughter was about 9 or 10 she needed a birdhouse made for a school project. I asked what kind of birds are suppose to live in it? How big will it need to be? Will it have a roof with a peak or will it just have a single slope? She responded with "I don't know but let's go to the shop start cuttin'." At that point I began to wonder if she was mine :-)

Gordon Shumway

One positive thing about 'Cash for Clunkers' is that it took thousands of Obama bumper stickers off the road.

[Swingman]

Operator problem on this end ...

[Lew Hodgett]

I have been accused of not being able to find the bathroom without a blueprint.

Lew

[Bill]

I added "materials" today... light wood finish. Neat-o! Later I went to it's "3-D Warehouse" to see if there was a vise.... Let's just say lots of folks got there before me. Pretty cool.

if you haven't tried it yet. Start by watching some tutorials. It's a cools video game...I haven't yet figured out how to position the chair I downloaded (it's seems to want to live at the origin) ...

Bill

[Leon]

Typically when you download a file it simply follows your cursor around until you click some where on the screen, then you can move it to where ever you want. If it seems to want to be some where in particular it could be that it has a Google Earth location. That may want to place it in a specific location. I'm guessing here. Try down loading something else.

[Tanus]

I downloaded the videos that Google puts out at

I found them invaluable in introducing me to some of the power of the program.

As Leon and Swingman pointed out, one of the most important early tricks is to make components early and often. It saves a ton of time later on down the road.

Tanus

[Bill]

I made, virtually with SketchUp, the first workbench I was thinking about building. I posted 3 pdf files (front, side, bottom) in the thread Second SketchUp at the usenet group a.b.p.w.

The dimensions are 30" by 30" by 7'. Please let me know what comments you may have about the design, from what you can see.

My first thought is that I need to make the top a little longer than the base so I can get in one of those "reinforcing pieces" on each end (to better support the top). By the way, doing this exercise generated a number of questions in my mind (which is a good thing!).

Any thoughts welcome! Thanks, Bill

[Jeff Gorman]

"Bill" wrote

I think that an engineer's mindset is essential but a touch of artistry is desirable.

Jeff

[Han]

"Jeff Gorman" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Escher and/or Escher in reverse?

[Tom Watson]

I think this is an instance of a false dichotomy.

Any activity practiced at the highest level becomes an art and the artisan and artist share more in common than their linguistic roots.

The woodworker needs to incorporate both and, in the words of a famous woodworker:

"Theory without practice is sterile practice without theory is blind."

Karl Marx

Regards,

Tom Watson

[Robatoy]

The vision of an artist plus the discipline and learned foundation of an engineer, makes for a Bauhaus full of stuff.

[charlieb]

For a rule to be a good rule - it has to have at least one exception. Kelly Johnson, who used Seymore Butts on his secret missions airline tickets, is suely an exception to the rules. Anyone whose job is in The Skunk Works HAS to be an exception - to probably EVERY rule.