What Is The Difference?
I watch a lot of YouTube videos to learn how others tackle a problem I’m trying to solve myself. If everyone tends to use the same approach, there must be a reason that so many folks reach the same conclusion. I have learned to ask if there might be a better way not yet discovered. If so, can I figure it out? Very often a small change can make a big difference.
I’ve also learned not to reinvent the wheel from scratch. I ask how I can take an existing device and make something better, add more capability, take out some of the cost, or make a larger one or a smaller one.
I also see turners working on a lathe project using methods that are inferior to the way I would do the same thing. I’m a much better turner than they are. What’s the difference? They took the time to record, edit, and publish their efforts in a video, while I just sat on my butt and watched them do it!
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Theodore Roosevelt 26th President of the United States
I have developed a very successful little business following that advice. I offer several original and unique products for turners that are sold worldwide using my available machinery and materials. When I begin the design process for something new, I choose materials I can work with on the equipment I have using methods I’m familiar with, or can learn quickly. I use as many off–the–shelf hardware items as possible instead of selecting specialized, proprietary, long lead–time items that I may not be able to get in the future. I design the manufacturing process so it doesn’t involve complicated and critical processes and require excessive labor.
What this means to you is to think about a project before you start. Try to envision each major step needed along the way. The sequence in which you do something can make all the difference. Do you have the necessary lathe tools or can you modify what you already have to make it work? Is there some preparation you could do that will make the rest of the project go more smoothly? Take a few minutes searching YouTube to see how others solved a similar problem.
There is every reason to get started with a can–do attitude rather than thinking you can’t because you don’t have the proper equipment, tools, skillset, etc. Nine times out of Ten, you will figure it out along the way. If you start and fail, you will be far ahead of never having started. Just because you failed this time is no reason not to try again. Follow Teddie’s advice “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Remember that wherever you go, there you are.
Here is my inspiration for this message:
(Prov 8:12 [KJV]) I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
(Phil 4:9 [MSG]) Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
(Col 3:23 [NASB]) Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,
(1Cor 4:8 [MSG]) You already have all you need. You already have more access to God than you can handle. Without bringing either Apollos or me into it, you're sitting on top of the world—at least God's world—and we're right there, sitting alongside you!
Practicing What I Preach
My first table saw was a $20 7–1/4” circular saw turned upside down and screwed to a sheet of scrap plywood with the blade poking through. The rip fence was screwed to the plywood.
My first “Scroll Saw” was a $10 single–speed jig saw mounted the same way.
My second table saw wasn’t a table saw, it was a Montgomery Ward 10” radial arm saw with a 20,000 rpm spindle for router bits. I used it to crosscut, rip, dado and as an upside–down shaper spindle. The monthly payment was $15 and took three years to pay off.
I made hundreds of pieces for my young family mostly (simple furniture and bunkbeds from construction lumber) and to sell to the neighbors. I did what I could with what I had where I was. God took my small seeds and blessed them mightily.