#21
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Drew, I also have reached the age of retirement and am financially stable. And I love the metalshaping . So to me your planning to make a paying hobby by working with metal sounds great to me.
I would however broaden the scope to include fabrication, welding and even art! Congratulations on your impending retirement and good luck !
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Mike |
#22
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Bill Longyard Winston-Salem, NC |
#23
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A friend likes to point out you are often better off buying what you can buy and making what you can't buy. If you want to make something for the fun of making it, that's different from "I need this tool, I could have it by the weekend and put it to work or I could make a really cool one just the way I want it and use it at some indeterminate time in the future if I ever get it built."
I'm a lot better at starting grandiose projects than I am at finishing them. But I'm also picky and my budget (not a bad one at that) often won't stretch to what I'd really like to have so I have to decide which is more important -- doing the project or someday having the tool of my dreams. It is like Myford lathe syndrome: where the model maker buys a Myford and then spends the next 20 years building every possible cool attachment/accessory for it instead of making model engines as was originally planned. |
#24
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Layout and patterns. Symmetry and balance. Transferring paper dolls to flat sheet. Cutting accurately. Deburring. Getting the cutout blanks accurate. Forming the blanks. Shaping the blanks. Shaping left and right halves to match. Annealing. Torch work. Soldering. Brazing. Welding. Tee joints. Lap joints. Butt joints. Pick a name for your shop - "Drawn Metal" for instance. Make a set of 8inch hollow block letters 1 inch thick, with soldered edges, using 22 or 24 ga galv. Or copper. Add in the capitals. Mount it up. Illuminate it. Repeat the arduous tasks until your results look nice. Do things 6x each. Apprenticeships involve small things done repeatedly to accuracy. Then on to larger more complex things. And so on. 3 hours per day to start. 6 hours a day to maintain excellence. Fall asleep at night with the process going in your mind. Read. Practice. Immerse and Challenge yourself. P1020778.jpg P1020784.jpg Be creative. P1020822.jpg P1020875.jpg Be wildly creative. Then blow the doors off your box. P1030767.jpg P1030768.jpg The difference shows in a classroom situation, when you get to it. When you go to class well-prepared you will draw more out of it. ... okay, I'm getting down off my soapbox now ...
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Kent http://www.tinmantech.com "All it takes is a little practical experience to blow the he!! out of a perfectly good theory." --- Lloyd Rosenquist, charter member AWS, 1919. |
#25
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I posted a well thought out reply last night which didn't actually post.
So, in sum, great suggestions. Kent, your points are EXACTLY what I know I suck at, and why I haven't gone further in my metalshaping. I need to practice those things as a daily Kata. Great things come from small things. The sign idea is extremely good. I've been playing around with pop cans for the last day or so, and have the start of a bowl, just using finger tucks and a piece of 2x4 to planish.
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Drew Schumann |
#26
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Good Kata always includes the basics.
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Kent http://www.tinmantech.com "All it takes is a little practical experience to blow the he!! out of a perfectly good theory." --- Lloyd Rosenquist, charter member AWS, 1919. |
#27
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In all the replies lies what you need to accomplish all your goals.....
My advise.....and worth what you paid for it. Do more with less always. Focus on the basics of hand work. Focus on it being a business "after" you find out if your going to be good at it. There are those that can learn enough in 3-4 years....you may not be one of them. Buy really good tools.......if your an expert you could make anything with almost nothing for tools.....your not an expert and bad tools can easily cripple your efforts to learn. (like a crappy English Wheel for starters) At some point you will have invested a huge amount of time and money into your effort, try and decide as quickly as possible if the view was worth the climb. If you don't think it was be honest with yourself and move on to other things...this isn't for everyone. Statistically speaking most people that try and learn this never figure it out or get any good at it. If at first you don't succeed try try again....then quit there's no use being a fool about it. In the end if you succeed and accomplish your goals it will have been a way different journey than you initially might have thought. Expect it to be hard and dirty work with none of the glamour and glitz of a TV show about it. Do whatever you can throughout your journey to save your body from the punishment that could easily cripple you later in life...you will be grateful. Don't always listen to the "Expert"...there's no judging group that bestows the title to anyone. Think before you "Do"
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Kirk Last edited by KAD; 05-23-2017 at 06:22 AM. |
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I don’t have the skills of the people here, but I am like you, in that I am in my 50’s and trying to learn some new skills. So my advice is also worth what you paid for it…
Get some videos and watch them in your spare time, before you ever take a class. David Gardiner and Peter Tomassini have some excellent ones. I’m sure there are others out there, but I don’t own them and cant say from first hand experience. Both of them concentrate on showing what can be done with simple tools. One of the first thing I realized after the first day of watching Peter shape metal, was that I will never live long enough to be as good as he is…he’s been at this for 40 years, but I do hope to be able to live long enough to get a lot better than I am now. Take his class if you ever get the chance, he shows you a lot in a few days that it would take you a long time to figure out on your own. Good Luck to you!
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Barry Duckworth |
#29
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I'm going to go forward with this without fear of failure and just be happy with what will come. Que sera, sera.
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Drew Schumann |
#30
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Drew Schumann |
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