[HN Gopher] Woodworking through the mind of an engineer
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Woodworking through the mind of an engineer
Author : Ivoah
Score : 123 points
Date : 2022-11-22 18:11 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cbc.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cbc.ca)
| bergenty wrote:
| I wish he bought a CNC machine because a lot of what he's doing
| can be done so easily with a relatively cheap $1500 dollar
| system.
| cuu508 wrote:
| Maybe he'll have a CNC machine one day. But it will likely be a
| green, wooden, hand-built one!
| sprior wrote:
| He kinda did that (pantorouter, computerized box joint jig,
| slot mortiser, 3d router pantograph).
| foobarian wrote:
| Very important to have wood gears as well! :-)
| justapassenger wrote:
| I downvoted you as it's a very bad attitude to have in any
| hacker/tinker community.
| JasonFruit wrote:
| Well, yes and no. It's not hacker-good to dismiss others'
| cool and interesting work by saying, "That's dumb; a machine
| could do it easier." But it is hacker-good to see
| inefficiencies that could be eliminated, even if it's an
| exercise in missing the point here.
| z9znz wrote:
| The downside is that CNC woodworking videos are less
| interesting. I know it's not "easy", but it looks too easy
| compared to less automated methods.
|
| Some of the most enjoyable videos I've watched are of people
| using Japanese techniques and only traditional hand tools.
| bergenty wrote:
| There's enjoyable ASMR tier videos and there's useful videos
| and I think Matthias falls strongly into the latter category.
| Would love to see what he could come up with given the extra
| capabilities.
| postalrat wrote:
| A lot of people aren't interested in programming a CNC machine
| for their projects.
| googlryas wrote:
| That's like saying you wish Wout van Aert would just buy an
| e-bike.
| operatingthetan wrote:
| If you are trying to suggest that CNC is 'easy mode' then
| please educate yourself on the process and nuances of doing
| CNC work.
| lalalandland wrote:
| Well, he can buy most of the stuff he makes. So he could just
| make videos buying the stuff from Amazon... But that's not what
| he does.
| MichaelCollins wrote:
| > _a relatively cheap $1500 dollar system_
|
| Spending that much on tools doesn't seem like his style. He
| makes his own tools using scrap wood and salvaged washing
| machine motors.
| speg wrote:
| Recommendations for a decent, entry-level CNC?
| bergenty wrote:
| I can swear by the Onefinity (personally have the
| journeyman). Solidly built, all ball screw rails (not
| inaccurate belt feeds), great customer service, large work
| area (32'x 48') and surprisingly affordable.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| If you don't already have experience, join a makerspace or
| hackerspace. They'll likely have a far more capable and
| reliable machine than you can get at the entry level. And a
| community of people who can already tell you "don't bend your
| arm that way". And handle the maintenance. Ideally they'll
| have dust collection and some shared tooling that's in good
| enough shape to get you off the ground.
|
| Once you build some skill, you'll develop a pretty good idea
| of what you want for your use case and where spending an
| extra nickel or two makes sense or doesn't.
|
| I'll also note that a huge hurdle for a lot of people is
| grasping the differences between raster data, vector data,
| and actual CAD data.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| Sure but then aren't you just glued to the computer doing 3D
| design and letting the machine translate that to reality? Isn't
| the point to build stuff with your hands?
| operatingthetan wrote:
| You need to know a lot about how to use a CNC such as tooling
| selection, milling strategies, setup, work holding, etc. that
| dramatically affect the result. It's not as simple as 3d
| printing, but yes obviously it's more technical and less
| 'analog.'
| _jal wrote:
| Sometimes I eat fast food. And thats fine.
|
| Sometimes I'll spend hours making a meal. That's also fine, and
| personally, I find it more rewarding.
|
| I love my fancy tools - I have a couple mills and a lathe I've
| converted to CnC, and also a sort of weird autorouter I put
| together for wood, for a specific project. (Probably going to
| recycle the parts, it was a good learning experience, but very
| limited.)
|
| I also love doing things from first principles, or at least
| closer to that than letting the computer figure it out. It also
| makes me better with CnC - just like most things automation-
| related, doing it by hand illuminates a lot.
|
| If you don't like watching his stuff, why not change the
| channel? There are many, many great CnC operators making video,
| too. No need to shit on things you don't seem to understand.
| tantalor wrote:
| That would also fix the problem of having to edit & upload the
| videos, because nobody would want to watch them anyway.
| rzzzt wrote:
| Can't the CNC machine edit its own videos?
| z9znz wrote:
| He makes interesting videos. And he says "mohse" many times,
| which is always fun.
|
| But one common fact of the most successful Youtubers is that they
| have been putting out content fairly consistently for years.
|
| There definitely seems to be something about time and consistency
| in the equation of success.
| MatthiasWandel wrote:
| The time part is very important -- it's important to start 15
| years ago when the field was less crowded, and then develop
| your skill as you go along.
| tantalor wrote:
| > And he says "mohse" many times
|
| Are you talking about the word _mouse_? I don 't hear anything
| unusual about his pronunciation.
| ents wrote:
| He says "mouse" exactly the way you'd expect a Canadian to
| say it.
| z9znz wrote:
| I'm used to hearing tall Os from Canadians, but I guess
| this was the first time I've ever heard a Canadian talk
| about a mouse. If I hadn't first seen the creature, it
| would have taken some time for me to realize what he was
| talking about :).
| rzzzt wrote:
| Mortices, maybe? Also tenons, with a custom jig.
| myth_drannon wrote:
| About 17 years ago I was an intern at RIM/Blackberry and even
| then Matthias was a legend in the company, built the
| communication/foundation layer for the device.
| speg wrote:
| Whoa - I was also a coop student around that time (2007) but I
| never knew about the RIM connection until now.
| MatthiasWandel wrote:
| I left the company in 2007
| imglorp wrote:
| Thanks for all the great content!
|
| I would be interested in a more meta piece about how you
| approach problems and how you regularly achieve that 100x
| thing.
| memish wrote:
| Matthias is a good example of a 100x engineer. He's insanely
| productive.
| isbjorn16 wrote:
| Woodworking has probably been one of the most important things to
| add during my career. I went from being and feeling like I knew
| how to do most everything to being forced into confronting the
| fact that just because I'm experienced, I don't know everything.
| I make _so many_ fucking mistakes when I 'm woodworking that,
| when people ask about what I make in my woodshop, I just respond
| "sawdust and mistakes, mostly".
|
| I'm not comfortable not knowing what to do; I've been building on
| a really stellar foundation for so long that when I need to do
| something outside of that universe - not situated over that
| foundation - I tend to flounder, get frustrated, and feel like
| the dumbest man alive.
|
| Woodworking made me confront the fact that while I may be really
| good at building scalable systems and high quality code, that
| doesn't mean I'm the master at everything, and I'm *going* to
| find things I need to stretch to learn. It's made me get
| comfortable with making mistakes again (well, as comfortable as I
| can be, I reckon). It's also made me comfortable with realizing
| when I'm hitting my patience limit and walking away instead of
| banging my head against the wall for hours. A bit of distance,
| let my subconscious chew on it for a while, and revisit it later,
| rather than just trying to put my head down and shove my way
| through.
|
| Long story short, you should all pick up woodworking, or metal
| working, or throw some pottery or paint or something. Get
| comfortable with being a rank amateur fuckup and revel in the
| process of _learning_ instead of _fabricating_ without a hitch. I
| know that I, for one, really needed it.
| Animats wrote:
| > that doesn't mean I'm the master at everything
|
| And then you see someone who _is_ the master at everything in
| construction.[1]
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKYFdwWx2QU
| juhanima wrote:
| The way she goes about it, using power tools without goggles
| and gloves is just horrifying. It's a lovely concept, showing
| what can be done with the materials and tools available. But
| I wouldn't recommend such a cavalier approach to anyone in
| real life. This seems very staged to me anyway, with the
| result not matching to the process shown. Also the structural
| integrity and endurance of those constructs seems a bit
| questionable.
| gjvc wrote:
| _Long story short, you should all pick up woodworking, or metal
| working, or throw some pottery or paint or something. Get
| comfortable with being a rank amateur fuckup and revel in the
| process of learning instead of fabricating without a hitch. I
| know that I, for one, really needed it._
|
| Learning a trade, even if it doesn't become a profession is
| something which is very under-rated.
| mytdi wrote:
| >"sawdust and mistakes, mostly" Love that phrase. Will share it
| with my father who has a woodshop. Also agree with your
| thoughts about woodworking.
|
| I also started doing some wood work, I got myself a desktop CNC
| and some other basic woodworking tools.
| isbjorn16 wrote:
| my other pithy statement that I stand behind is my poorly
| routed sign that says "Glasses and Mask, Jackass" and sits
| right in front of the door entry to my workshop.
|
| haste makes waste, but even worse, it can make for blind
| people with breathing problems
| MichaelCollins wrote:
| I love his videos about making his own bandsaws, belt sanders,
| etc. I've heard/read of people doing this sort of thing, but his
| videos documenting the process are really fascinating.
|
| Also his website is well worth a peruse: https://woodgears.ca/
| bgilroy26 wrote:
| In 2008 or 9, I was an underdiagnosed college student with
| intersecting mental health challenges who had trouble getting
| out of his room
|
| Something about the geometric java games where you would click
| your mouse very precisely made them a great primary
| intermediate step activity-wise to building the self-esteem I
| needed to get out of my room and get help. I will always be
| very grateful.
| mwattsun wrote:
| I have a buddy who retired around the same time I did who turned
| his hobby into a retirement project on YouTube. Like Matthias, he
| also worked on low level code for devices (Philippe Kahn's
| Fullpower.) In this regard I think YouTube is great for providing
| retired people a good way to share the knowledge they've
| accumulated over a life time and make a little money in the
| process.
|
| Ward's electrical and electronic repair
|
| https://www.youtube.com/@WardCo
| abraxas wrote:
| Well, that's not a very round number in any counting base I can
| think of...
| MatthiasWandel wrote:
| Why, its nearly the square root of 3.
| soperj wrote:
| My assumption is that they rounded it: 1,720,440 in base 8 is
| exactly 1/2 a million in base 10. Clearly this is what they
| were trying to convey.
| cwkoss wrote:
| Wandel is really cool. Highly recommend his woodworking channel.
| Some of my favorite things he's made cluster around making high
| precision things with tools that are usually easy to use
| imprecisely.
|
| Copy Carver - kind of a manually run 3D CNC, lets the user
| 'trace' in 3 dimensions:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyNu8lpQI1g
|
| Pantorouter - build an oversized template, then end-cut a piece
| in a way that scales down that template (effectively multiplying
| precision of the template to achieve precision you wouldn't be
| able to get otherwise)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_72hOY2vPg
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUJzuM3PRAI
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| These are amazing. I could swear I've seen some of an
| horizontaly, not vertically, mounted pantorouter.
|
| Since discovering the pantorouter for woodworking I always
| wondered: wouldn't the same technology make sense for ultra
| precise 3D printing at home? Instead of having the motors drive
| directly on top of the model, have the motors drive a
| pantorouter instead and have the smaller end of the pantorouter
| on top of the model. It's "just" simple machines right, lever
| and axle basically?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_machine
|
| All I could find is people 3D printing parts to make a
| pantorouter for wood. But I'd really love to see one for finer
| 3D prints.
| Animats wrote:
| Linkages lose you rigidity. Bad in machine tools.
| foobarian wrote:
| I would think that play would be difficult to keep low enough
| to make this worthwhile. A servo driven hot end is already
| pretty precise, so a pantograph-like transfer would have to
| be rigid and tight enough to beat that. No small feat.
| netsharc wrote:
| He also made a pantograph out of LEGO.. for chocolate!
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2FY0xLwAcw
| cwkoss wrote:
| Great vid, I had missed that one. Cutting chocolate on the
| bandsaw cracked me up, classic Matthias
| powersnail wrote:
| My biggest regret about college is not taking that workshop
| training lab that the Architecture department offered, which was
| open for any student to join, for free. With a lot of free scraps
| that can be practiced on. It would have been a great experience.
|
| Now, wood working courses around me cost a thousand bucks, are at
| least 10 miles away, and are completely full. They only train for
| power tools, which I don't have the space for at home.
| dmtroyer wrote:
| He must love video editing. Surely he could afford to hire a few
| video editors with this many subscribers if he wanted to focus
| more on woodworking.
| croo wrote:
| I'm following him on and off for years. He's the most engineer
| minded woodworker I met on youtube and what stands out for me is
| the precision he does his stuff. Most other woodworker goes by
| gut feeling or well established tricks or jigs to make stuff
| easier. This guy goes by raw precision.
|
| I don't know how but he manages to cut stuff by the hair of a
| millimeter on purpose.
| foobarian wrote:
| I've enjoyed reading/watching his posts as well, most recently
| for garage storage as I just moved into an empty one. What I
| found refreshing is that he is not snobbish about materials and
| has no qualms about using 2x4 pine or old pallets, as long as
| they accomplish the job in a desired way with suitable margins.
| Very engineer-like indeed :-)
|
| As a result I was inspired to calculate out forces/stresses for
| a 1x2 pine structure, driven by the crazy lumber price
| inflation, and now have a 1x2 scrap wood rack, a 1x2 free-
| standing shelf, a 1x2 wall-attached shelves...
| sbf501 wrote:
| Engineers like woodworking because they spend so much time often
| building intangible things (like software engineers), that it
| satisfies an unmet need to hold, feel, or experience their
| creations in a tactile way.
|
| Thus said a therapist I had ages ago.
| sprior wrote:
| At one point as a programmer at IBM, me, my manager and his
| manager were all woodworkers. Same explanation you gave.
| peter422 wrote:
| Another key difference is that software is never finished, you
| can always fix a bug or add a feature or tinker with it.
|
| When you build a piece of furniture for yourself or especially
| somebody else, when you finish it, it's done. All the little
| mistakes and imperfections are just part of it, and there is
| nothing you can do about it. Just accept and be proud of it and
| move on to the next project. It seems odd but it's a very nice
| feeling for somebody who mostly deals in abstract, perpetually
| updating software.
| sbf501 wrote:
| > Just accept and be proud of it and move on to the next
| project.
|
| It is nigh impossible for me to treat one of my github repos
| like this!
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