3 ms·

Unfortunately, I've encountered the same thing. It's universal though. Tinkering is a lost art. Increasingly, people seem to just watch others tinker or solve

by veqq 4y ago

Unfortunately, I've encountered the same thing. It's universal though. Tinkering is a lost art. Increasingly, people seem to just watch others tinker or solve problems. Why do x if you can just search for what happens on youtube? Why think through the process or what a reasonable answer is if you can just google (andisearch is good too) it? (Why search, when you can just post it as a question on a forum?) 10 years ago, commenters here would talk about tinkering with their systems in basic, when asked how they learned to program. Nowadays, people talk about textbooks or the like. But why? Everything is more complex and complicated. Fixing something in 1950 was easy, you could wire it yourself with copper, you could replace the vacuum tubes. Nowadays, you can just replace electronic parts - but you can't make the circuit board yourself (well, some people do, but that's much more in depth, requires very fine motor control and you are still just soldering tiny components. I suspect a lot of would-have-tinkereds give up when they take apart their x with a screw driver and can't figure out what anything is. Their curiosity nipped right in the bud, they default to trusted solutions and devote less of their daily mindshare to understanding, and eventually improving the world. (Even there, it's not like many people could create vacuum tubes in their garage in 1950 to repair something...)

Syonyk 4y ago
You can do your own surface mount soldering on boards for assembly, but it's an awful lot easier to design a single sided board (at least for the surface mount stuff) and hot plate it to get the solder melted. It's rather magical to watch surface tension in action - parts just... zoop right into the positions. I live in weird circles, I suppose, where this and "do your own PCB etching" are still things.
mikrl 4y ago
>requires very fine motor control and you are still just soldering tiny components I thought the key fob for my used Impreza just needed a new battery but the relay had actually fallen off the board. I had to buy a soldering iron and fine point tips but the rush I got when it finally settled in place and I could lock my car remotely was intense. Or maybe that was the lack of ventilation. My wheel hub and brakes on the other hand… I’d need various grinders, pullers and oxyacetylene to get through 12y of Ontarian corrosion. Not even a 4lb hammer on a breaker bar shifted my axle nut or caliper bracket bolts. With rounds of bolt blaster and blowtorch. Luckily my local garage charges reasonable rates and lets me supply my own parts. From here on out maintenance is gonna be a breeze!
- AngryData 4y ago
  If you work on older rusted vehicles, a high quality impact gun and air hammer are worth every penny. A shitty impact gun will take off like 60% of things, a high quality one will take off 90% of things. And for the final 10%, (likely in combination with torches and large breaker bars and impact gun) you can air hammer the living fuck out of the bolt or part for 15 minutes and it should help break apart some of the rust. And for future self, a tube of anti-seize. I questioned the need for my heavy equipment "fuck-you" sized impact gun when I bought it, but ive helped out more than a couple people remove old rusted on shit with it that their cheaper consumer impact gun simply couldn't handle.
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    I have plenty of money for these tools but what I can't afford in modern day America is a shed to put the tools in, a garage to work on my car in, and an alternative means of transportation to get me to the parts shop while I take 3 days in my off hours trying to figure things out because I'm inexperienced.
    - mikrl 4y ago
      I’ve always lived in places with crap driveways but this one is nice, paved and level. Unfortunately no room for a garage or shed so yea, I spend about 20 minutes hauling various tools out of the basement (and hoping they don’t get stolen) before I can even loosen my lug nuts.
outworlder 4y ago
> but you can't make the circuit board yourself True. Thankfully, they have become dirt cheap. I can design and push a button to order a multilayer board from China, which is going to be done by the same industrial processes as any commercial boards, and will even be tested for me. I don't have to worry that I left it etching for too long. Or drilling holes. Or silk screening text. All that, and shipping costs more than the board. > I suspect a lot of would-have-tinkereds give up when they take apart their x with a screw driver and can't figure out what anything is I suspect your memory is playing tricks with you (as it does with everybody). Open an old CRT monitor and you won't know what anything is. Sure, you may learn what the individual components are, but you need a lot of schematic study to even understand what all those components are even doing. Today, we can just open a phone and go "oh, that's the wifi chip". It is still possible to do SMD work at home. Air rework stations have dropped from 4 digit dollars to 2 digits. Other tools are getting cheaper too. Oscilloscopes have never been cheaper (and, if you don't need anything fancy, at least in the US there's a flood of perfectly good used models). Microcontrollers are incredibly cheap. A lot of what was done by hardware today can be handled with software. With <$1 parts. 3d printing allows us to not have to drill soap containers for our electronics cases. Also, all those old electronics magazines? Most of those circuits can be built today just fine. People dabbling in electronics were always a small subset of the population. I am willing to bet that, percentage wise, those numbers are way bigger today.
twobitshifter 4y ago
I came across this great article from 1986 about adding an airlock door to your entry way the other day. https://books.google.com/books?id=NUzwukoJzGIC&pg=PA96&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=true https://books.google.com/books?id=NUzwukoJzGIC&pg=PA96&sourc... Give it a read and realize the author is suggesting you repurpose other doors, and mismatched pieces and parts of larger windows to create an entry that looks like it’s off from a luxury home for $62. He assumes the reader knows how to cut and set glass, separate door frames, cut ellipses, and all sorts of little things that very few people today would have the skills or tools for. Read on and you’ll see that just by illustrating alternative designs the reader is meant to understand how to build it. It’s “Draw the rest of the owl” to us today, but it wasn’t then. This made me realize the great loss of practical knowledge that has been going on over the last 30-40 years.

by veqq 4y ago

Syonyk 4y ago

You can do your own surface mount soldering on boards for assembly, but it's an awful lot easier to design a single sided board (at least for the surface mount stuff) and hot plate it to get the solder melted. It's rather magical to watch surface tension in action - parts just... zoop right into the positions. I live in weird circles, I suppose, where this and "do your own PCB etching" are still things.

mikrl 4y ago

>requires very fine motor control and you are still just soldering tiny components I thought the key fob for my used Impreza just needed a new battery but the relay had actually fallen off the board. I had to buy a soldering iron and fine point tips but the rush I got when it finally settled in place and I could lock my car remotely was intense. Or maybe that was the lack of ventilation. My wheel hub and brakes on the other hand… I’d need various grinders, pullers and oxyacetylene to get through 12y of Ontarian corrosion. Not even a 4lb hammer on a breaker bar shifted my axle nut or caliper bracket bolts. With rounds of bolt blaster and blowtorch. Luckily my local garage charges reasonable rates and lets me supply my own parts. From here on out maintenance is gonna be a breeze!

AngryData 4y ago
If you work on older rusted vehicles, a high quality impact gun and air hammer are worth every penny. A shitty impact gun will take off like 60% of things, a high quality one will take off 90% of things. And for the final 10%, (likely in combination with torches and large breaker bars and impact gun) you can air hammer the living fuck out of the bolt or part for 15 minutes and it should help break apart some of the rust. And for future self, a tube of anti-seize. I questioned the need for my heavy equipment "fuck-you" sized impact gun when I bought it, but ive helped out more than a couple people remove old rusted on shit with it that their cheaper consumer impact gun simply couldn't handle.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  I have plenty of money for these tools but what I can't afford in modern day America is a shed to put the tools in, a garage to work on my car in, and an alternative means of transportation to get me to the parts shop while I take 3 days in my off hours trying to figure things out because I'm inexperienced.
  - mikrl 4y ago
    I’ve always lived in places with crap driveways but this one is nice, paved and level. Unfortunately no room for a garage or shed so yea, I spend about 20 minutes hauling various tools out of the basement (and hoping they don’t get stolen) before I can even loosen my lug nuts.

outworlder 4y ago

> but you can't make the circuit board yourself True. Thankfully, they have become dirt cheap. I can design and push a button to order a multilayer board from China, which is going to be done by the same industrial processes as any commercial boards, and will even be tested for me. I don't have to worry that I left it etching for too long. Or drilling holes. Or silk screening text. All that, and shipping costs more than the board. > I suspect a lot of would-have-tinkereds give up when they take apart their x with a screw driver and can't figure out what anything is I suspect your memory is playing tricks with you (as it does with everybody). Open an old CRT monitor and you won't know what anything is. Sure, you may learn what the individual components are, but you need a lot of schematic study to even understand what all those components are even doing. Today, we can just open a phone and go "oh, that's the wifi chip". It is still possible to do SMD work at home. Air rework stations have dropped from 4 digit dollars to 2 digits. Other tools are getting cheaper too. Oscilloscopes have never been cheaper (and, if you don't need anything fancy, at least in the US there's a flood of perfectly good used models). Microcontrollers are incredibly cheap. A lot of what was done by hardware today can be handled with software. With <$1 parts. 3d printing allows us to not have to drill soap containers for our electronics cases. Also, all those old electronics magazines? Most of those circuits can be built today just fine. People dabbling in electronics were always a small subset of the population. I am willing to bet that, percentage wise, those numbers are way bigger today.

twobitshifter 4y ago

I came across this great article from 1986 about adding an airlock door to your entry way the other day. https://books.google.com/books?id=NUzwukoJzGIC&pg=PA96&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=true https://books.google.com/books?id=NUzwukoJzGIC&pg=PA96&sourc... Give it a read and realize the author is suggesting you repurpose other doors, and mismatched pieces and parts of larger windows to create an entry that looks like it’s off from a luxury home for $62. He assumes the reader knows how to cut and set glass, separate door frames, cut ellipses, and all sorts of little things that very few people today would have the skills or tools for. Read on and you’ll see that just by illustrating alternative designs the reader is meant to understand how to build it. It’s “Draw the rest of the owl” to us today, but it wasn’t then. This made me realize the great loss of practical knowledge that has been going on over the last 30-40 years.