You can certainly do something like that, Les. In the EC video, he's making a bare bones forge designed so anyone can make it no matter how limited their tooling and experience. I'm okay with that up to a point.
Maybe I'm the odd duck, but I tend to see the tools you have as a sign of your capabilities. Anyone can knock out a forge like EC did in the second video, but the forge in his first video really sets him apart and shows anyone who looks that he's got skills and an eye for design.
That makes me sound snobby, I'm sure. It's not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing, but I can't deny that it is noticed even as I sit here basking in my own hypocrisy since I so rarely live up to the standards I demand from others.
If someone's doing so much work that they're just wearing out the floor of their forge in a month, it makes sense to cobble something together that'll get the job done but also be easy to disassemble and repair. Taken as part of the larger picture, their shop filled with amazing bits and pieces, it might seem entirely reasonable and give you the impression that they're hardworking, successful, pragmatic, etc.
For someone who is just tinkering around on the weekends, why not take it to the next level and create something that showcases your abilities? A good example of this is Scott Turner, Forme Industrious on Youtube. Seems like everything he makes combines form and function, not just whipping something together to get the job done. The fact that he has so large a following tells me it resonates with people.
One of my favorite Scott Turner builds demonstrates the point -- he goes out of his way to craft something that's far more complicated than it needs to be. We've all thrown together a quick bench or table, all straight cuts and 90º angles, but Scott decided to take it a step further.
To me, it's the difference between using all-thread like in the EC video, or taking the time to get out your set of dies and turn threads on the ends of some round bar so you have just enough to get the job done. One is quick, simple and cheap. The other takes time and effort, costs you more, but results in something that's infinitely 'more better' even if nobody ever realizes what you did.
I'm blaming my snobbery on my instructor back in my school days. He's the one who drilled that pesky 'attention to perception' jive into my noggin even if he couldn't pound it into my character.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Lis2323
especially after cujo had ripped the op's tit off 
