Tinkerers No More
Nowhere has our attitude toward the maintenance of our own belongings shifted over the course of my lifetime than in how we view our cars. The house I grew up in had a detached garage with two bays. The one on the right had what was then called “a pit.” It was a roughly four foot wide hole in the floor, fifteen feet long, with a set of stairs leading down to a low work space below. From there you could change the oil and work on the entire undercarriage of the car which you carefully parked above it.
My second vehicle, back when I was a teenager, was a 1967 Ford pickup truck. When you opened the hood there was enough room in the engine compartment for a young man my size to crawl entirely inside and still close the bonnet. With a glance you could easily view all the major components of the engine: the radiator, the starter, the block, the head and the distributor cap with its eight wires snaking around to their appointed spark plugs. It was, unfortunately, an ill-tempered beast, and by the time I was seventeen I had replaced the head gasket on it myself. (If you don’t know what that means, look it up. It essentially involves rebuilding the entire engine.)
I don’t recall the last time I saw a private home with a garage which had a pit. Opening the hood of most modern cars reveals what is essentially a Borg Collective underneath, and tearing into it seems a frightening prospect. But it’s not only big-ticket items like automobiles which bear the scars of our shifting attitude toward tools and useful items.
At least for the men in the audience, consider for a moment the matter of the razors we use for shaving. My father — as did my grandfather before him — used a straight razor for that task through all his years. A barber’s strop was an ever present accessory hanging at the side our bathroom sink. (While preparing this article, I paused to wonder how many younger readers today would even know what a strop was without tabbing over to Google.) With proper care and regular sharpening, a good straight razor could last you several decades. Today we prefer pre-packaged razors which are employed until the edge is no longer pristine and are then chucked unceremoniously into the waste bin.
We have evolved into a society which disdains the making of things and absolutely abhors the concept of repairing them. There were three television repair shops in the small town where I grew up. I believe that today the breed is effectively extinct. In the 1960s, being a mechanic was an essential and respected career. Today, if your child winds up being a “grease monkey,” it’s frequently a mark of shame, not to be mentioned when the neighbors are around.
Is it any wonder, then, that our nation’s manufacturing base has been in decline for so long? It’s easy enough to blame external market forces, but the fact is that a once proud tradition has fallen into a shameful state of disrepair and blatant disrespect. And yet physical work will always need to be done – at least until Skynet’s robots are nearly ready to take over our society. Might some of us find more satisfaction in washing the dirt or grease off our hands at the end of a long day, seeing the fruits of our labors in fully functional use by others? Would it be so terrible if more of our children sought out these “useful trades”?
Being a “handyman” is another description generally employed with scorn, much like the tinker of old. But a man who is handy will likely find work no matter where the Dow Jones closes tomorrow. The real world is full of things, and they impact our lives on every level. Treating them as if they are magical beasts beyond our comprehension represents losing something which our society once held precious.
Lathes! Welding! Saws? Can you image the insurance premiums on that today?
I said the same thing in 2007 durinf the Pub debates. They were asking about HS graduation rates for minorities.
I said, “Duh! When you’re poor, you want classes which teach you skills with which you can make money, because you get tired of having no money in your pockets. They used to offer shop classes, and poor kids suffered through the rest of the curriculum, so that they could go to shop classes. Now, we learn what Libs who went to college think is valuable, rather than what working people think is valuable. I’d drop out, too.”
My sister is a babe, but she is not attracted to white-collar types. She likes a guy who is working in a car engine in a tank top, with a cigarette drooping from his mouth, and a beer off to the side. That’s her definition of sexy. Most of my many sisters and my Mom are like her. They love to see a man do manly things, like fix the roof or the plumbing, or add on a room to the house, or rewire the kitchen, or reinsulate the house. Very manly. Very sexy. Even if he is middle-aged and balding.
You should probably stick to stuff like this and forget the politics thing.
Lovely article. Read something like it complaining that Britons are no longer manufacturers in the Daily Telegraph (UK) a few weeks back and I couldn’t agree more.
Yes!! I am a college graduate, but I am a stone mason by trade and choice.For years I have noticed the trend to denigrate those of us who work with our hands as ” not smart enough to do anything else”. Education as an end in itself is considered a more noble pursuit, as well as the acquisition of money without regard to how one obtained it , or if anything useful or lasting was the result of one’s labor. Sadly I hold the Conservative Movement(with Limbaugh, who seems to hold up money as the only measure of “excellence”, as he calls it) almost as guilty as the Liberals ( with their god-education).When they have trouble, my highly educated and technology worshipping friends call me- the grubby sweaty working man, to bail them out. Ironic, ain’t it?
I loved your article!
My dad is a retired gas utility worker, who had the job to help support the farming he also did. He is of a generation of farmers that of utter necessity had to know how to do ANYTHING on the farm, from helping a sow farrow (if you don’t know, Google that!)to replacing the rear axle on a Case 930 with help from a teenager. After retiring from 39 years of “tinkering” for the utility, he had more time to “tinker” with his first love, antique International tractors. He is the first person all the neighbors call on when the “experts” at the local Case repair shop can’t figure out a tractor, and he has an unofficial job as the “tinkerer” for a neighbor that has lots of farm machinery, and absolutely no patience or knowledge of repairing any of it. I inherited his “tinker” gene-I was one of a few women copier repair people in Indiana, and still love to fix things. Provided that I can find parts!! I from necessity had to figure out how to fix our Toro mower (’nuff said about that hunk of junk), and I insisted on the Dewalt compound miter saw (hubby prefers the old saw-in-a-box). Which I love using.
During my high school years, girls ONLY took Home Ec., and boys ONLY took shop. I was bored most of the time in Home Ec., because my mother had already shown me how to “tinker” with cooking (I still only make cakes from scratch) and sewing (but Oscar de la Renta needn’t worry!), and with growing my own vegetables, and canning them. At that time, gardening was considered something you didn’t discuss in genteel public. Oh, and I have always hung clothes on a clothesline that is supported by posts that my dad welded.
So far, my kids don’t show any interest in “tinkering” with anything other than the computer games they play….sigh
It is true that today, of the work there is still! If I take the example of the software of programs, most are not even translated into different languages ! How to sell outside one good high programs if the customer understands nothing ?! If Microsoft had been held only in English, he would be almost unknown today.
There is also a failure of the programs of translation.
Here, Here ! I agree.
My first college was Oswego State, the country’s number one school for “Shop Teachers.” I can certainly relate. What people do not understand is that “tinkering” is great mind exercise. It teaches creativity and problem-solving.
Right on!
As a “grease monkey,” I make more money than most college educated office drones. What’s really funny is that I’m also better educated than a lot of them, too. Plus, I can (and have) left one job and started another one the next day.
My house has always been well-stocked with tools, mostly of the muscle-powered variety. Power tools are all well and good, but they don’t work when the power fails.
My idea of a relaxing evening is building models, usually aircraft, classic cars, or science-fiction vehicles. My workbench is notably crowded with knives, files, pin vises, etc., and notably free of power-operated Dremel tools and/or anything containing microchips.
I do use a solar-powered scientific calculator for mathematical formulae. Then I check my work with pencil and paper and/or my old, reliable Pickett N902-T Simplex Trig slide-rule (or “slipstick” in Heinlein’s words).
Right now, I’m looking for a “new” car, as well. I’m seriously thinking about a 1970s Chevy or Dodge pickup- which if need be, I can fix with my Swiss Army knife. Which, BTW, is something I never leave home without.
Anyone who regards this as an atavism would be well-advised to read the short story “Day of the Moron” by H. Beam Piper. And then read it again.
(You can get it for free, online, at Project Gutenberg. Or, better yet, in the out-of-print book “The Worlds of H. Beam Piper”, edited by John F. Carr. Real books don’t need the Internet.)
clear ether
eon
you have brought up a good point. the elitists don’t want to dirty there hands. they REALLY think they are above manual labour.
BUT THE ELITISTS STILL MAKE THE TRADES PEOPLE PAY DISPAPORTIONATELY FOR THEIR EDUCATION. (the elitists are subsidised by people who work in trades and manual labour).
Electricians are not UL approved, $50 an hour is low and replacing a head gasket is not rebuilding an engine.
Skip this article but do read the book folks.
another part of the problem is illegal immigration.
Used to be a roofer in Florida made $15.00 a hour, now they make 7.50$ a hour and no one buys workers’ compensation coverage.
As someone mentioned above, insurance premiums on any manual labor plus the cheap labor that illegal immigration provides, kills off any ability for someone to make a living using their hands. The only exception is the very highly skilled workers…
it is good to know theory but it is even better when you can apply it. i went to the junkyard and saw all these trade in clunkers. EPA rules state you can’t upgrade an engine. where are all the high fuel mileage diesels they have in Europe? why can’t we get them here in America and repower some of favorite trucks? even the 1/2 ton trucks? i’d like to see a Cummins 4 cylinder and an Allison transmission. flyover people seemed to have missed out on the don’t tinker message. knowledge is data applied.
I am so happy to be married to a man who can fix and build anything and who is teaching our children to fix and build anything.
I also want to add that today’s “educated” folks aren’t even capable in many cases of acquiring these vital skills. It makes me so sad to see people who can’t even unjam a stapler.
Thanks for this wonderful article.
As a machinist who started in the business in 1970, I can attest to this awkward shift in societal attitude toward the “trades”. The more I discovered about manufacturing, the more I felt compelled to learn about it, from physics to geometry, trigonometry, to quality control and mechanical design.
Alas, it has become my undoing. Despite many years of self-study and certifications, I find myself unable to find a job in manufacturing. My own government has not been helpful; the passage of NAFTA was the beginning of the end of American manufacturing, aided and abetted by environmenalist eco-freaks who mistakenly think that the Earth must never, ever get dirty and that what came from the ground can’t return to it safely.
Perhaps one day, we’ll return to our senses and rediscover that you can still be smart and work with your hands.
problem with tinkering with cars today is that they are all computer controlled. I do tinker though, built my own rain barrel for FREE with parts around my home and a nice white 35 gallon barrel they give away at the car wash. wooohooo free water for my plants. (PS make sure u have an overflow, one storm on one roof fills the barrel FAST)
I think after suffering through our first metro-sexual President who by outward appearances would rather try on suits than tinker, a new male role-model could begin to emerge. One that actually knows his way around a table saw instead of one who calls shopping at Brooks Brothers a sport would be quite refreshing wouldn’t it?
I’m sure a lot of guys who would love to get under the hoods of their cars can’t do it any more because of that culprit the computer.
This article, in many ways, fails to take into account the impact that technological advances make upon the ability to “tinker”.
I’m an electrical engineer and grew up in the Heathkit era. I’m also a tinkerer. Electronics now is so high tech that it requires several thousand dollars of relatively specialized equipment just to get started. This locks out most high schoolers who want to do it one their own.
It’s generally impossible now to repair most electronics. Who has a broken cell phone “repaired” when engineers have worked really hard to make the new ones cheaper and more capable? Most electronic devices today are cheap and disposable. Which means no one tinkers with them.
The following is from an Agatha Christie book, set in Ancient Egypt. The book was published in 1944.
—–
Hori said, “At present a few scribes are all that are needed on a large estate, but the day will come, I fancy, when there will be armies of scribes all over Egypt. We are living at the beginning of great times.”
“That will be a good thing,” said Renisenb.
Hori said slowly: “I am not so sure.”
“Why are you not sure?”
“Because, Renisenb, it is so easy and it costs so little labor to write down ten bushels of barley, or a hundred head of cattle, or ten fields of spelt–and the thing that is written will come to seem like the real thing, and so the writer and the scribe will come to despise the man who ploughs the fields and reaps the barley and raises the cattle–but all the same the fields and the barley and the cattle are real–they are not just marks of ink on papyrus. And when all the records and all the papyrus rolls are destroyed and the scribes are scattered, the men who toil and reap will go on, and Egypt will still live.”
Popular Mechanics has many articles on skills sets. Last year they had a very popular list of 100 Skills Every Man Should Know. I think that should read every person, though a couple, such as cutting down a tree, require more physical strength than many women have.
A good handyman can make a fine living in a large city because of how ignorant people have become on matters of basic household repairs such as replacing a light plug or fixing a leaky faucet. My elderly mother lived in a neighborhood of widows who were always asking for the name of her handyman. He was lucky he didn’t end up weighing 300 pounds what with all the goodies feed to him as he patched concrete steps, fixed toilet floats and fitted in replacement planks on hardwood floors that had warped.
My neighbor’s 15 year old son is showing a great dislike for schoolwork but already has formidable skill sets on everything from home computers to diesel tractors. He’s become the local go to guy on both Macs and PCs. I tell his parents not to worry. He’ll probably end up earning more than a lot of liberal arts grads.
Building it, fixing it, growing it, sewing it. In short, “doing it yourself,” is a political statement. It puts us in touch with the souls of the pioneers. They founded a country where we could lead our own lives, doing things our own way, without the advice or permission of some governmental body. Freedom demands self-reliance and individual responsibility, which are threats to centralized government.
I had replaced the head gasket on it myself. (If you don’t know what that means, look it up. It essentially involves rebuilding the entire engine.)
No it doesn’t, don’t try bluffing those of us who have done so and who know better.
As someone who has a power hammer in his garage for shaping metal, just for fun, I am in total agreement with the following sentiment express by Charles Murray in an article titled “Are too many people going to college”
But while it is true that the average person with a B.A. makes more than the average person without a B.A., getting a B.A. is still going to be the wrong economic decision for many high-school graduates. Wages within occupations form a distribution. Young people with okay-but-not-great academic ability who are thinking about whether to go after a B.A. need to consider the competition they will face after they graduate. Let me put these calculations in terms of a specific example, a young man who has just graduated from high school and is trying to decide whether to become an electrician or go to college and major in business, hoping to become a white-collar manager. He is at the 70th percentile in linguistic ability and logical mathematical ability—someone who shouldn’t go to college by my standards, but who can, in today’s world, easily find a college that will give him a degree. He is exactly average in interpersonal and intrapersonal ability. He is at the 95th percentile in the small-motor skills and spatial abilities that are helpful in being a good electrician.
He begins by looking up the average income of electricians and managers on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, and finds that the mean annual income for electricians in 2005 was$45,630, only about half of the $88,450 mean for management occupations. It looks as if getting a B.A. will buy him a huge wage premium. Should he try to get the B.A. on economic grounds?
To make his decision correctly, our young man must start by throwing out the averages. He has the ability to become an excellent electrician and can reasonably expect to be near the top of the electricians’ income distribution. He does not have it in him to be an excellent manager, because he is only average in interpersonal and intrapersonal ability and only modestly above average in academic ability, all of which are important for becoming a good manager, while his competitors for those slots will include many who are high in all of those abilities. Realistically, he should be looking at the incomes toward the bottom of the distribution of managers. With that in mind, he goes back to the Bureau of Labor Statistics website and discovers that an electrician at the 90th percentile of electricians’ incomes made $70,480 in 2005, almost twice the income of a manager at the 10th percentile of managers’ incomes ($37,800). Even if our young man successfully completes college and gets a B.A. (which is far from certain), he is likely to make less money than if he becomes an electrician.
In the mid 90′s I discovered woodworking. Never had an interest in high school or later on in life, until my daughters needed new beds. Having had a little recent experience in carpentry helping a friend build a house, I felt confident enough that I could duplicate the “This End Up” style beds that my boys had. It turned out that Arkansas Yellow Pine was as expensive in the Pacific Northwest as good hardwood, so I ended up designing and building two beds in Mission style from hard maple and cherry. All mortise and tenon, with a hand rubbed laquer finish. I was hooked! I subscribed to Fine Woodworking, took a couple of classes at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, and never looked back. Now I have a garage full of woodworking tools and have built a number of tables and other projects.
After 25 years in the Navy, I ended up working for the Army as a fire alarm technician. I absolutely love what I do. There is a lot of satisfaction to be had from going into a building with an unknown problem and using brains and hands to figure it out and repair it. I would strongly encourage young (or not so young) people to take up a skilled blue collar trade. I make more as a fire alarm tech than do lots of college grads. Fyi, there is a tremendous demand for fire alarm technicians, not to mention sprinkler techs. It pays well and is very satisfying. My oldest daughter is looking into an IBEW apprenticehip. Starting pay is more than $15 per hour, and journeyman wages in my area are more than $35.
I am proud to be skilled blue collar.
Inventors are the highest paid people on earth; steven Jobs, Steven Wozniak, Paul Allen, etc, etc.They are tinkerers at heart…but the crux of the matter is the philosophy that someone that works with their hands is not living to their potential..
Trades teach you one thing very early on, you cannot make mistakes or lie and get away with it. If your part is too large, it wont fit. If you cut it too short it wont assemble, on and on. I was a tool and Die maker for 25 years, loved every minute of it. We manufactured parts for Lockheed, Loral, Northrup, Military, and Nasa. Learned the difference between people that thought they ran the agency, and the people that actually ran the agency
The problem i found is acedemic based education teaches an individual to lie early on, of course its called by many other names, but its purpose is to allow the individual to BS their way out of the mistake or error.
This concept of believing your errors can be somehow justified with BS has brought us the banking collapse, health care woes, failed wars and countless setbacks.
Nonsense. UL doesn’t certify electricians. They certify equipment, and fabrication shops. You need a licensed contractor, and the contractor needs to take an exam, and have so many hours of on-the-job training.
They’re not inventors, they’re businesspeople. For every one of them, there are thousands who are making little to nothing. That’s like saying that the way to wealth is sports or acting.
That’s not a social trend, it’s an economic one. The reason why we don’t fix TVs any more is:
1) The don’t break, like the old ones used to, and
2) The amount one would have to charge is more than a new one costs.
This is due to cheap, high quality manufacturing in Asia, and better technology. This is also, btw, the reason why people don’t build TVs from kits as was not uncommon in the ’60s. These days, even ham radio operators, who used to build their own gear, but appliances from Asia. It’s too expensive to make your own these days, and the technology has become almost impractical to handle as an individual.
I remember the day when I “felt” the loss of not being so able to work on my own car because of the technologies involved. Computerized timing, fuel mixtures, emission controls, etc. combined with spark plugs that last 100K miles instead of just a few thousand, heck, about all a guy can do is maybe change the oil if there is enough room to do so without getting oil everywhere.
But technology advances. Tie faster, smaller, cheaper with customized design to demand makes for very short design cycles and even shorter product life cycles. Customers want the latest design. The idea of planned obsolesence is replaced by customer demand. Products don’t fail, they are just replaced. They still work in many cases, but people want the latest gadget, the coolest thing. Consider when for decades everyone had the same black dail phone made from bake-lite. Heck, landlines on now on their way out in favor of cell phones of every size, shape, design, color, capability and price point. And they are replaced at least once a year if not more often.
Credit the space race with the race to technical expertise and the intellectual arrogance you describe. Thinking was in. But engineers still like to work with their hands. I understand what you mean about the trades being demeaned, but every aspect of our society deserves respect because we can’t function without even the humble garbage collector. Certain groups certainly took their own self esteem to new heights and at the expense of others but isn’t that the case in any era?
No matter what I do I always follow what I learned in “The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig, about being focused and in tune with what I am working on so that I can perceive the nuances of a thing mechanical or a process idea. We can lament times gone by but there are still ways to apply ourselves to what we do today to achieve excellence, self fulfillment, and make a contribution to the world around us.
That’s brilliant! Joe the Plumber for president! Wurzelbacher/Palin ’12! Stick that in your arugula and smoke it, metrosexuals…
Worked as a plumber/remodeler for some years and finally got out of the business when we kept getting underbid by generals who hired illegals. We even had a couple of customers hire us to fix what their illegal labor had broken.
I was hoping to start my own business but I could read the writing on the walls. Ok, so their work isn’t as good as American but it takes only a little longer and they get paid a lot less. I thought plumbing would be safe because of the licensing requirements but generals get around it by hiring one ‘plumber’ and fifteen illegals (who by the way no nothing about plumbing).
A great deal is lost when we stop teaching young people to work with their hands. There are fundamental lessons about ourselves and the world be inhabit which cannot be read about or discussed, but must be experienced directly.
A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. ~Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
For myself, although my actual job is very different, I always try and have some sort of little shop-type project going on; building a shed, fixing a door…doesnt matter what and usually ends up costing more and coming out worse than if I had paid to have it done.
I wonder if the next generation will still understand why I do it.
Spindok
BTW, as kind of an aside, electronic tinkering isn’t dead, but it does require computer programming skills. It’s also a much more international hobby than it was a generation ago. Here are a couple of sites (there are many more) that cater primarily to the electronic hobbyist:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/categories.php
http://www.mikroe.com/
Robotics is a particularly active area.
Has anyone ever looked at the shop manuels for cars and trucks lately? Bubba, aside from work that is idiot simple like changing bulbs and routine maintenace the books are full of electrical diagrams, explainations for trouble light combinations and unless you happen to own an Auto diagnostic computer you do not have a prayer of shade tree mechanicing a car.
This was thought up by car manufacturers to make cars only repairable by the auto dealers and their company mechanics. This way a person has to go back to the dealer for all routine and shop level work.
Recent work on an S-10 chevy shows that in order to simply change out Plugs and plug wires a shade tree mech must lift the truck, disconnect the battery, pull the right wheel off, pull the air system intake off, pull the alternator off and then replace the plugs and plug wires.
The trend is to make it impossible to change a light bulb with out a degree in avionics.
I do recall once long ago in the first gas shortage and the resulting economic meltdown working alongside a Ga. tech man who was a graduate engineer with a degree both of us shoveling mud off a power plant under construction’s spillway cement.
We both made the same but he had the luxury of saying he was college educated and had more future.
From my viewpoint it meant he used a spade instead of a shovel.
My freshman year of high school, my counselor was appalled that I wanted to take wood shop. “You’re too smart for that!”, he said.
After taking not only wood shop, but electrical shop and drafting in high school – then going on to get a BSEE in college, building nuclear plants and launching space shuttles – I’m back to making a living off of what I learned in high school shop classes.
Who’s the smart one now?
“I had replaced the head gasket on it myself. (If you don’t know what that means, look it up. It essentially involves rebuilding the entire engine.)”
No it doesn’t, don’t try bluffing those of us who have done so and who know better.
C’mon, give the guy a break. So he exaggerated a bit. Changing a head gasket is about half the job of a complete rebuild, at least in terms of parts that need to come off and go back on. You have to remove the carb/fuel injection, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, and then remove the head. A complete rebuild would involve tearing down the piston/rod/crankshaft assembly too, plus whatever machine work that needs to be done on the block and the head.
Shaw’s point still stands, though exaggerated. For folks who have no idea what a head gasket is, the work involved in replacing one would seem close to rebuilding an engine.
Engines I’ve fully rebuilt:
Lotus Twin Cam
Air-cooled 1648cc VW w/ hi-po stuff
Volvo B18
BTW, the point about things not being repaired also applies to cars. My daughter bought a 945 Volvo, whose #1 piston is hitting the head, most likely due to a worn bearing on its connecting rod. Back in the 1930s-1950s, a mechanic might have tried just replacing the one bad bearing instead of a full engine rebuild.
I’ve got one word for yous guys: software. The tinkering’s moved out of the garage and onto the internet.
Which brings up yet another dimension to this. Not only is there a general attitude that the trades are for dummies, but if you suggest to a minority that his calling might be in the trades, you’re likely to be accused of racism and tracking. Thus there’s a particular built-in resistance to minorities pursuing careers in the trades.
The result is that the ones who aren’t college material, but might make good plumbers, end up dropping out of high school, instead.
Sometimes we give up the good and possible for the perfect but impossible.
As an aside, Obama’s notion of everyone going to college is absurd on many levels. That’s one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever heard come out of a politician’s mouth, ever. If the trolls here are any indication of the quality of minds in college, the colleges have become advanced kindergartens. Seriously, we may see the day when voc schools are harder to get in to than universities, the graduates smarter, and making more money.
36, if this is a contest of who’s got the longer engine rebuilding wiener, here’s my list:
Peugeot 2.2l diesel – total overhaul
BMW 2.4l turbodiesel – total overhaul
Mercedes 3l diesel – total overhaul
Ford/IH 6.9l diesel – total overhaul
Olds 5.7l diesel – head replacement
Honda 1.5l gas – head replacement(2)
Cad 500 CI gas – total overhaul
ZF 4HP22 auto tranny – total overhaul (2)
Probably some others I forgot.
The only thing I’m afraid of is diesel injection pumps. The general rule with anything mechanical is “the only thing to fear is fear itself”.
30. Calvin Ball:
I think after suffering through our first metro-sexual President who by outward appearances would rather try on suits than tinker, a new male role-model could begin to emerge. One that actually knows his way around a table saw instead of one who calls shopping at Brooks Brothers a sport would be quite refreshing wouldn’t it?
That’s brilliant! Joe the Plumber for president! Wurzelbacher/Palin ‘12! Stick that in your arugula and smoke it, metrosexuals…
great ..lol.
there is something beyond being able to tinker and fix things. a lot of it is common sense.
the problem as I see it is people are not taught to think, the liberal indoctrination that occurs in schools today discourage critical thinking and that matatisizes into all aspects of life.
If you could think ..you could understand. if you could understand you could fix.
I am not suggesting everyone try to fix their car or plumbing, but understanding and being analitical helps in diagnosing a problem and working to a solution.
NO ONE IS FREE UNLESS THEY ARE CAPABLE OF CRITICAL THINKING.
I write software for a living. If you want to tinker these days, that’s how you do it. Robotics is especially fun, plus building and programming them is relatively cheap. I’m also an electronics engineer and I tinker with just about everything. Replacing a head gasket is not akin to rebuilding an engine and I’ve done both many times. I maintain, repair, upgrade, and race my “borg” vehicles with a good set of hand tools and a PC with an AutoTap scanner I bought for 200 bux. Custom tuning with programming is 50 bux each time. It is not expensive to work on newer cars, all it takes is knowledge. I don’t purchase imported cars so I find the room in my engine compartments to be sufficient for any repair, except a full rebuild of course. I don’t have a giant hole in my garage floor but I do have a hydraulic car lift that I bought for a lot less than it would take to install a pit in my garage. A garage pit is the extremely old way to go about getting under a car. Try using a car lift instead. I realize that car lifts for home garages are relatively new but geez, get with the program already.
I can’t remember the last time I hired a repair person for any reason. If anything needs to repaired or replaced at my house, then I do it. My wife enjoys that and so does our checkbook. I use the internet to find parts and service manuals, so I don’t need anyone else. There’s no need to pine for simpler times and simpler technology. All you need are knowledge and proper tools, same as it’s ever been.
As someone who is in the HVAC business I can assure you that this trend has been going on for over 20 years now. We find it near impossible to find people that want to go into this trade and I’m sure all the other trades are having the same problem. Which is a shame because a qualified tech in the metro BY area can make anywheres between $25 to $40 an hour plus benefits. If you add in overtime that tech can make upwards of $100,000. year and have an amazing amount of job security.
One of the most disconcerting things I have found though, is that most people given the chance to go into this trade, only do so for a short period of time and then quit. Why? because they don’t want to, a) get dirty, b) crawl around in a hot attic or dank basement, c) don’t want to work overtime when it gets busy, d) and this is the biggest one…They don’t want to put in the time to actually learn the trade, they want to get paid top dollar right away.
All in all we are producing more and more that don;t what the business end of a screwdriver is and if they do try to do something with it, somebody is going to get hurt.
Oh well…I’ll just have to raise my prices.
In 1962-1966, while I was a student at Stuyvesant HS in Manhattan, we were all expected to take some shop and mechanical design courses. This requirement was not thought to be demeaning whatsoever, but rather a practical adjunct to our elite, science-heavy curriculum. [In fact I was sitting in wood shop one day, when a voice on the loudspeaker told us to leave school early (without explanation). On the way home, I heard that JFK had been shot.]
Calvin Ball,
Lots of good points, especially this: “The general rule with anything mechanical is ‘the only thing to fear is fear itself’.” Generally, my repair strategy follows these steps:
1. Start taking the item apart.
2. Continue until you see something that looks like it is broken.
3. Fix or replace the part that is broken.
4. Re-assemble.
Don’t tell my wife about this; she thinks I am brilliant.
While a student at an Ivy League university, my favorite place to be was the student machine shop. The things I learned there were a strong complement to my mechanichal engineering curriculum. I have also learned that “tinkering” is not at all a mindless profession. It takes a great deal of knowledge and skill to create a working machine from raw materials. You need solid math skills, a good understanding of trigonometry, an understanding of materials and how they respond to different processes, and a good grasp of the tools that will be used. This is the type of learning that comes from application and experience. You can’t “fake it till you make it” (not if you want to keep all of your fingers, that is).
There is something therapeutic about the mind and the body working together as they were meant to. I work at a desk job because I’m good at it and it pays well, but I get more satisfaction from clearing a stubborn drain or rewiring an outlet at home.
Ahem, the topic of this piece by Jazz is Tinkerers No More, is it not? Now today Jazz has done all of us a perhaps unintentional but great favor via a Morning Joe interview. For doing us and the country this favor, his readers at The Moderate Voice have quit dissembling and come out four-square for completely government-controlled health care, they find no good whatever in the insurance business, and they excoriate Jazz for his moderateness. Jazz, this should aid you in understanding the concept that tinkering with libruls is a useless occupation.
http://themoderatevoice.com/43558/anthony-weiner-tears-off-the-mask/
The brilliant science-fiction satire “Wyst” by the great Jack Vance, makes exactly this point about fewer and fewer people being able or willing to fix stuff.
Very good points in this article. I grew up on a farm (1950′s & 60′s) where we troubleshooted and repaired everything ourselves. Upon graduation from public school, I accepted an apprenticeship (at a local Navy base) as a machinist, later (with more education) became a mechanical design engineer, and later still, a program manager tasked with designing and fabricating complex training systems for the Navy’s submarine schools. I also volunteered for collateral duty as administrator of the base’s apprentice program, where I was tasked with development of several new trades programs in partnership with the local community college.
I retired two years ago and enjoy “tinkering” in my well-equipped shop, keeping my farm machinery repaired and working on a special project or two. I miss the high tech world of manufacturing, engineering, submarine technology and educating young folks, but felt like time had marched past an old (presently 57) tradesman like me. Computer-based simulators were replacing hands-on devices in the sub schools as sailors seldom repaired equipment on board. Conventional machining was becoming all but obsolete with the advent of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) technology. Old-school, knowledgeable Resource Sponsors at Navy HQ were being replaced by fuzzy-cheeked novices who, instead of viewing progress first hand, demanded pointless charts and graphs to ascertain project status. I guess I just don’t fit in well with the majority of young folks, who seem to value the superficial; electronic toys, leisure time and Barak Obama more than hands-on skills, hard work, integrity and family values. Sad.
Calvin, I will second (third?) the idea that the only thing to fear of anything mechanical is the fear itself. If something is broken, what’s the worst that can happen, that you will make it more broken?
As to rebuilding, let’s see if I can still recall.
Ford – 289,300,351,428 (the 428 was in a 69 Mach 1 CJ that I got rid of because it pinged on 97)
Chevy – 153,235,283,305,327 (the 305 I built into a 335 and the 327 into a 383)
Pontiac – 400, 455 (the 400 was in a 67 Firebird and the 455 from a 76 TA, sure miss that 67)
Dodge – 230,251,340,360 (the 230 and 251′s are flatheads)
BMW – 2.6L inline 6 ( you should see the computer controls on that!)
Volkswagen – 1600 dual port (I owned a 69 Ghia for a while and also a sand rail in the 70′s)
Currently I’m looking for a 3.0L International diesel, the type that is used throughout Central and South America medium duty trucks to repower my F-150 and also a Cummins 4BTA to drop into a late 40′s Dodge Power Wagon. That is If I can find the time from converting my 74 Porsche 914 into an EV.
Full disclosure: I am absolutely inept with tools and working with my hands. I have never had coordination with my hands. My Dad, by contrast, was naturally skilled. He hated me.
(I am, however, wicked smart in abstract things, strictly a left-brainer.) I failed every shop class in Middle school. That’s when I learned respect for those who work with their hands. I thought I was smart. I learned then that there are different kinds of smart. I never looked down on “dumb kids” again.
I am loveing all of the tinkering men and women out there. My husband has a masters in accounting, but he also lays tile, paints houses, fixes toilets, and repairs pools. Our schools have decided that no one looks good in blue collars. We homeschool our children, and next to their studies in Latin and Logic you will find shop, plumbing, electrical, and home ecc for both sexes of our children (our daughter needs to be able to fix a toilet, and our sons need to be able to fix a meal). All the book-learnin’ in the world won’t do you any good if you can’t build a bookcase to hold the books. Now, I’m off to change the ligtswitch in my bathroom.
Not all hands-on work involves small motor skills. I can overhaul a diesel engine, but I can’t cut molding. Some things (such as welding) are pure physical skills. Around the house, I do electrical and plumbing, and get a carpenter if it has to look pretty. Ditto for drywall. Part of learning what you can do is learning what you can’t do.
One thing most straight males learn early on is that interior decorating is a chick/gay thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Calvin Ball Wrote:
“One thing most straight males learn early on is that interior decorating is a chick/gay thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…”
Yeah, but give them that. Better is better and only an idiot would not accept helpful input from someone who might be better skilled in certain things. Be they gayish…whatever.
For example, I also have a music hobby. I play drums. Yet drums by themselves do not play to a big audience. I dont really think about a gay-or-not thing. Just trying to play a certain piece by Sarah McLaughlin or Van Halen can be equally as difficult and I have struggled over both (so maybe I am not that good but still keep trying).
I also appreciate what you wrote about different skills. We do differ greatly in this as individuals. The point is not about which is more manly. I know plenty of guys who can kick my butt in hunting and I can still catch twice the fish…so what. We will eat. Now who cooks?
Spindok
Spindok – we’re waaaaay off topic here but:
What you say is exactly right. The alternative to war and bigotry is economic cooperation. Free markets mean different people and groups doing what they’re best at, and needing each other so much that they can’t afford the luxury of bigotry.
As far as that goes, I don’t even have to like gays, or Jews, or whomever. I just have to perceive my interests as being better served by dealing with them than not.
If Israel’s neighbors (and internal minorities) are ever going to live at peace with the Israeli Jews (for example), it’s going to be when they realize that the benefit that comes from cooperation and trade exceeds the cheap (but not really) thrills of intifada.
We’ll finally have peace in the world when people start caring more about how well they live than how their neighbors live, and that that person who’s better at something than you are is an opportunity, and not a liability.
“If the ladies don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. And in possession of a big roll of duct tape.”
Red Green schtick which helps illustrate Jazz’s point.
School districts shy away from shop class for two reasons: insurance & lawsuits! Shop class can now be found at the specialized, institutionalized & sanitized ‘vo-tech’ school that most districts now utilize.
All with the goal of ‘career assessment, orientation & training’. If anybody is hiring.
Heck, it’s no wonder we’re a nation of mechanical dummies. It’s cheaper to buy it new or pay a technician to fix it, so we can turn our own mouse wheel for a buck.
But when our rat race vocation doesn’t consume us, some of us enjoy the avocation of working with our hands as our father taught us. And we’re actually good at it!
The few; the curious; the handy:
Exceptional technical books for experimenters, inventors, tinkerers, mad scientists, and ‘Tom Edison’ types.
Don’t give up on us, Jazz!!
Great article but I had to laugh when I read about the straight razor. At one point in my life I decided I wanted to shave with a straight razor. Not sure why, but I did. So I got one and a strop and went at it. It didn’t take me long to understand why the safety razor was invented. Often progress is a good thing. Oh, I still use the brush and soap mug.
One of the reasons my wife said she married me was because I can “do things”. I have a shop full of tools and can fix or build most anything. I also have a BS in engineering and and MBA but my dad taught me well. I remember one day at work a colleague was telling me about a problem with his car. I gave him my opinion as to what the problem could be and thought to myself how helpless he and many of the men of my generation (X). I called my dad that night to thank him for teaching me so much practical stuff.
I like being one of the guys who’s comfortable with a wrench, saw, axe, maul, and hammer, yet capable of holding my own in the brain world(not to pat myself on the back too much). Alas, I’m aghast at what has happened to cars. Shade tree guys like me need to invest money in computer stuff to be able to fix any modern car. OBD 2 and 3 were designed, imo, to force guys like me to take their cars to the dealer.
I believe this problem, of guys who can’t fix things, is a father problem. Makes me feel blessed today, even if he’s gone. RIP pops.
There’s nothing wrong with different people having different skill sets but I’ve always admired those who can build or fix things more than those who can’t. No shame in getting your hands dirty.
All this might be true for you dazzling urbanites, but out here in the fields…
Personally, I hold three advanced degrees, was a weapons systems engineer for uncle sugar, and was tortured in IT for 15 years. I’m not aware of anyone I worked with in any of several tech fields who is still working in the fields they studied.
Today… I’m painting fence posts. Yeah, they’re my fence posts, but still wave when you drive by in your BMWs or Mercedes. Your Omaha Steak is on the other side of that fence.
One thing few people realize is how much cheaper things are today, too.
Many of the things talked about here: TV’s. PC’s and other electronics, cars, and other items all cost way less than they used to.
Some one will yell … but I paid 25 grand for my car!!
30 years ago your 25 grand car would have cost around 6 to 8 thousand and been considered an exotic supercar (they cost 100,000+ now). How many cars in 1969 could you drive all day long at 110 mph, let alone drive them like that with 70 or 80 thousand miles of use on them without even denting the motor?
All you have to do to it is wash it and change the oil every 3000 miles (if you use synthetic its every 5,000 or 10,000) and it will happily run 100,000 miles without a tuneup!! Most 1969 cars would likely be close to (or in) the junkyard at that point – especially the small ones.
Your $500 disposable laptop is a 10 million+ dollar supercomputer used to model nuclear explosions.
A good 2 dollar disposable razor cartridge will last you about 2 or 3 dozen shaves without replacing or sharpening
Your living room has better video and better sound than the best movie theater of 30 years ago…for under $2,000 and you can have a library of the finest Hollywood movies for 10 – 15 bucks a piece.
Your home video equipment and editing program you have on your pc cost over 1 million dollars back in the 1970′s and 1980′s. I know – my Dad used to work for a company that paid that much for its video making gear.
Those cheesy little calculators you can get at Walgreens for 50 cents cost $250 in 1975 – back when $250 was about $1500 today.
You want skills learn to build your own pc and run Linux. If you want to get your hands dirty you can still work on your home and us old fogeys would have killed to have ANYTHING like Menard’s or Loews as there wasn’t anything like that back then. You wanted to replace the broken legs on your table you had to have a lathe or a buddy with a wood shop.
The problem now is most folks are too LAZY to do this stuff, they are working too many hours to buy toys they rarely get to enjoy, or they are too busy managing their kids athletic and academic lives to actually teach them to do something useful like putting up drywall or sweating copper pipe.
I do recall My Dad during the fifties blowing a motor on his Ford and finding another motor, getting a hoist and changing out the blown motor with the good motor and all in our front yard. Dad could do anything he set his mind too He grew up during depression and that’s the way things were done.
#55-we have that vo-tec option in our school district-provided you pay EXTRA and provide the transportation!
Btw-drywall isn’t that hard to do, as long as you have plenty of time and an unlimited budget for “mud”!
And fyi for anyone out there-always use at least 3 coats of Spar Polyurethane, well sanded between coats
And not only duct tape, but baling wire, can be used to fix nearly anything.
What a great article on an interesting subject!!!! I married a man with a degree in Speech Pathology & Audiology. He financed his degree by capentry and masonry during his high school years and through college which he then took up again as he grew older. He built us a gorgeous barn, renovated our old home, and made some many clever things that are a delight to see. I learned from him and now do all my own plastering, restoration, light carpentry, window glazing and repair, and one of my proudest moments was when he told me I was the best painter he had ever known. I have a degree in accounting and love to work with my hands because I can see the RESULTS and they are satisfying. I know someone who was an attorney and left because he was fed up with feeling like he accomplished nothing. He became a carpenter. You are quite correct when you say these endeavors are derogated but I know many plumbers and electricians who are quite well off and they actually like it when their work is devalued. Less competition. The devaluation and elimination of this type of work goes hand and hand with the rise of the feminist movement and the contempt for things that were typically the province of men. Part and parcel of our cultural dislocation and revolution.
Fascinating article. I’ve also been concerned with our apparent lack of “making” things, but I am reminded that artisans, artists, performers, writers – we all, also, contribute, albeit in a different way.
Two points of note: A friend from out-of-town came to visit this summer, and one of the places I wanted to show off was an old hardware store, still stocked with fascinating tools and items I don’t even have names for. They are marvels; each with a purpose and function, and aesthetically, many of them, quite beautiful.
Second – American art is not without its big names who honor the world of tools. Pop artist Jim Dine (b. 1935) grew up around them, and immortalized many specific hardware store items in some of his most iconic works, particularly in the early 1970s.
Indeed, part of the culture – even if no longer appreciated to the same extent.
I am 66 years old and can relate. Not that long after the war (THE war — WW II, of course), my family and I moved back into the house my father had lived in as a child. One of his projects, which I helped him with (as well as a pre-schooler could) was replacing the gas lights with electricity. In later years I remember helping repair the roof.
A craft that is not mentioned here, but should be, is cobbling. More than once, when I was in high school and college (which I attended in my home town), a pair of shoes that still fit would need new soles and/or heels. Off they would go to Tony Gangi (who also played baritone horn in the town band). When they were returned, they were invariably better than when originally purchased (smelled better, too!) and lasted until the original leather tops went to pieces.
Speaking of today’s cars, though: increasingly, you don’t need a mechanic, you need a computer expert.
You know, the funny thing is, as a junior machinist, I don’t get any crap from my fellow college grads. Of course, most of them are technical or science degrees like myself (Genetics – absolutely useless as an undergrad degree), so that might have something to do with it. Plus we’ve mostly moved on from the lame dick-measuring years (I’m 27). But still, I get no trashtalk from anyone for what I do.
In fact, sometimes people listen to my work stories in a little bit of awe, which is fugging awesome. Mostly the girls. Which is fugging awesome-R.
I honestly think a lot of this stuff is due for a comeback. And replacing a head gasket is not an “entire engine rebuild.” Thought I’d give you crap for that one too.
I have spent my entire life with machines, tools, and inventions. 35 years of it in the ultimate “manly man’s” world, the Offshore Oil Industry. When non-mechanically minded associates see the size and scale of the machines I have overhauled, fabricated, designed and take for granted, as Seguin states, they are truely awed. I have worked as assistant for three inventors in my 42 year career, the current one holding over 70 Patents in Oilfield and Wind Generation technology.I have raced SCCA and build my own racecars, assemble my own computers to my preferences rather than Michael Dell’s, and am rebuilding the oldest fiberglass production Trawler Yacht in existence….. all because I just happen to know how to swing a wrench. Grease Monkey??? Damn proud of it!!!
Those who can’t do teach.
This used to be an observation of the people who could no longer produce competitively for the market gravitated into teaching the next generation. Now it is no longer true. Thanks to teacher certification and school acreditation regulation what is true is:
Those who never did teach.
Wow… it’s too bad we can’t take all of the wisdom (and some of the attitude) on disply here and start a new political party. Who was it Nextel had running the congress in one of their commercials? I read these comments and can’t help but wonder why this aspect of the American spirit is so rare on the political landscape. I suppose our media driven society and the government it empowers would not approve.
Oh by the way, Kat from Indiana, will you marry me?
Be Well. Tinker On!!!