It's all the same

Having worked in IT for the most part of 18 years I've never really known a whole lot different. Sure I've worked as a farmhand, in a meat works, as a builder's assistant, and a plasterer's assistant, and currently I'm a postal worker delivering mail on a motorcycle, but it's been IT that's defined my career for so long.

When I started woodworking it never really occurred to me that in essence it's the same as IT. In fact, with the exception of admin related jobs, most jobs are very similar. In IT we largely replace parts and to do so we strip down assemblies in a specific order. We then replace the part and reassemble in the reverse order of what we pulled it apart in.

If you're a mechanic it's pretty much the same process. And it's the same in woodworking. There's an order in which you have to do things so that you have a completed assembly ready for use. Sure, there's less diagnostic work in woodwork but when you get something wrong you've got to reverse engineer stuff in your head pretty quick to see why it's going wrong. It's the exact same process as in IT and mechanical work.

I was reminded of this today when I started to try a couple of diagnostic stuff on our car to try and workout why the fuse keeps blowing when the park lights are turned on. Somewhere in the loop is a short and I tried to narrow it down with the limited skills I do have. I've narrowed it down to the main loom somewhere but that's where I need a friend who is an auto-sparky to help me out.

The process I used is pretty much the same that I would have used in IT whereby I started at the obvious - park light bulbs - and just disconnected stuff as I went along. Using a multimeter I was able to find which pins on the connector went to the park lights and that's where I stopped before I did something real stupid. ALWAYS know your limits.

I often do the same thing in woodworking because there's always something that hasn't gone quite right. There's been many an occasion when I've only found out at the last joint that I've either got something around the wrong way, or I've completely stuffed up a cut and had to go out and buy more wood.

What I guess I'm trying to say is that don't be scared to fail in woodworking. It's how every woodworker has learned even with the vast amount of knowledge out there. Break plans down to individual components and just follow enough plans that you can start to design your own stuff. Even if you're new to woodworking by following the same process as above you'll work things out and when you do you'll be more capable next time. Man, I'm not even going to tell you how many system boards I've killed.

Have fun and just think of wood working as an extension of skills you've most likely built up in life anyway.

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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://woodenwookie.co.nz/index.php/2020/01/03/its-all-the-same/

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