Re: Need project ideas for the winter

Ignoramus12137 wrote: 
On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 11:52:22 -0800, Tim Wescott <tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Ignoramus12137 wrote:


It is cheaper to just buy a used real welding machine, than to mess
with this stuff. Just MHO. 

i


Says the guy who's building his own AC chopper for a DC welder? 


Actually, your irony is 100% justified. Considering the value of my
time, I would have been financially much better off buying a new
Miller AC/DC TIG welder at MSRP, and making money by taking a side
computer programming job.

That's not even considering the cost of parts.

I am not practicing what I am preaching. 

In my defense, I must say that I did not anticipate the amount of time
it would take, and also that I like to spend time this way, and do not
need to earn more money.

i

I think one needs to make a distinction between doing something because it's educational and fun vs. doing it because it'll save you money. There are very few manufactured articles that a well-educated US citizen can make for less time/effort/money than they can buy.

But it's less educational and less fun to buy stuff sometimes.

So I try to remember, when I'm thinking about making stuff, to ask if I'm doing it because I can't get the thing, because I know I can do better than I can buy (there are some areas where I'm a good craftsman), because I will enjoy the process of making it, or because I have my head up my assumptions. In the first three cases I make, in the last I buy...

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
.

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