Sometimes you must Roll Your Own.....

I wanted to say a few words here about creating tools. And how the right tool can take different forms.
    Being around a farm you will quickly learn that whatever tool or piece of equipment you need. It is on the other side of the farm. And before you can use it you will have to fix it.
  Because whomever used it last got just enough done with it that when it broke he could say something like "well I'll just have to let it go because there are three other jobs waiting to be done"....that's farming !
However there is no better training ground for a machanical mind than the farm. And very often you find that you require a special tool that of course you don't have. One becauae you cannot afford an expensive single use tool. And two there isn't anywhere to get one anyway. Yea you could spend all afternoon hunting for one to order but you dont have two or three weeks to wait. Heck you don't have two hours...

So many times in my life I have been in a position of not having the right tool or as is often the case the time. And being in a position where "It Has To Happen" no matter what. And many times during my time as a field engineer for a machine manufacturer I often found that I could rely on those instincts and resourses I learned back on that farm as a boy.  I would live with my head in the books and catalogs I had saved and collected in the way kids now live on the internet or even worse, video games.
And of course I had no idea that what I was really doing was learning a very important part of any engineers job. Reasearch, the absulutely vital componant to an engineers toolkit is his ability to quickly locate something he seen in a catalog or a manual or maybe an add he seen somewhere. And it Can often make the difference between success and failure.
  Without knowing it,  I had developed an unusual ability for recalling where I had seen a particular piece in a catalog. Or where i read a particular function in a manual etc.
  Who would have thought a boy seemingly obsessed with Sears & Roebuck or J.C. Penney catalogs. Was in reality just creating one more tool for his collection......
As I said in the beginning you can do anything ! But you have to have the right tool. And "The Right Tool" can take many shapes and forms. In some cases that tool may be a book or manual or even an education. And quite often that tool will be simply knowing where to find the information you require. Or maybe just knowing who to ask a question..

Thank You Again Grandpa. I miss you still today.....