Harrumph. I doubt this guy could even make out the paperwork to get a Humanities grant.
The two modules that make up the working surface of his very nifty work table are called “torsion boxes.” They are immensely strong for their light weight –but strong things are often bendy; these are able to avoid deflection under very substantial loads. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the fellow had never heard the term torsion box. It could very well be he’s just smart and innovative on his own.
Since he’s still in business in this homebuilding climate, I’ll guess he’s a very good businessman indeed. It’s counterintuitive to many people that work in small-shop industries, where there has to be visible, measurable work on display at the end of every day to show the customer, that they should stop what they’re doing for any reason to invest time and money in things that have long-term productivity benefits. If in the short run you’re dead, you have a tendency to simply hustle all the time. You can only think of the long run as a series of daily short runs.
Increases in productivity are a luxury to a business that has limited capital. That’s why you see poor countries emerging from communism using human labor to accomplish things we use machines for. If you’ve got lots of people and no money, you dig a canal with shovels. Luxuries come last. The fellow in the video probably knew he could improve his, and his workers’ productivity with a setup like that for a very long time before he accumulated enough time, energy and money to try his hand at it. If you confiscate his money, squander his time, and dissipate his energy before he gets a chance to use them, his business is less productive, and the work he does takes longer and costs more, or at the very least pays less, than if he invests in himself, his business, and his workers.
7 Responses
I Think you woke up on the A-Hole side of the bed.
Obviously, you know nothing about carpentry, production or business, which is why you can't appreciate this fellows design.
Tim
You must be new around here.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Uh, yeah, Tim. Old Sip just doesn't get it, poor fellow. Must be the early onset dementia kicking in. Either that, or he didn't go to to Hah-Vahd… Funny, though, I find myself agreeing with his statements on economics. Weird, huh?
Tom McHugh
not to worry sipp i think tim didn't read all the words too well. my first thought was that it would take up too much room to haul but if you're going to do a job in one area for a few days this would really make a lot of sense. my fear with making something like this is that i would invest a lot of time into it and miss an important part of my mission. a bench like this if well made that hits all the things you need it to do will be a joy for years. now if i could only stop doing days like today where i get sent to three different job sites. it's hard to get any traction that way.
as always a very nice find and one i'll tuck away for a few months to see how it fits me.
leon
An excellent example of why raising taxes hurts so much, without even going into how the tax money is usually wasted on products that nobody is willing to pay for with their own money like Solyndra.
I have been building torsion boxes for years. I even call them that. I must be a smart carpenter. ;^)
"If you confiscate his money, squander his time, and dissipate his energy before he gets a chance to use them, his business is less productive, and the work he does takes longer and costs more, or at the very least pays less, than if he invests in himself, his business, and his workers."
Some would say that's what government is for! I believe most of them are in government already.