The Art and Science of Making: A Conversation with Chris Rawlings

Time is always the default go-to when expertise is lacking, and by that I mean if you're not sure how it's going to go slow down and if you're still not sure how it's going to go slow down even further and slow down even further than that. If you're still not sure, double check and ask yourself if I did this and I boned it what am I doing wrong right now and maybe I should stop and come back and measure it again. Maybe I should take my time and then back up and take a little more time before making that final cut. Ask yourself and look at it, "I should have known this is only like two years ago, I made this aluminum bending mistake, I know that different alloys of aluminum have different ductilities and different bending properties, I knew that deeply, but I hadn't been boned by that and thus it wasn't part of my problem-solving brain until I screwed up." This is one of the answers - go slow and take time.

Another answer is, "You got to screw up to know how not to screw up." That's absolutely part of the process of being a maker. You can also ask other people for advice, you can also look at other videos of people doing that kind of stuff. Shop materials are a real thing, and when I was first starting out, that was the expensive thing going to the hardware store and buying $20 worth of plywood was not something that was feasible for me to do on any given day when I was 25.

I remember coveting certain tools that cost like one example, I've always known how great these Nyplex cutters are, but when I first saw them in Jamie's tool kit in 1994, I didn't buy a set for myself until the late 90s because these were $50-60 bucks a piece and that was just more money than I was gonna spend. That's real. In those cases, I would say to the theater company or whoever was hiring me, "Listen if you pay for the materials, I'll build the prop for free as long as I get it back when the show is over." And that was a great way of building some material backlog in my shop.

The budgetary constraint you described are real. If anybody else has one of the things that I've come to recently about my wood storage is I've become much less precious about the kind of wood I save. Long thin pieces, I've started to get rid of those; I've started to put them in a "take what you want" bin over at Tested and Kate and Jen and Norm and Joey and everyone is partaking of those bins. And over time, you develop the knowledge of what you need to save and what you don't. I mean obviously, you want to save everything, but it's not possible.

Dudes and dudettes, I love talking about this stuff. Thank you so much, Tested patrons, for your awesome question. If you'd like to support the channel more than just watching this live stream, which if you did thank you so much, you can become a Tested Patron and how to do that is below.

We do these live streams every couple of weeks or so, and I'd love doing them next time, I think I'll build something at the beginning this time we just did a straight Q&A. Hope you guys all stay healthy and that the Omicron juggernaut does not affect you and your family, stay safe, stay dry, stay warm.

If you'd like to support us even further, you can by becoming a Tested Member, uh details are of course below, but it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time. You get advanced word and behind-the-scenes photos of some of our projects. Questions, you get to ask direct questions during my live streams, and we have some members-only videos including the Adam Real-Time series of unbroken, unedited shots of me working here in the shop. They are weirdly meditative.

Thank you guys so much; I'll see you on the next one.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: endavid hopkinson asks do you have a cutting guide or technique you would recommend for long angled cuts across plywood now david there are two ways we could do an angled cut in plywood we could be cutting it like this across plywood or we could be cutting it like that i use the i currently up until now have utilized the table saw for all such cuts um if you've ever seen me handle a larger piece of wood in this shop it's tricky because the shop isn't big enough for giant pieces of wood everything here is uh two and four uh is 24 by 48 inches two by four feet um anything bigger than that and i have to shuffle things around in this tile puzzle um up until now i've always used the table saw for better or worse certain types of long cuts it can be a real pain in the ass and angled cuts on the table saw without a guide can be like a nightmare so for christmas i bought myself a festool track saw that was my christmas present to myself um it is a beauty hold on let me just get it i'll show it look this is this is an expensive solution to this problem it comes with a 55 inch length of track um i bought the clamps for holding it down it takes two festool batteries one two has all this wonderful precise depth measurement uh lockout system plus anti-splintering uh pieces uh yeah we had some fine carpentry done in the ground floor of our house after we moved in and uh the japanese carpenter that was putting in these pieces of plywood had the festool system for this and he was like look these pieces of plywood cost hundreds of dollars a piece because of the rare veneers that they're covered in and he's like no san francisco room in all of the city is actually square so you can't actually make things in a shop and come in and just install them you have to do the final finishing in situ and when you're doing that you don't have access to a table saw you you've got to use a track saw and he said the festool system it just like it pays for itself the first time you don't mess up a 400 piece of plywood um that was my christmas present to myself this year i know i could tell somebody else that that's what i want for christmas but i'm better at buying gifts for myself uh let's see here i'm trying to see if there's anything jim horton says if uh will you show us some tools you have made or modified for a job um there is i'm not going to go get the pieces because there's like three different places to go and i don't want to leave the screen blank for too long but there's a certain type of threaded insert made of brass which has internal threads that are the threading insert either you know 8 10 quarter 20 etc but they install using a flat head screwdriver and just using a flathead screwdriver is a real pain in the ass with these because it's not self-aligning you need a screwdriver that's got like a point in it so i've done lots sorry let me i'll describe it if the screwdriver tip is like this um you want this piece sticking out here to align into the threaded insert so i've done lots i have like three different screwdrivers of different sizes in which i have like carved out on a grinder wheel the two sides so i had an alignment pin it's still not quite right and frankly i freaking hate those threaded inserts so i use them as infrequently as i as i need to but i do have like three different munged up screwdrivers for putting those in um sorry i don't have an example to show you right now um let's see here chris bruin says there are plenty of makers in the world on tight budgets for materials i hear you as such sometimes these makers myself included only have enough money to buy materials for the final piece beyond the typical measure twice cut once kind of shop basics do you have any tips or philosophies about getting a thing made right when you only have the materials that the final product will be made from or only enough scraps for one test piece before doing the final piece um that is a tricky and really really common situation um yeah uh i had this happen here i'm trying to remember the build where i had to make some bends in aluminum and i built a bending jig to bend the aluminum exactly to the specs that i wanted and then i worked with where my markings were so i knew that when i bent these two sides they would be an exact distance apart this is a tricky maneuver to do with the bender and then between my test piece and my final piece i used a different alloy of aluminum and everything went to hell because of course it did because that different alloy of aluminum had a totally different ductility a different bendability it responded differently to my machine and thus it didn't fit when i when i finished it and i did not have another piece i actually had to order more aluminum and wait like a week to to continue that that that project sometimes you really do only have enough materials for the final thing in that regard time is always the default go-to where expertise is lacking and by that i mean if you're not sure how it's going to go slow down and if you're still not sure how it's going to go slow down even further and slow down even further than that and like double check and ask yourself if i did this and i boned it what am i doing wrong right now and maybe i should stop and come back and measure it again and maybe maybe i should stop and measure to get like take your time and then back up and take a little more time and then back up again and take a little more time and space before you make that final cut ask yourself and look that i should have known this is only like two years ago i made this aluminum bending mistake i know that different alloys of aluminum have different ductilities and different bending properties i knew that deeply i just hadn't been boned by that and thus it wasn't part of my problem-solving brain until i screwed up so one of the answers is go slow and take time another chris is you got to screw up to know how not to screw up like that is absolutely part of the process of being a maker um you can also ask other people for advice you can also look at other videos of people doing that kind of stuff um shop materials are a real thing and when i was first starting out that was the expensive thing going to the hardware store and buying 20 bucks worth of plywood was not something that was feasible for me to do on any given day when i was 25. um yeah i was working on a much much tighter budget i remember coveting i you know i would i coveted tools that cost like one example i've always known how great these nypex cutters are but when i first saw them in jamie's tool kit in 1994 i didn't buy a set for myself until the late 90s because these were like 50 60 bucks a piece and that was just more money than i was gonna spend like that's real in those cases in those cases i would sorry what i don't mean to say in those cases i'm just iterating how much the budgetary constraints are when you're a young maker so a lot of the early builds i did i would do for people who had almost no budget whatsoever but i would say to the theater company or whoever was hiring me listen if you pay for the materials i'll build the prop for free as long as i get it back when the show is over and that was a great way of building some material backlog in my shop that this what's behind me all of that material storage that just that takes a while to to gather and to learn what pieces you want to save and what pieces you want to discard and it's a process um the the the budgetary constraint you described are real um i hope that some of the philosophicalizing that i've done here is helpful in that regard uh if anybody else has one of the things that i've come to recently about my wood storage is i've become much less precious about the kind of wood i save like i absolutely save pieces like this but long thin pieces i've started to get rid of those i started to put them in a in a take what you want bin over at tested and kate and jen and norm and joey and everyone is partaking of those bins and over time you develop the knowledge of what you need to save and what you don't i mean obviously you want to save everything but it's not possible so it is all a compromise of circumstance um dudes and dudettes i love talking about this stuff thank you so much tested patrons for your awesome question if you'd like to support the channel more than just watching this live stream which if you did thank you so much you can become a tested patron and how to do that is below um we do these live streams every couple of weeks or so um and uh i'd love doing them next time i think i'll build something at the beginning this time we just did a straight q a i hope you guys all stay healthy and that the omicron juggernaut does not affect you and your family stay safe stay dry stay warm and i will see you next time bye guys thank you so much for watching if you'd like to support us even further you can by becoming a tested member uh details are of course below but it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time you get advanced word and behind the scenes photos of some of our projects questions you get to ask direct questions during my live streams and we have some members only videos including the adam real time series of unbroken unedited shots of me working here in the shop they are weirdly meditative thank you guys so much i'll see you on the next onedavid hopkinson asks do you have a cutting guide or technique you would recommend for long angled cuts across plywood now david there are two ways we could do an angled cut in plywood we could be cutting it like this across plywood or we could be cutting it like that i use the i currently up until now have utilized the table saw for all such cuts um if you've ever seen me handle a larger piece of wood in this shop it's tricky because the shop isn't big enough for giant pieces of wood everything here is uh two and four uh is 24 by 48 inches two by four feet um anything bigger than that and i have to shuffle things around in this tile puzzle um up until now i've always used the table saw for better or worse certain types of long cuts it can be a real pain in the ass and angled cuts on the table saw without a guide can be like a nightmare so for christmas i bought myself a festool track saw that was my christmas present to myself um it is a beauty hold on let me just get it i'll show it look this is this is an expensive solution to this problem it comes with a 55 inch length of track um i bought the clamps for holding it down it takes two festool batteries one two has all this wonderful precise depth measurement uh lockout system plus anti-splintering uh pieces uh yeah we had some fine carpentry done in the ground floor of our house after we moved in and uh the japanese carpenter that was putting in these pieces of plywood had the festool system for this and he was like look these pieces of plywood cost hundreds of dollars a piece because of the rare veneers that they're covered in and he's like no san francisco room in all of the city is actually square so you can't actually make things in a shop and come in and just install them you have to do the final finishing in situ and when you're doing that you don't have access to a table saw you you've got to use a track saw and he said the festool system it just like it pays for itself the first time you don't mess up a 400 piece of plywood um that was my christmas present to myself this year i know i could tell somebody else that that's what i want for christmas but i'm better at buying gifts for myself uh let's see here i'm trying to see if there's anything jim horton says if uh will you show us some tools you have made or modified for a job um there is i'm not going to go get the pieces because there's like three different places to go and i don't want to leave the screen blank for too long but there's a certain type of threaded insert made of brass which has internal threads that are the threading insert either you know 8 10 quarter 20 etc but they install using a flat head screwdriver and just using a flathead screwdriver is a real pain in the ass with these because it's not self-aligning you need a screwdriver that's got like a point in it so i've done lots sorry let me i'll describe it if the screwdriver tip is like this um you want this piece sticking out here to align into the threaded insert so i've done lots i have like three different screwdrivers of different sizes in which i have like carved out on a grinder wheel the two sides so i had an alignment pin it's still not quite right and frankly i freaking hate those threaded inserts so i use them as infrequently as i as i need to but i do have like three different munged up screwdrivers for putting those in um sorry i don't have an example to show you right now um let's see here chris bruin says there are plenty of makers in the world on tight budgets for materials i hear you as such sometimes these makers myself included only have enough money to buy materials for the final piece beyond the typical measure twice cut once kind of shop basics do you have any tips or philosophies about getting a thing made right when you only have the materials that the final product will be made from or only enough scraps for one test piece before doing the final piece um that is a tricky and really really common situation um yeah uh i had this happen here i'm trying to remember the build where i had to make some bends in aluminum and i built a bending jig to bend the aluminum exactly to the specs that i wanted and then i worked with where my markings were so i knew that when i bent these two sides they would be an exact distance apart this is a tricky maneuver to do with the bender and then between my test piece and my final piece i used a different alloy of aluminum and everything went to hell because of course it did because that different alloy of aluminum had a totally different ductility a different bendability it responded differently to my machine and thus it didn't fit when i when i finished it and i did not have another piece i actually had to order more aluminum and wait like a week to to continue that that that project sometimes you really do only have enough materials for the final thing in that regard time is always the default go-to where expertise is lacking and by that i mean if you're not sure how it's going to go slow down and if you're still not sure how it's going to go slow down even further and slow down even further than that and like double check and ask yourself if i did this and i boned it what am i doing wrong right now and maybe i should stop and come back and measure it again and maybe maybe i should stop and measure to get like take your time and then back up and take a little more time and then back up again and take a little more time and space before you make that final cut ask yourself and look that i should have known this is only like two years ago i made this aluminum bending mistake i know that different alloys of aluminum have different ductilities and different bending properties i knew that deeply i just hadn't been boned by that and thus it wasn't part of my problem-solving brain until i screwed up so one of the answers is go slow and take time another chris is you got to screw up to know how not to screw up like that is absolutely part of the process of being a maker um you can also ask other people for advice you can also look at other videos of people doing that kind of stuff um shop materials are a real thing and when i was first starting out that was the expensive thing going to the hardware store and buying 20 bucks worth of plywood was not something that was feasible for me to do on any given day when i was 25. um yeah i was working on a much much tighter budget i remember coveting i you know i would i coveted tools that cost like one example i've always known how great these nypex cutters are but when i first saw them in jamie's tool kit in 1994 i didn't buy a set for myself until the late 90s because these were like 50 60 bucks a piece and that was just more money than i was gonna spend like that's real in those cases in those cases i would sorry what i don't mean to say in those cases i'm just iterating how much the budgetary constraints are when you're a young maker so a lot of the early builds i did i would do for people who had almost no budget whatsoever but i would say to the theater company or whoever was hiring me listen if you pay for the materials i'll build the prop for free as long as i get it back when the show is over and that was a great way of building some material backlog in my shop that this what's behind me all of that material storage that just that takes a while to to gather and to learn what pieces you want to save and what pieces you want to discard and it's a process um the the the budgetary constraint you described are real um i hope that some of the philosophicalizing that i've done here is helpful in that regard uh if anybody else has one of the things that i've come to recently about my wood storage is i've become much less precious about the kind of wood i save like i absolutely save pieces like this but long thin pieces i've started to get rid of those i started to put them in a in a take what you want bin over at tested and kate and jen and norm and joey and everyone is partaking of those bins and over time you develop the knowledge of what you need to save and what you don't i mean obviously you want to save everything but it's not possible so it is all a compromise of circumstance um dudes and dudettes i love talking about this stuff thank you so much tested patrons for your awesome question if you'd like to support the channel more than just watching this live stream which if you did thank you so much you can become a tested patron and how to do that is below um we do these live streams every couple of weeks or so um and uh i'd love doing them next time i think i'll build something at the beginning this time we just did a straight q a i hope you guys all stay healthy and that the omicron juggernaut does not affect you and your family stay safe stay dry stay warm and i will see you next time bye guys thank you so much for watching if you'd like to support us even further you can by becoming a tested member uh details are of course below but it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time you get advanced word and behind the scenes photos of some of our projects questions you get to ask direct questions during my live streams and we have some members only videos including the adam real time series of unbroken unedited shots of me working here in the shop they are weirdly meditative thank you guys so much i'll see you on the next one\n"