Mechanical Aptitude / Can You Do It Yourself?

[downtown]

My dad ran an industrial painting company when I was a kid, and I used to go with him to work on jobs. I'm a pretty good painter, and know my way around a power washer and some of the other tools he used.

But that's basically it. I haven't owned a car in years. I've lived in apartments for the last decade, where I don't need to (and basically am not allowed to) do any home repairs or remodeling. Space issues have prevented me from learning most of these skills.

I can paint, and I can cook, and I can handle most basic day to day computer problems. But for anything more complicated than putting together a bookshelf or hanging curtains? I probably need to call somebody. I've never learned any of that stuff.

 

[James Stuart]

Probably, but I wouldn't make the trip to find out.

In southern California if the power stops, the water stops. If the water stops, people die. In huge numbers. That's the 'end of civilization' that is of immediate relevance to me, and I have as good a chance of surviving it as anyone and way better than most.

If we're just talking about surviving the collapse of civilisation, I could manage that. I'll just become the leader of a group of people with mechanical skills. I will keep them in line through my political skills, a.k.a. sheer brute force and my ability to grow herbs. Cannibalism with spices is better than cannibalism without.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

It's surprising how few people acknowledge 'sheer brute force' as a political skill.

 

[Gori the Grey]

If you put "minor" in front of the categories, I can do them all except welding and the electronic ones.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

My dad ran an industrial painting company when I was a kid, and I used to go with him to work on jobs. I'm a pretty good painter, and know my way around a power washer and some of the other tools he used.

But that's basically it. I haven't owned a car in years. I've lived in apartments for the last decade, where I don't need to (and basically am not allowed to) do any home repairs or remodeling. Space issues have prevented me from learning most of these skills.

I can paint, and I can cook, and I can handle most basic day to day computer problems. But for anything more complicated than putting together a bookshelf or hanging curtains? I probably need to call somebody. I've never learned any of that stuff.

FWIW department...my boss the remodeling contractor often said (never in earshot of a potential customer) that construction is pretty much just playing with Legos, only bigger. If you take it into your head to not call somebody your use of materials and time will likely not be at professional levels of efficiency, but you'd probably get as good a result in the end.

 

[Cutlass]

FWIW department...my boss the remodeling contractor often said (never in earshot of a potential customer) that construction is pretty much just playing with Legos, only bigger. If you take it into your head to not call somebody your use of materials and time will likely not be at professional levels of efficiency, but you'd probably get as good a result in the end.

Not only that, but until you reach the level of wealth of having your own personal assistant on staff, the cost in both time and money of hiring it done is just ridiculously high for so many things that don't actually require that much in the way of tools and skills.

 

[Zelig]

But that's basically it. I haven't owned a car in years. I've lived in apartments for the last decade, where I don't need to (and basically am not allowed to) do any home repairs or remodeling. Space issues have prevented me from learning most of these skills.

Cars in particular, it's really equipment that's the limiting factor. You can look up pretty much any car repair job on Google, and then it's fairly difficult to mess up in any major way if you can follow directions.

Biggest problem are the ridiculous designs by GM (and some others) that make maintenance god-awful to do yourself and inflate labour charges at a shop/dealership by an order of magnitude: http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1367&doc_id=235968

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Cars in particular, it's really equipment that's the limiting factor. You can look up pretty much any car repair job on Google, and then it's fairly difficult to mess up in any major way if you can follow directions.

Biggest problem are the ridiculous designs by GM (and some others) that make maintenance god-awful to do yourself and inflate labour charges at a shop/dealership by an order of magnitude: http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1367&doc_id=235968

I've thought that routine jobs are usually harder on Toyotas and Nissans myself. Oil filters up in a hole where you need space alien fingers to get to them, weird spring clips on brake pads...seems like there's always something. My problem with GM is that they do just awful stupid stuff with trim. Cup holder; round depression molded into a console. GM cup holder; fold out thing with hinges and springs holding together a gang of plastic molded parts that are popped together with their little molded on pins and sockets...not like those are gonna break off or anything.

 

[Quintillus]

I can assemble IKEA furniture from the manual with a few false steps along the way because sometimes the language-less instructions can be slightly ambiguous.

But realistically, I can handle computer hardware, and I actually have some skills in ceramics due to taking a class in it where I became good enough to make practical stoneware that I use around the house. So that's what I voted. The ceramics came about pretty much because it sounded like the most interesting class to satisfy the arts requirement (and it was a fairly good choice, at least in terms of learning a skill), and the computer hardware was due to personal interest.

My dad has woodworking and painting skills, but not so much computer hardware or ceramics. The amount of those he does has fallen over time, though, to fairly low by the time I would've been young enough to learn much, and essentially none now, mainly due to becoming increasingly busy with other tasks. He's dabbled a little in electricity, too, but managed to shock himself rather impressively a few years before I joined CFC, so I wouldn't put it at enough skills to check the box.

My maternal grandfather's the one with the real mechanical skills in the family, though. He'd qualify for auto repair, painting, and construction at the very least, with woodworking, plumbing, and electrical being contenders. He worked on the railroad, so doing his own car repairs was no big deal, and he also expanded his house a couple times.

Auto repair and woodworking are the two I'd be most interested in learning more about as they seem practical.