LaserUser.com Forum (formerly RDWorksLab)

Hi All! Many call me JRock, since my last name is hard to pronounce. I'm in Software by trade, I work for a large software company leading a team of architects. My 50w 5030 laser is one of my many tinkering machines in my workshop. I also own the standard fair of power tools, small electronic devices, and a 3D printer. I think the modern term is "maker", although I tend to tinker more than make anything

What else can I say? Anything anyone would like to know?

-Tim

Welcome Tim. Lots of fellow makers here.

Welcome, you are in good or bad company depending Tinkerer or Hobbyist seems to have fallen out of fashion and when I get called a maker by others I tend to correct them depending on what they refer to I have made.

As an Elec Eng I take offence at being told I am a maker because I built black box or electronic widget and as a long term Aeromodeller I was a hobbyist a very long time before that. 3D printing hasn't helped as non users think it is just a button push for a result. I think it diminishes the accumulated skills built up over decades in a lot of cases to a youtube/farcebook term.

Mini rant over now time for coffee and no I am not a Barista in the Italian sesne of the word just a Barista in training

For the old school folks, I do think digital fabrication is a detractor of skill in their minds. For the younger folks they look at digital fabrication with the same wide eyes that they do anything else. I try not to worry about what others think so much, I enjoy what I do and that's all that matters at the end of the day.

It takes a bit of skill to design in 3D and be able to print a good looking and serviceable part. There are many kinds of skills and we collect them as we live... and then we die. I read somewhere that when an old man dies... it is like a library burning.