Wired.com: This work required a fine eye for detail—and tons of tools. By the time I moved to MythBusters in 2003, I had well over 300 items in my model-making kit. (Complete list here.) Of course, I love tools. I also love arranging them, to the point where I came up with a name for my organizing metric: first-order retrievability. It’s a function of two particular parts of my personality.
9 comments:
I read this article as well as the complete list of tools he keeps in the toolbox and I'm completely blown away by how amazing this sounds. Is it weird that the thought of having tongue depressors covered in varying strengths of sand paper gets me really excited? Probably.
I would love to explore model making as a possible career path. It sounds like the perfect combination of things I enjoy doing.
I also share Adam Savage's obsession with arranging my tools and supplies. There is nothing more frustrating that being in the middle of a project and being unable to locate what you need for the next step. I have a decent setup in my apartment, but as the projects start to roll in I'll be able to more critically evaluate what tools should go where.
Firstly, I think I might be one of the biggest MythBuster fans out there. I don't know how many countless episodes I have watched with my father when I was 12 and 13 and I have even seen them preform live. So to look inside Adam's tool box is pretty neat. Secondly, I have been on a continual quest to find the perfect SM kit and container. I like this idea of immediate accessibility, I want everything to fit in my bag but I also want to be able to find it instantly. Another problem, is I want to fit so many different things into my bag; some large some small but I still need it to be easy to drag to rehearsal. It is a never ending quest and the best box I've found was actually at Micheal's and was Barbie pink and purple... maybe not the most professional but it sure was usable!
Once again, Adam Savage blows my mind. As someone who is constantly on the move from gig to gig, working as a carpenter, welder, TD, stagehand, or all of the above...I'm constantly finding it impossible to keep a fully functioning toolbox, that is also somewhat portable. I've finally broken my "gig set" down into a 26" tool bag and 2-part Dewalt toolbox. However this only solves the portability issue while organization seems to be another animal altogether, especially half way into a work call. If only I had a way to bring a full 2 or 3 stack rolling toolbox to every job, Adam at least seems to cover a good deal of the basics, and then some. Even if it's on a slightly different scale.
Something I've learned from hard-earned experience and mistakes is that having the right organization or organizational method can hugely affect not only the time it takes to do something, but also the quality of the product. Many times, I've searched for a tool or some other supply and became so frustrated with not being able to find it (or just didn't want to take the time to find it) that I used the next-best-thing... which may or may not actually have accomplished what I wanted. As counterintuitive as it sounds, taking the time to make that aluminum, custom-designed tool kit probably saved time in the long run, but more importantly, made the products created with those tools much better.
The most impressive thing about this tool box is the ORGANIZATION. I have 60% of these tools in my kit but I just do not know where they are right now. Here is my ongoing internal debate. How much time would it take to organizing something like vs. how much time do I loose on a job not knowing where my stuff is? I always wonder that when I see a tool box like this or an extremely organized Hard Drive. It does make me want to be more organized but I feel that I am so often behind the 8 ball on projects I never have time to organize.
At first I thought how silly Adam must have been, to leave out something as essential as gaffer's tape. Such a brilliant man could not have possibly have forgotten such an important tool. For sure, we must have been lied to about this man's credentials. But it was when i reached a specific tool in his list that I knew that indeed he was a magnificent engineer. There must have been some reason to have left out the gaffer's tape. Because after all, only a true genius would have had the tremendous foresight to have thought of adding to his tool box this: A thwacker
(a 1.5” by 2” piece of solid aluminum stock on a handle, for thwacking)
A great follow up to this would be what tools he has in each level of of the tool kit. Going to the linked article of what he has in the box (circa 2003) is absolutely mind-boggling in the scope of practicality and project-based variability. It is also interesting to see which tools have their own back stories, and why they've made it through the years.
I feel as though there's a lot to learn about other people by what they carry with them, and how they prioritize their necessity. What Adam Savage puts in the top tier of his work kit certainly isn't what I, or probably anyone else that I know, would keep in the same place. I want to know why, and what things Adam knows about the wide world of implements of creation (and destruction) that I have yet to uncover.
One of the first shops i worked in basically required each carp to design and build a tool cart to move around the shop with them from project to project (mine is sitting in a barn somewhere probably making a nice home for mice). It was a great way to keep the tools for a specific project on hand, especially when you might find yourself on the same project, and requiring the same tools, for several days. Trips back and forth from the tool room, or the daily collecting and then restoring to the tool room the same tools, seems to me a waste of time and energy that, for some reason, many shops ritually insist upon. Mr. Savage's entry is laudable, but I like this one way better: http://toolmonger.com/2009/08/10/its-just-cool-the-studley-tool-chest/
Post a Comment