Saturday, October 31, 2020
Who says woodworking and IT don’t mix?
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| My server rack as planned (left) and as built (right) after finally assembly in my shop before I moved it into my office. |
A while back I wrote about how IT and woodworking are similar, as they both are really about problem solving.
Yet whenever I assert this, I still draw skeptical looks.
People just cannot see how turning something as tangible as a few boards of wood into a piece of furniture is anything like manipulating a bunch of ones and zeros that only exist in cyberspace.
Well, this month, I’ve finally provided a real-world example of how IT and woodworking can mix by creating my own network/server rack.
What’s a network/server rack you ask and why did I build it?
Well, simply put, a network/server rack is a place were IT professionals like me can hang and organize the assorted bits and pieces of equipment that allow computers to talk to each other
and access files and applications that are not directly loaded on them. I decided I needed a rack now after I acquired and fixed an Uninterruptable Power Supply unit that was meant to hang on such a rack.
I already had a small battery backup unit – or UPS for short – on the floor behind my desk, but its battery had long since died and even when new, it wouldn’t power my gear for much longer that 10 minutes if the power went out.
This rack mounted UPS would power almost all of my gear for about an hour and the cost of replacing its battery wasn’t much more than replacing the battery in my smaller unit, so it was a no-brainer as to which one I should fix.
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| This was only some of the networking and storage gear that was scattered around my office that I was able to consolidate into my rack |
I could have just let it sit on top of a filing cabinet with my PCs stacked on top of it, but that seemed kind of junky. Plus, my other networking equipment was scattered all around my home office and for years I’ve been telling myself I really need put it all in one place and organize it better. So, this just seemed like the perfect opportunity to take care of two problems at once.
The first thing I did was to go online and see how much one of these network racks cost, and I was shocked by their price tags. Even the simplest two-post models were well over $150!
Admittedly, I’m a cheapskate, but that seemed pretty excessive to me for what is essentially two pieces of perforated angle iron held in a vertical position and connected at the base. I knew I could get that angle iron for about $30 at a big-box hardware store and couldn’t see why I needed to spend $120 more for one that was already put together.
After about 10 minutes of additional web research, I not only found that making your own DIY rack was not only feasible but really easy. I’d even come up with a design that would make it look more furniture-like and less industrial-looking.
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| Two views of my home-made rack, all set up and in place in my office. The aim was to have it look as much like a piece of furniture as it could while still serving its function holding all my tech gear. Proof that IT and woodworking do mix! |
The next step was to translate that idea into a physical set of plans. I’ve been doing woodworking long enough to know that the plans I create in my head, don’t always work out the way I think they will in the real word. Inevitably, I miss some small detail that winds up throwing off the entire project and I then need to spend hours figuring out a work-around to get myself back on track.
That’s why I have started using SketchUp.
This free, 3D-modeling program lets me build the project virtually almost in the same way I’d build it out in my shop. This way I can see any problems that may arise and fix them before I start cutting any wood.
And sure enough, while coming up with the virtual version you see here, I did find one of those small hiccups. But unlike hours it would have taken me to fix in the shop, I corrected the plan with just a few clicks of my mouse, so that when I did get to the shop there were no delays.
The one thing my plans did not show, however, was how sturdy and rigid the final product would be. That’s why the finished product looks a bit different from the plan. These are the kind of unexpected things I don’t mind, because it actually saved me some time in the shop!
Once I had finalized the plan on the computer and ordered the hardware online (I found a few “genuine” rack parts online that were even cheaper than the angle iron I was going to use from the big-box store), I ran out and got two, eight-foot 2x4s and started my build.
I was able to cut and assemble all the parts in a single day. Staining the wood to match my office future took about another week, but if I’d decided to paint it black, I could have finished this project in a single weekend.
So here it is, proof for all those remaining doubters that you CAN combine woodworking and IT in a very practical way.
Now, I’ve just got to figure out how to build that wooden computer case I’ve always wanted….
Monday, December 31, 2018
Adventures in Woodworking Year-end Review:
Problem Solving key to IT and Woodworking
People who know me as an IT guy are always surprised to find out I’m a woodworker.
I don’t know why. Because the way I see it, they are essentially the same thing.
Okay, I know, what you’re thinking. How in the world is dealing with all of today’s latest electronic gadgets and do-dads anything like that most basic of all technologies which has been around since man learned to sharpen a stick?
Well I’ll tell you.
Both require a fair amount of problem solving skills.
In fact, I’d even go so far as saying that both IT and woodworking require you to be a problem solver above all else. The other skills are just incidental.
I know just about anyone who has ever dealt with a computer, tablet, cell phone or other smart device on the fritz won’t need an explanation of how problem-solving skills apply to IT work.
After all, it’s fairly obvious.
But far fewer people have firsthand experience building something out of wood. From what I’m told, most schools don’t have “shop” class anymore, which, if true, is a damn shame. Today most people’s only exposure to woodworking comes from watching Norm Abrams on reruns of the “The New Yankee Workshop” or from the dozens of home-fix-up shows on cable TV. Others might have even watched a video or two by members of the “maker” community on Youtube.
Watching these folks complete their projects in 30 minutes or less make the whole process seem simple. I mean if Norm could build a reproduction 17th century highboy in 27 minutes and have it look like something you’d find in a high-end furniture store, how hard could it really be?
As stated in a previous blog, the answer to that question is ALWAYS “much harder than you can imagine.”
Woodworking has always been about more than just having all the right power tools, as Norm always seemed to have. I’ve seen some pretty damn impressive projects built by people with just a few basic hand tools: a hand saw, hammer, plane and maybe even a chisel or two.
It also goes beyond a person’s ability to follow a set of plans, whether written or on video. Although it helps to be able to do that, those instructions can’t take every situation into account and sometimes they are just not all that clear. Just ask anyone who has ever struggled to assemble Ikea or other brands of knock-down furniture.
So why then is woodworking or just making something from scratch so difficult?
Well, in the case of woodworking, wood is a natural product. No two pieces are exactly the same.
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The living room cabinets all assembled and installed. They didn't
quite come out as I planned and there is still more work to do,
but this project once again reminded me about how important
problem-solving skills are to woodworkers.
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This is where “problem solving” comes in.
It’s more than about fixing mistakes when they occur – and they always will. It’s about looking at a set of plans and adapting them to the size and type of materials you have on hand, the type of tools you have at your disposal and your particular skill level.
Can’t make that most classic of all woodworking joints, the dovetail, but still need a strong way to assemble a set of drawers? Then you need to figure out what other joinery types you can use that fit the bill.
Box joints would be the next logical choice. But that requires a jig to cut the evenly spaced fingers. Don’t have a jig? Well now you need to figure out how to make one.
I think you can see where I’m going with this. Woodworking, like IT, isn’t about just fixing a “bug,” patching a system or fixing a mistake you made while building your project.
It’s a process that starts from the moment you decide to build something and often continues well after you think you’re through with it.
What brought all this to mind was thinking about the woodworking projects I did this year. It seems to me I spent the better part of my year in the shop working on the built-in bookcase and media center project that I have been documenting.
Right from the very start, I faced a number of issues, and although I thought I’d solved them all in the planning stage, they continued straight on through the build. I even documented one of them in my August blog: Sometimes Failure is not only an option: It’s a necessity.
Even after everything was built, assembled and installed in my living room, there were still more problems. Not everything worked the way I had intended. So once again I was forced to sit back and think about how to fix them without starting all over.
While mulling over the changes I needed to make to fix my cabinet and media center at home, I was dealing with a server upgrade at work that had gone sideways.
I had done all the required research and finally acquired all the software and licensing I needed to execute it. Like my cabinet design, it seemed a fairly straight-forward process, one that should have only taken a few hours with most of them spent watching a status bar inching it’s away across a screen and me clicking the occasional “Next” button.
However, about 60 percent way through the process I started hitting problems. I’d work my way through each one only to hit another. Turns out there was a “minor” bug with the software which the vendor didn’t see fit to inform anyone about until you called them.
As a result of this minor bug, I had to come up with a workaround to get my systems back up and running, which I was able to do.
I like to think that these two problems happening at about the same time were just coincidence, but being a writer I can’t help but think that it was just some sort of cosmic plot device designed to re-inforce my belief that problem-solving is the key to both my chosen profession and one of my biggest and most written about hobbies.
I hope this little life lesson from my experiences in 2018 will be of benefit to you in the coming year, and may you all have a happy and healthy 2019!