AdrianT
13th October 2015, 04:59 PM
Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa. My name is Adrian, I’m 33 and a mechanical design engineer. I’ve lived in various parts of South Africa but since 2008 have been living in Cape Town and to me, it’s pretty much the perfect place to live. I spent a great deal of my time outdoors, hiking, or windsurfing, riding waves on my bodyboard, taking photos, oh yes and then also working. (if I couldn’t live here I’d probably head to Perth for the windsurfing!)
I’ve been in and out (mostly in) the engineering world for 10 years now. From manufacturing valves, to cathode stripping machines, to large tanks, robotic welding, I designed conveyors for land based diamond mining, then a short spell on sub-sea crawlers and sonic drilling and now still with marine engineering designing winches etc. for vessels. When I wasn’t in engineering I tried running a kayaking shop with a mate but that resulted in a fair bit being learnt, but little money in the back pocket.
In this career path I have had two problems – I get bored very easily, and I think differently to others and am grown tired of working for someone else. I’m tired of sitting in front of a PC all day long designing in 3D. Not that I really dislike that, but I’d rather be doing a design in wood, and then building it myself. To me, working with wood provides a serious challenge as mistakes are not easily tolerated, very much unlike working with carbon steels, and there lies the allure.
My father died very unexpectedly last year November. It really hit me very hard and made me revaluate life, and what is important. I’m not happy in my work, I wish to quit engineering and begin my own woodworking business. I am by no means an expert carpenter, so hence I find myself here, looking forward to learning so much from the people here. I consider my skills beginner to intermediate.
I’ve built a few projects at home. My last one was my fish tank cabinet and my own design of a cantilevered hood which works really well. I can link to pictures if anyone is interested. It was made out of blackwood.
Anyway, looking forward to learning!
Cheers,
Adrian :D
I’ve been in and out (mostly in) the engineering world for 10 years now. From manufacturing valves, to cathode stripping machines, to large tanks, robotic welding, I designed conveyors for land based diamond mining, then a short spell on sub-sea crawlers and sonic drilling and now still with marine engineering designing winches etc. for vessels. When I wasn’t in engineering I tried running a kayaking shop with a mate but that resulted in a fair bit being learnt, but little money in the back pocket.
In this career path I have had two problems – I get bored very easily, and I think differently to others and am grown tired of working for someone else. I’m tired of sitting in front of a PC all day long designing in 3D. Not that I really dislike that, but I’d rather be doing a design in wood, and then building it myself. To me, working with wood provides a serious challenge as mistakes are not easily tolerated, very much unlike working with carbon steels, and there lies the allure.
My father died very unexpectedly last year November. It really hit me very hard and made me revaluate life, and what is important. I’m not happy in my work, I wish to quit engineering and begin my own woodworking business. I am by no means an expert carpenter, so hence I find myself here, looking forward to learning so much from the people here. I consider my skills beginner to intermediate.
I’ve built a few projects at home. My last one was my fish tank cabinet and my own design of a cantilevered hood which works really well. I can link to pictures if anyone is interested. It was made out of blackwood.
Anyway, looking forward to learning!
Cheers,
Adrian :D