The magic of the machine and the ride with the Harvest Moon

On Saturday night, September 29th, I finally got to take the inaugural ride on my rebuilt 1984 Kawasaki GPz900R. Two summers had gone by since I took apart a pretty abused and unloved machine. Many eBay searches and purchases, scraped knuckles, spilled fluids, dangerous fume inhalation, and a whole other donor machine purchased last February gave me the parts and the experience of taking a bike to the bare frame and bringing it back to life. At the same time, I had ambitiously ventured to rebuild another machine, a 1981 Yamaha XV920RH. Things would have gone much smoother I think, concentrating on one machine but I am the impatient one, wrongly thinking that I could ride one while fixing the other.

Finally, the Ninja was ready enough to roll. New plates installed, helmet on and away I rode for the first time in nearly 20 years. I was nervous, and rusty, but after a while I felt one with the road again…a feeling one can only get on two wheels and a raspy engine underneath. I didn’t want to return home; the moon was full, the air refreshing, and the motorcycle was running flawlessly. It was an amazing feeling and brought back many a memory from long ago.

Different this time though, was that I had something to do with this machine’s performance. I had solved  a million technical problems, crawled around the garage floor and sweated and swore, replaced parts and tested and made the damn thing run again. I could feel every part I worked on, visualize the internals, in awe and wonder that I could accomplish such a feat. There is no other feeling, as Matthew Crawford so eloquently put it in “Shop Class as Soulcraft”, in building and riding your own machine.  What a night.

Neil Armstrong and the We-will-do-it and the Fix-it Cool

Today, Neil Armstrong, he of Apollo 11 fame and the first Earthling to step on another world, will be laid to rest today. Neil Armstrong was called the “reluctant hero”, shying away from publicity, not doing interviews or signing autographs or cashing in on his fame. Despite this, he was a representative hero to many of us baby boomers who imagined that if we can walk on the moon, we can do anything. He and his crew were an inspiration to a generation. It was however, a failure of our generation, as well as the previous and the next generations, that the money and the power of technology went to military endeavors instead of such noble pursuits. Topic for another post.

The story of Apollo was really not one of science, nor even politics really. It is a story of engineering, the pursuit of solving problems to accomplish something. The story was best told by Charles Pellegrino and Joshua Stoff’s 1985 “Chariots for Apollo, the Making of the Lunar Module“. The seemingly insurmountable problems of “landing man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth” in less than 10 years is a heroic tale, of thousands of engineers and technical wizards who doggedly persevered in solving a million and one problems to culminate in Armstrong’s one small step. (Side story: along the way, a million and one technologies were invented or perfected that have echoed through our daily lives even today.)

Neil Armstrong himself stated he was only able to accomplish what he did because of all these faceless people around the USA who solved those problems and made it happen. He was reluctant to be called a hero because he knew he did not do it alone, which made him uncomfortable with the “hero” epitaph. Yes, the true heroes of the lunar story were the “we will do this” engineers and technicians and technologists who built it, tested it, anaylzed it, fixed it and tested it again.

Armstrong was a model of engineering cool; tested to the limits in the lunar lander test module, the Gemini docking and taking over the controls on the Eagle to avoid a catastrophic landing with seconds to spare. Without his coolness under pressure, there might not have been an Apollo 11 success story, or an Armstrong for that matter.

The story of humans and robots in space is a history replete with we will do it and fix it cool, providing a hundred lessons for students of technology on how to use technology and creativity to go forward. Check out this article, Wired’s “Botched Spacewalks, Crash Landings, and Smuggled Sandwiches: Spaceflight’s Most Badass Maneuvers” for some prime examples of the story of engineering “we will do it” attitude. Badass indeed!

What’s in your toolbox?

Nothing, except procrastination and time stealers, makes or breaks a project than having, or not having, the right tools. You are finally moving along, taking apart that engine or putting one back together, then Bam! Showstopper number one hundred. Can’t reach that bolt, can’t cut that part, thing won’t move that should or thing is moving that shouldn’t. Reaching over and pulling out that tone ool out of the toolbox and completing that task is a precious feeling. Endorphins rush in. But the opposite…well frustration is the only frustrating word.

Over the years, I have accumulated boxes of tools for plumbing, woodworking, mechanics, model making, constructing art, etc., etc, and yet there still comes the time when the stores are all closed and the world grinds to a halt for lack of some $2 thing. However, making something to take over a store bought tool and getting past the hurdle, well, that’s double endorphins!

Make blog, and Wired, has a feature on Adam Savage’s toolbox, he of Mythbusters fame and hero of DIY. Nice pic, and total list of contents of his traveling toolbox here:

http://blog.makezine.com/2012/08/27/adam-savages-custom-toolkit/

Read and learn!

The essence of the machine

A nice little short video here, that sums up the feeling and the rationale for DIY and Maker phenomenon. “The essence of the machine is learning…”. So true. Working on restoring a couple of 1980s motorcycles right now (for the past year really) has really opened up my eyes to the truth as described by Matthew Crawford in “Shop Class as Soulcraft”; my bible. When you build, and fix and troubleshoot and solve hands-on problems, life comes alive and you learn…about your own self, the artificial limits you have imposed upon yourself, and the wonders of the machine, that human invention that continually progresses down through the ages. It is sometimes exasperating trying to solve seemingly intractable problems, sometimes painful with skinned knuckles and sore back, but at the end of the day, it is soul satisfying. Built, not bought, is the priceless lesson for young people today.

 

Three days of sweating and cursing and hurting to get the engine reinstalled into the frame, hopefully I won’t have to re-install again!

Snowplow education and the mentorship gap

I teach high school technological education. I started in 1993 after 25 years or so in industry, from building cars to working in wind tunnels, hospital labs, building science labs and satellite testing facilities. I got into teaching because a cool opportunity opened up…a Tech Ed department head at a brand new high school with a quarter of a million dollars in new toys, (I mean tools!). I hadn’t been in a high school in 25 years, but I jumped in with both feet and had the education of a lifetime. I taught for 7 years then left to become the Board’s apprenticeship coordinator and consultant on technological education and business studies for 10 years. Missed the teaching life, so I have returned to the classroom/shop and now have the opportunity to see what has transpired in our society the last couple decades.

Not good.

Students today are getting what some educators call a “snow plow education”; parents and teachers clearing the way so students don’t have to lift a finger and can sail through life. You can’t fail a student, they say! I get some of the rational, but students today have lost critical thinking skills, creativity, work ethic, and above all, experience in problem solving.

We are now going through what I call the mentorship gap. The baby boomers who did things and built and made things are leaving, or have left, the workforce in massive numbers, while the lost generation of the early 21st century come into the workforce without the mentors they need. Try getting educated service in most retail outlets these days.

It is why I have decided to concentrate on maintaining my own cars and bikes and home. Trouble is, this, and the next, generation have to also learn to fix and build and think for themselves, since there won’t be anyone there who knows how to help. It is why the Maker Revolution, the DIY movement or whatever you want to call it, needs to be built into our education system right now. We are failing today’s youth.

 

Why DIY, eh?

Just read a great column by Steve Cooper in the Sept 2012 Classic Motorcycle Mechanics called “Self Inflicted Suffering”. Cooper asks why anyone puts up with the trail and tribulations of home garage “spannering” old classic motorcycles…the time wasted looking for lost parts and tools, the aching muscles and joints crawling around machines, the cold, the heat, the sweat, the scrapped knuckles and knees. Achingly funny, but oh so true to life! I can so relate.

Well, I think it goes back to Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, or more recently, Crawford’s “Shop Class as Soulcraft”. There is a richness of spirit and a soul satisfying feeling when, despite the blood, sweat and tears, you can reflect on the experience and say; “I did that”. In a consumer based world, being a producer is being king of the world.

“The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

“The satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence have been known to make a man quiet and easy. They seem to relieve him of the felt need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth. He can simply point: the building stands, the car now runs, the lights are on. Boasting is what a boy does, because he has no real effect in the world. But the tradesman must reckon with the infallible judgment of reality, where one’s failures or shortcomings cannot be interpreted away. His well-founded pride is far from the gratuitous “self-esteem” that educators would impart to students, as though by magic.”
― Matthew B. Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work

In the beginning…

I always loved machines; coming from Canada’s motor city Windsor Ontario might be some of the reason. As oldest of 7 siblings, I guess I always wanted to be self reliant and do things my own way. In my early years I had motorcycles and dune buggies and cars, but I didn’t have a lot of experience, and I was frustrated by lack of tools, knowledge and skills; and as I got older and was building a career with computer technology, I didn’t work on machines much and lost touch. Things changed when after attending a few car shows I decided to get back into my interest in cars. I couldn’t get any car though, it had to be one that no one else had and some Internet research, the bane of productivity everywhere, I found what I was looking for, in a 1991 Pike Factory (Nissan) Figaro, a JDM car from Japan. Bought sight unseen, it was rougher around the edges than expected, and after some frustration finding good mechanical help I realized that I had to do it myself.

As a technology educator, we always preach that one learns by doing, and I can tell you now, there is nothing more true than this dictum in education. When my car suffered an overheating problem that killed the engine, I began to get involved in rebuilding the Figaro’s engine myself, and started on a path that has proven very enlightening.

What is Factory C13?

Factory C13 is a blog about technology and the art of DIY, Do It Yourself. In today’s world, digital bits and the real world of atoms combine to do wondrous things. As a high school technology educator, I am concerned about the lack of knowledge and experience today’s high school students generally have about bits and atoms, so I hope this site will help the discovery of what one can accomplish. It’s a little about my own travels as one who worked in a variety of engineering, artistic and scientific careers before becoming a teacher, and my own self discovery of the zen of DIY.

Welcome, hope you enjoy!

Michael Scott
Citizen 13
Ottawa Ontario Canada