Anyone else here not work from plans and drawings?

[desbromilow]

Formal drawings? Not often, but sketches, outlines, dimensioned drawings of details, notes made on scrap paper ... I draw things up all the time. I do it so I can figure out materials, spacings, bom, shapes, etc. - so I can use what I have in inventory (the "stuff" piles) and what I have to get (fasteners, tooling, consumables, etc.).

Keeping everything in my head is for the concept phase, but even then I will sketch it out so I don't forget. This is especially needed if you work on a whole bunch of things at the same time.

Similar method here, but I've taken to documenting the build later (dimensioned drawings, etc) so others can replicate/ learn... I used to face a lot of similar comments as mentioned by the original post, but found a lot of the younger/ newer people joining machining/ making as a hobby are missing the childhood I took for granted. Because they are missing the foundation which allows them to see the concept and then derive their own method, I at least document some of the method to help them build up their knowledge/ wisdom. By helping the next generation come up, I hope they will be able to give their children a better start in manual arts/ interests than they got.

Des