Finding plans for videos of tools made.

[gummymonster]

Good morning,
I'm really new here, so I apologize if this is covered somewhere. I see a lot of videos on here of awesome tools being made, but no plans. Free or for sale.
I joined up here specifically after seeing the bandsaw warsztatOdZera built here - Homemade Metal Band Saw , but no plans that I can find. I've rarely watched videos online (I know, hard to believe &#128513, and maybe I'm missing a link or something simple.
Any direction is greatly appreciated, as I'm very interested in recreating some of these mechanical masterpieces.
Thanks,
Ken

[WmRMeyers]

Good morning,
I'm really new here, so I apologize if this is covered somewhere. I see a lot of videos on here of awesome tools being made, but no plans. Free or for sale.
I joined up here specifically after seeing the bandsaw warsztatOdZera built here - Homemade Metal Band Saw , but no plans that I can find. I've rarely watched videos online (I know, hard to believe ��), and maybe I'm missing a link or something simple.
Any direction is greatly appreciated, as I'm very interested in recreating some of these mechanical masterpieces.
Thanks,
Ken

A lot of these guys don't use plans. They do TLAR (that looks about right), or maybe a sketch or two, and figure stuff out as they go. My brain doesn't work all that well for those methods, or at least not for anything complex like the bandsaw in the video. And frankly, if you don't have those skills, it's probably cheaper and easier to buy the tools rather than make them. In the past couple of years, I've bought a couple of hundred dollars worth of steel, and there isn't nearly enough to make such a saw. I can buy the Harbor Freight version of that saw for about $300. It won't be as nice as his build, but it will work. If you have to have plans, you're going to be better off building a bunch of smaller projects so you build the skills that will let you design and build something like that later. While you're building those smaller projects, you can accumulate the tools and skills you'll need to be able to do that later. I've been doing that for about 55 years, myself. If you have mechanical abilities, you could buy and refurbish "distressed" tools. That will help you develop some of the skills, and give you a better idea of how such tools are put together. I've been doing some of that for the past 13 years, and have quite a few projects like that going right now. Also, I've been taking a class in machining, and working as a mechanic. Those are both skill-building exercises, themselves.

What you do depends on what you already have. In both tools and skills. I've been a mechanic of one sort and another for quite a while, but I'm a brand new baby machinist. I still have a few weeks or months of the class to attend. I've done a bit of "farm welding" on and off throughout the years, but I'm not very practiced at that. I have been collecting machinery, and restoring some of it.

YMMV, though more like MUST vary, since your experiences are going to be different than mine. All you have to do is look for a few minutes and you can see that there are kids out there that are WAY more skilled than I am, and better equipped. Check out the thread on Lucia's boat build, for one example. She has her grandfather's workshop, and has obviously spent much of her life working with him. You'll need to tell us more about what you've done, what you want to do, and what you have to get significant help. You need a "workshop." For some folks, that is borrowed space at a kitchen table, where others have a 30x50 building full of machinery. You need tools. You need skills. Most importantly, you need practice. They're saying you need about 10,000 hours of practice to be an expert, these days. There is only one way to do that. One minute at a time.

HTH!

Bill

[WmRMeyers]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY4...t11VblzGrQZWmQ Lucia's Workshop.

[NortonDommi]

"A lot of these guys don't use plans. They do TLAR (that looks about right), or maybe a sketch or two, and figure stuff out as they go." - TLAR - I love it!
Describes how I usually operate because I'm usually working with what I have or can scrounge not what I really want. Needs must as needs be.
.
Gummymonster, there are a LOT of plans here but sometimes you need to adjust for personal circumstances, materials, tools, size etc. The interweb is a great resource as well. You could look for old Popular Mechanics designs,(thousands of them),and also look at sites that do things you may not have thought about, hot rods, motorcycles, farming. Every Trade , hobby and occupation has machines and tools specif to them but there is a lot of cross-over in usage.
Try using different search engines as well if looking for something specific as each work slightly differently.
Good luck.

[gummymonster]

Thanks guys,
You answered my question.
I was really just making sure I wasn't missing out on actual plans for the tools I see built.
I've been building things off and on for almost 40 years. Starting with my father on the farm, then the oilpatch and at home. I've always hated buying things that can be made better and adjusted for my particular needs.
I'm setting up a medium sized machinist shop in my garage, and I'm hoping to build the bigger tools as I can. Prices in Canada are often much higher (adjusting for the dollar value difference,of course) than you folks in the USA get.
The bandsaw I was talking about looks extremely well made. Something comparable here is $2500-$4000. I'd much rather build my own, set up for my personal needs. I'm crippled up from a health crisis, so my needs are different than a regular functioning person too.
I'm definitely not a pro at anything, but I'm reasonably well versed in many areas of mechanics, machining and woodworking.
Like I said, I was making sure I wasn't missing out on this site.
And that young lady is extremely talented. Good to see some younger people actually doing things in the physical world and not just online.
Thanks again,
Ken

[WmRMeyers]

Thanks guys,
You answered my question.
I was really just making sure I wasn't missing out on actual plans for the tools I see built.
I've been building things off and on for almost 40 years. Starting with my father on the farm, then the oilpatch and at home. I've always hated buying things that can be made better and adjusted for my particular needs.
I'm setting up a medium sized machinist shop in my garage, and I'm hoping to build the bigger tools as I can. Prices in Canada are often much higher (adjusting for the dollar value difference,of course) than you folks in the USA get.
The bandsaw I was talking about looks extremely well made. Something comparable here is $2500-$4000. I'd much rather build my own, set up for my personal needs. I'm crippled up from a health crisis, so my needs are different than a regular functioning person too.
I'm definitely not a pro at anything, but I'm reasonably well versed in many areas of mechanics, machining and woodworking.
Like I said, I was making sure I wasn't missing out on this site.
And that young lady is extremely talented. Good to see some younger people actually doing things in the physical world and not just online.
Thanks again,
Ken

The only thing I could reasonably be considered a pro at is being a dilettante. I have had at least hundreds of hobbies over the past 66+ years. Possibly thousands. I've even gotten reasonably good at a couple of them. I was a great technical photographer, once upon a time. Never all that great at artistic photography, but if you needed good photos of broken equipment, or bodies, I was your man. Doing stuff like that tends to spoil what was a perfectly good hobby, though. I took a machine shop class in high school, and liked it, and wanted to do more, but wasn't smart enough then, to actually do anything but read about when I could find something, and dream about having a lathe. Fast-forward about 38 year, and I bought a Harbor Freight 93212 Mini-Lathe. Didn't get to spend a lot of time on relearning how to use it, something about three kids wanting fed, housed, and clothed, among other things. Kids were growing up, and one moved out, and I stole her bedroom and started making a workshop. Then I got the back porch. Now it's almost a machine shop, and I have been in a class, very part-time, learning to be a machinist, for over 6 years (counting the COVID-19 shutdown). Class starts back up in mid-August, if we don't get another shutdown, and I hope to be done with the class by the end of the semester. Then I might take one in CAD.