How it all got started

[Toolmaker51]

re Wizard69 and government work, g-jobs etc.
I do g-jobs every day all day, in a manner different than some. Most of them are shop work in reality; taking notes & photos detailing whatever cool aspect I've employed to produce parts wanted. Maybe temporary tooling, an interesting shopmade cutter, holding multiple items...Later, being able to throw a setup quickly gets my project done in a snap. Doing self-imposed jobs isn't just cutting chips, welding, or even scribing lines. Regardless one's level of expertise, job planning can be just as rewarding.
Right now I'm modding jack pad of my HF dual piston floor jack. Clamped, dialed it in and re-slotted one pair of 'fingers' in 18 minutes, with time to saw backbone of the special soft pad.
In a whole week I might only eat lunch one time. Last three weeks I collected right size remnant steel, re-bent counterweight arms, made 1 replacement weight, spot-drilled index detents in 4 now matching arms, drilled/ tapped a second clamp screw in all 4 weights. Burned a few extra calories and avoided a few hundred! Once improvements are on, finish front and back gauges for it.
All for new to me sheet metal brake, posted sometime back but I haven't perfected searches of general posts, our tools are easy.