advise me

[Dale1962]

hi all. my 1st thred here. 2 questions
1st. planning stage of a shop, but dont know wich way to go. i was raised to do almost anything, lol, woodworking, metal working, welding, plumbing, electrical. you know, jack of all trades. my son has no interest in anything but computers and games. i want to start a shop, but woodworking, or welding, fab, general mechanical? he says hes kinda into mech. and welding but hasnt shown me much yet. i know its in there somewhere. im sure i could make a living doing either. i enjoy both the same. help me, opinions please.

2nd. if i go the mech route, im looking at either an ironworker or the shop outfitters fabricator. be doing general fab, tube work, bending, dimple dies. that sort of thing. wich way to go, please

 

[upndown]

I'd say build a shop to suit your needs..With your guidance, any shop time is time well spent with your son!! A computer can also be used in a shop, have him design some projects, then show him how to build it.

I know for me this would be a good thing,I can build things..But my computer skills ****. Hopefully in time he will find his niche, Most importantly have fun!!

 

[Dale1962]

ive tried everything, hes 15, all he wants to do is swipe his thumb on a touch screen, ive got a couple of projects for him already, kinda in the automation field but almost refuses to touch them. rather be on facebook.

 

[Dale1962]

he has flunked drivers ed twice, no desire to learn to drive. i got a new truck a year ago and they didnt want to give much trade for old truck, its a 1998 ford f150, so i gave it to him to work on together, he inherited 2000 bucks from a grandparent and spent it all on electronics **** and never touched truck

 

[pmiranda]

My son is only 6 but I can already tell that I can't make him want to do things, I just have to provide him the opportunities. Of course, I can take away things, and he'll pout a bit but always comes around to wanting to do something more useful instead of sit in his room staring at the wall
Luckily at his age he still wants to spend time with me so if I can find things he can do then we can spend time in the garage, but there always comes a point when it reaches the limits of his attention span.
I guess I don't have any real advice for you other than to commiserate that kids these days are perfectly happy just "talking" with their friends by computer instead of actually driving over and hanging out.
At some point it is perfectly normal for them to not want to hang out with you much and expecting them to pursue your interests is just not going to work out, at least not at first. It may take 15 more years but eventually I'm sure he'll value what you've tried to teach him. When he finds himself needing to work to support himself in a few years he might appreciate it alot more. I can tell you when I was his age I spent a ton of hours working on the computer to no real end other than learning how they worked and I turned out OK. Of course I also spent alot of weekends with my dad working on cars that my older brothers handed down to me and I know he got frustrated when I didn't put in as much work as him but believe me, that knowledge sticks.
Are you worried he needs to learn a trade or does he have his own plan for his life?

 

[Dale1962]

right now his life plan is hes going to be a master app developer or game inventor. if it works for him great but i think he needs a backup plan. he thinks computers are everything and dont get me wrong, they are great but he thinks that the computer can make its self, no craftsman makes any parts of them, they majically appear.

 

[green.bubbly]

Cancel your internet access plan. See how long it takes boredom to get him into the shop. Lol

 

[SteveL]

Ask him for help rather than trying to force him down a path. Pick metal fab or woodworking, whichever you think you can make the most from and won't get burned out doing and then ask him for help setting up the CNC router tables or CNC lathe and metal lathe. Drawn some sketches of things you need to build for the new shop and ask him to convert them to digital plans and program the equipment.

May need to offer to pay a little for the help and tell him that he can spend it on whatever he wants. Three things will come out of this.

1. You find out if he ends up with any interest in the manufacturing process.

2. You get some cheap help getting set up with the new shop.

3. He gets exposed to another aspect of computers and software that could be a plan B if his original dream does not come through.

My Dad tried to get me involved with woodworking when I was a kid and all I wanted to do was play drums, chase my future wife and play with slot cars. Only when I was in my early 20's did I pick up the WW interest and now wish that I had paid more attention as a kid. He passed away about 13 years ago and I really regret not taking him up on all of the offers to learn. His generation made things instead of just running out and buying it. No computers, no cell phones, a lot of hand tools and a lot of hard work. Not sure that the current generate of kids would last very long in those circumstances.

 

[spclk]

If he wants to be an app developer or game developer he's going to need to learn to write computer programs.

Encourage this.

Not wanting to work with your hands is not a character fault.

BTW, I do both - 30 years of application development experience, plus I dismantled and rebuilt my first house over 8 years. My eldest son also loves computers, no desire for physical labor. He too is a SW Engineer, it's a damn good job to have.

 

[Ray916MN]

A very interesting crossover tool is a 3D Printer. Early on technology, but a great way to learn design and prototyping. Basically what a decade ago, would have cost close to $1M to do, now available for less than $3K.

Were these available decades ago, I'd imagine many on this forum would be doing very different work than they are doing now.

I haven't seen one yet and I wouldn't buy one without seeing one, but if this doesn't excite your son, then I'm not sure anything in a shop is going to excite him either.

 

[kbs2244]

First, if you want to make some money, go metal.
There are just too many guys out there that cat wood well.
You will have less competition specializing with metal.

Second, getting the kid into a 3D printer will be a good computer/physical transition.

He just may blow your socks off at what can be done.
It is a technology just getting started.

 

[SteveL]

Hadn't thought about the 3D printer. Could lead to needing a 5 axis mill in the shop.

 

[niget2002]

I say give him time. I didn't care to help my dad much in the garage either growing up. Now he's surprised by how much interest I have in the woodworking I do. He's also surprised by how much I picked up from him that he didn't notice.

I went the computer route too. It pays off pretty good over time. Software people don't necessarily have to understand the hardware.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dale1962]

thanks for the help guys, thought about the 3d printer already, theres kits and plans to build your own on the net. i guess time will tell

 

[pmiranda]

I will give you one word of warning... every teenager wants to be a game developer but most just play them and have no idea how to code. Has he been taking any programming classes? Alot of community colleges have excellent programming classes if his high school doesn't offer them.

 

[pendragon1998]

I won't say that I was in the same boat as your boy, but I will say that when I was 15, I had almost zero interest in working on cars, planes, or wood, despite my father dragging me to hangers and garages many a weekend. Now, it's about 15 years later, and I'd be thrilled if I just had him living in the same town (he lives 2 states away) so we could work on that stuff together.

My dad's a private pilot. My brother and I had zero interest in learning to fly as teenagers. Dad threatened for years that if we wanted to learn to drive, we had to learn to fly first. We both hated that, but now my bro is nearing his first glider solo and I'd be happy to learn to fly a powered plane if only I had the time and money. I wish I'd taken Dad up on the flight lessons when I had the chance.

My point being, boys will sometimes evolve in their interests. Don't give up hope :-/

 

[Nostraquedeo]

I have three. Two girls and one boy. The only one with any interest in the shop is the youngest daughter. She is an outdoor rat in the summer and in the winter when the snow flies, just like her dad. As kids, my brother and I were always building things and spending time playing army men. We did sports and everything. My dad was a big time car guy. Becuase I wasn't interested in cars like he was, we didn't do a lot of things. I hated that. Fast forward to now with my kids. Their interest is all over the place....I spend countless hours doing what interest them. Playing on the Xbox or computer to play games makes me want to drive a nail in my head at times, but because the boy likes it, I take an interest in it. If any of them wanna learn something about cars, building, mechanical things they have a source in me. If not.....it's there life and it takes all kinds of people to make the world go round. I give advice, but don't push my enjoyment/hobbies on to them. If it means that I have to help a 30 year old child fix a washer or dryer when I am 50-60, then so be it. I do try to make sure they can do simple things, like oil changes, know what tool is what, and what to use it for. Anyway, this is a very opinionated subject and everybody will have a thought what is right, but this is how I approach this. You know my son is the laziest boy EVER, and I don't understand it, as they all have to pull their weight in the house like I did as a kid, but if he wants to be lazy then nothing I can do will change that. I have also learned that sometimes society is a good learning tool. I hear some interesing ideas come out of my kids mouths.....I do my best to encourage them, but sometime society teaches a lesson I could never get across.

 

[fringeofinsanity]

Funny to read this. I have somewhat a similar situation, except he's not mine. And meanwhile my girls can wrench circles around him while he's looking for a left handed screwdriver.

I came to realize, if it's not his interest it makes no difference what I do. I've just been trying to say, "hey can you give me a hand for a few minutes?" and he'll do it grudgingly, although lately he has started to ask me why I am doing whatever it is I'm doing. I hope it's the spark of interest, but only time will tell.

I have my shop area setup as multipurpose. Maybe try that? My best helper is my 15 year old daughter, she's handier than a pocket on a shirt.

 

[Ad13]

Maybe he likes electronics, teach him how to sauter and mayble build a pair of speakers or something together that he can use with his computer.

 

[Dale1962]

thanks everyone. he says he likes electronics, ive gotten him alot of the tools, meeters supplies, got him a micro controller kit, pcb boards, all sorts of parts. they sit, hasnt touched them in a year. we started a micro controller project over a year ago so we both could learn something new, and he just sat there didnt do a single wire, so i kinda just gave up, hes looking at the newer stuff but not till he gets this done first. im tired of spending the money if hes not going to finish anything.