I've viewed this forum for a while and finally got around to making my account, and here is my first post. I am an avid thinker and fantasizer of modding, yet fairly virgin to the actual affair. I have a long history of PC building and minor modificiations to make things how I like, but my ideas are usually to grand to be achieved on my own or at a reasonable cost. As I have a family and Wife, who likes to control the $, I have a very limited amount of space and $ to work with. My question and discussion starter here, is on the 'Spirit' of modding. Many here seem to have access to a veritable workshop full of every tool one would need to build just about anything you'd like for PC modding... and many prove it over and over... Angel.... ... but then comes the average guy like me. I live in an apartment with my wife, 2 kids, 4 dogs and 2 cats... very limited on space to manuever and no storage space for the tools I want/need. I have found outside sources who can fabricate and modify the parts to my desires, but in that case I would only be assembling my thoughts off of someone elses labor. I may be a little to nit-picky about that part, but it is the only avenue those in my situation have. In general, sure the finished product is what matters, but does the fact that the actual physical art of creating the piece having been done by someone else detract from a modders perceived skill? Given the chance and tools, and more mod-friendly wife, I would LOVE to do this kind of work on my own. Sadly, that seems to be a distant chance. Perhaps a modding team of local enthusiasts would be an equal option to preserve the integrity of the build? I'm mostly spouting my thoughts, but I would like others feedback here. I know I've held back on some modding based on stigma I've read on other sites about people getting poor reviews for not having 'done the work themselves'. I guess in the end, it's my brain-child and my desires that form it though. If I'm just thinking too much, I do that... feel free to and move on lol.
Hahaha! But seriously folks. The question one needs to ask here is, 'why do you want to make something?' Do you want to make something for your own pleasure? Do you want to stretch your mind and try to create something new and personal? If you have limits on the work you can do in your home and you have the funds to contract out the making of the parts, (and this sits well with the way you view 'making something' ie, do you feel good about someone else making your parts) then who cares what anyone else thinks. The problem a lot of people on the forums have is that they see the project logs and base there whole idea of 'modding' around these. In my opinion it's always a much better idea to plan and start making your 'whatever', before even thinking about forums. Then bring your project over and show everyone what you are doing. It's never going to be the case everyone will like what you are doing but you just cant worry about this.
Divorce... hmm... that would free up a few things... nah, i'll just deal lol Yeah, I'm probably overthinking that and rambled a bit which only further confused my post. Let me narrow down to question by question, one at a time lol. In competitions, does not having made the mod by hand ever get taken into consideration, or is the end product all that matters? I'd figure the end product, but it's something I've wondered. I LOVE to work with my hands and would definitely feel better in the end having done it by hand with the pics and experience to prove it, but the situation just is what it is.
Many guys outsource certain aspects of their mods ( powder coating, paint jobs, lazer cut parts etc ), but they also put in the time to design those parts, choose the paint scheme and such. The quality of the design work and the execution of how you put the parts together ( finish quality ) speaks more about your skills than whether you actually hand cut a certain part of not. True, we do have some human CNCs around here ( Atilla, Skip, to name but two ) who were blessed with amazing hand-crafting skills, but there are plenty of other modders whom demonstrate their skills in every other way- if you have a solid plan for what you want to build, and the precision to put it all together in an aesthetically pleasing manner, then go for it.
for me , the spirit of modding isnt creating the thing itself , its thinking of the modding itself , its the idea of seeing things different the modding spirit , is that instant moment when u see something , and ideas starts to flash inside your brain , and then , one stands above all and want it to project it wether by posting it on the net , sketch it on paper or on a 3D CAD program , or making it itself modification and creation comes tide in , but could have a very thin line , check out Murdermod MKII , its a TJ-7 , nothing new , but Charles modify it up to a point that it isnt a TJ-7 anymore lol get it ? about your situation , maybe u cant actualy make the custom pieces yourself because of space and time and all that , but maybe u could make them on a 3d program like solidworks or autoCAD for me , its more important than actually build the mod itself , because i already know how its gonna end
Now that was basically the response I was hoping to hear. That is what I felt, but have been unsure of, probably due to apprehension on my part to work hard and be unappreciated for various reasons. Lets just say I've had back luck locally with finding good quality people who can actually appreciate hard work and creativity. Though I'm of a decent age, 26, I'm fairly nervous about dedicating myself to a mod project and figured this was at least a decent way to break myself out and start some conversation. I have some plenty grand ideas, with reasonably detailed blueprints to match, and plan to submit my sketches and renders once I am satisfied with my layout. I'm hoping not to have to use Google Sketch-up, it just feels clunky to me after working in AutoCad for so many years. I worked with SolidEdge CAD for some 6 years, throughout high school and 2 years independantly for kicks and LOVED it. Maybe I need to explore other CAD software for better options. SolidEdge felt intuitive to me, but I've heard it's actually fairly limited when compared to other industry programs.
get solidworks , i use that (its kinda like SolidEdge) , but the cool thing about Solidworks is that its more universal , u could have a part on Solidworks and send it to the CNC worker and he just gotta toolpath and start the CNC im learning Solidworks by myself and i feel i can build anything my imagination is the limit , if i have any questions , i always ask Professor Google
I was looking around after browsing some threads here and saw SolidWorks mentioned a few times, so I will probably look into that over SolidEdge. It's been so long since I've worked, it should be easy enough to pick up the new program. The principles are the same.
