Invention starts at Home

I've always been an avid DIYer. Growing up I was much more fascinated with broken toys or self-assemble kits than I was with the finished article.

I have clear memories of Kairos moments that defined my path in life and one in particular stands out to me.

I was in primary school and there was one of those inexplicable, fevered, Gold-rushy fads happening where everyone who was anyone had to have toy smurfs.. the rarer the better.

I had gathered my pennies and got hold of a super smurf in the flying pose. At that tender age I was really quite happy about this and frankly even today I get a little excited at seeing it.

However, horror happens even to the innocents, and alas I came home from school one day with super smurf separated from his pedestal. I begged my all powerful Mum to fix it, and despite her best efforts, no glue could re-unite the two halfs of my toy. So I tried.. everything .. giving up only after I had taken it a step too far and grossly deformed my smurfs super fist on our gas hob.

It was only years later once I had mastered the fusing of metal, with my favourite of tools.. the MIG welder that I realised I had come to the point of learning to weld primarily because I didn't want to be in the position of not being able to fix things that broke on me.

I love being able to weld body panels, chassis members, gear linkages on my old VWs. I love being able to set the valve clearances and perfect the timing of the spark on the engine. With my daily driver I don't really get to fiddle with those things... too many specialist tools required.

With my 1990s IBM compatible desktop PC, I love being able to upgrade to newer tech .. I can put a blistering fast SSD drive into my bulletproof old chassis and tinker away with silent fans, repair old power supply units ... and even my skinny form factor Dell laptop is very close to achieving Trigger's broom celebrity.

The trouble is tech is getting smaller, my eyes are getting older and my arms aren't getting any longer. I've got plenty of technology tinkering innovation to come from me yet, but I'm being hampered by the physical chassis my frustrated brain is nestled in.

I've been reading up on Elon Musk's ...

TBC