I’ve been a tinkerer my whole life. As a child that meant asking 'why' too much, then taking things apart and not being able to put them together. In the army that meant customising my belt kit and spending most of my salary on tailored or non-issue kit. As an adult that means looking at every process at work and home and thinking “this would be better if”. On one hand tailored solutions are by definition a perfect fit, on the other hand it typically includes reinventing the wheel, getting it wrong twice, spending twice the total cost and then ending up with something with no spare parts and a warrenty that you voided without delay.
My wife isn’t impressed, she thinks instead of paying twice and getting something I hope will turn out as the thing I want I should spend a bit more and buy the different solution someone has already developed and can return if it’s not right. Sometimes she’s right. I had an idea for a lightweight unwaxed overshirt, like a barbour jacket for the bush but in a brown on brown desert DPM camouflage and with extra space in the shoulders. The Desert DPM shirt I dyed a couple of weeks ago for the project turned pink rather than brown and ended up in the bin.
A great-uncle left me his Accuracy International single shot, iron sighted target rifle in 308win. The stock was a custom and fit me about as well as a showerhead 4ft from the floor, oh and I don’t shoot full bore target. Instead I sent it to Valkyrie Rifles who threaded the 32” barrel for a moderator, inlet a magazine well and dropped it into an AI-AT thumbhole chassis. I’m aware of the sacrilege of cutting up a classic but it’s never been shot so much as it is now. In trying to find someone to appreciate it for what it was I got a sales estimate of £600 from Fultons of Bisley. With a magazine, moderator, scope, bipod and a 3d printed bag-rider it’s good for 1000meters, 1200 in good conditions. Pretty good for cheap ammunition and a mediocre marksman.
My wife (praise be her upon her) gave me a double rifle for our anniversary, a Chapuis in 9.3x74r. Despite the fact that it’s back for a warranty repair at the moment, it handles and shoots beautifully now that I’ve added 1.5” to the LOP. Unfortunately the engraving is a bad early laser engraving and ruins the looks of a lovely sidelock. So I reached out to Fox&co Bespoke who does beautifully hand finished laser engraving. A two man team, one apprenticed at Holland and Holland, the other had a career at Westley Richards about whether they could redo it in a tight classic scroll all over. They can of course for £3.6k do a totally custom piece. That’ll have to wait unfortunately - I’m not rich yet and have many safari’s yet to go on.
Antler buttons on a long wool overcoat, custom leather bullet slide and belt pouch, a light in the gunsafe, biltong box, pockets on my rucksacks, vibram soles on my shoes and zips on long leather riding boots...
I’ve got a couple of 3d printed 50rd ammunition boxes, but I just know that using a clip top aluminum lunch box with a 3d printed inner would be a smarter, more durable, smaller and lighter solution to the problem. A problem I don’t have because I already have 3d printed ammunition boxes. I'm probably going to do it anyway.
The risk of messing with something, as the old adage points out, is that you might ruin it. Tasteless engraving, taking that 7axis dremel on your bolt housing, or your stitching failing and dumping 200rds of link half way though an assault. Without a profit incentive or an expense account, innovation and testing is expensive and slow though i have high hopes that the combination of AI and 3d printing is going to make it much easier to visualise, communicate, and test ideas.
I tell myself that as a species we’d never have got beyond chucking sticks and stones at prey and living in caves without tinkering.
My wife isn’t impressed, she thinks instead of paying twice and getting something I hope will turn out as the thing I want I should spend a bit more and buy the different solution someone has already developed and can return if it’s not right. Sometimes she’s right. I had an idea for a lightweight unwaxed overshirt, like a barbour jacket for the bush but in a brown on brown desert DPM camouflage and with extra space in the shoulders. The Desert DPM shirt I dyed a couple of weeks ago for the project turned pink rather than brown and ended up in the bin.
A great-uncle left me his Accuracy International single shot, iron sighted target rifle in 308win. The stock was a custom and fit me about as well as a showerhead 4ft from the floor, oh and I don’t shoot full bore target. Instead I sent it to Valkyrie Rifles who threaded the 32” barrel for a moderator, inlet a magazine well and dropped it into an AI-AT thumbhole chassis. I’m aware of the sacrilege of cutting up a classic but it’s never been shot so much as it is now. In trying to find someone to appreciate it for what it was I got a sales estimate of £600 from Fultons of Bisley. With a magazine, moderator, scope, bipod and a 3d printed bag-rider it’s good for 1000meters, 1200 in good conditions. Pretty good for cheap ammunition and a mediocre marksman.
My wife (praise be her upon her) gave me a double rifle for our anniversary, a Chapuis in 9.3x74r. Despite the fact that it’s back for a warranty repair at the moment, it handles and shoots beautifully now that I’ve added 1.5” to the LOP. Unfortunately the engraving is a bad early laser engraving and ruins the looks of a lovely sidelock. So I reached out to Fox&co Bespoke who does beautifully hand finished laser engraving. A two man team, one apprenticed at Holland and Holland, the other had a career at Westley Richards about whether they could redo it in a tight classic scroll all over. They can of course for £3.6k do a totally custom piece. That’ll have to wait unfortunately - I’m not rich yet and have many safari’s yet to go on.
Antler buttons on a long wool overcoat, custom leather bullet slide and belt pouch, a light in the gunsafe, biltong box, pockets on my rucksacks, vibram soles on my shoes and zips on long leather riding boots...
I’ve got a couple of 3d printed 50rd ammunition boxes, but I just know that using a clip top aluminum lunch box with a 3d printed inner would be a smarter, more durable, smaller and lighter solution to the problem. A problem I don’t have because I already have 3d printed ammunition boxes. I'm probably going to do it anyway.
The risk of messing with something, as the old adage points out, is that you might ruin it. Tasteless engraving, taking that 7axis dremel on your bolt housing, or your stitching failing and dumping 200rds of link half way though an assault. Without a profit incentive or an expense account, innovation and testing is expensive and slow though i have high hopes that the combination of AI and 3d printing is going to make it much easier to visualise, communicate, and test ideas.
I tell myself that as a species we’d never have got beyond chucking sticks and stones at prey and living in caves without tinkering.
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