Handy-capped

January 31, 2006 7:23 PM

How can I become more handy? I suppose based on my upbringing, I never had to, or had the chance to be.....handy. For Christmas my brothers get tools, and I get...not-tools. My roomate MacGyver has no problem taking apart the engine on his boat, installing something on our roof, or building an elaborate tunnel to escape the throws of our evil landlord. I feel inadequate. I feel intimidated and overwhelmed just walking into Home Depot or Autozone. Could it be possible that I don't have the right stuff to be handy, or do I need to just put my 'hand' in something. I would love to have the confidence and skills to build a tree fort with full electric and plumbing. Help a brother find his handy-ness!
posted by jasondigitized to home & garden (26 comments total)

I have a big reference book on home repair. My parents bought it for me when I bought my first house. It REALLY came in handy when we decided to become landlords.

I think that when it comes to this sort of thing, you learn best by doing. I'd suggest buying a reference book or two, and just go at it. There's no big secret to using tools, or finding solutions to different problems and as you tackle different projects, you'll learn more and build your confidence.

It is really amazing what you can do if you have half a brain and some determination and time. It gets to be kind of fun after a while.
posted by Ostara at 7:40 PM on January 31, 2006

My method of getting to "handy-ness" was through hands-on practice. I'm not particularly spatial, so I actually have to use math on some projects, but taking a helper role on many projects has schooled me invaluably. I still don't do plumbing or electricity (except for the most simple of tasks), but I feel pretty comfortable with a lot of re-modeling tasks that many people feel overwhelmed by. I highly recommend an informal apprenticeship to help learn those tasks that most interest you. It's easier and more logical than you think! Best of luck!
posted by kamikazegopher at 7:41 PM on January 31, 2006

learn how things work.

once you know how a motor works, conceptually, you'll be able to diagnose any problems one might be having and you'll better understand how to fix it. this doesn't apply every time, but it helps.

use your hands.

flex them. hold things. grip and twist things around you. push, prod, move, nudge, shoulder, balance, and pick up everything you can. once you know what your hands can do, and with what, you can better judge how they'll handle (ahem) a task and what best would fit in them to do that task.

past that it's just about how big your tool belt is. (remember, MacGuyver was cool because he didn't even need a tool belt to be handy.)

also remember that there are how-to books for everything you could conceivably lay to with your handy hands.
posted by carsonb at 7:42 PM on January 31, 2006

I sort of have the same thing. I'm sure there's some genetic component.. some people are better problem solvers, some people are better at spatial visualization, some people are more methodical, some people are more coordinated. But, I think it's mostly the attitude you (we) approach it with -- If I pick up a screwdriver, I've already resigned myself to failure, so I'm looking for ways to fail or give up. Self-fulfilling prophecy.
posted by Hildago at 7:43 PM on January 31, 2006

In no particular order (since #5 is probably the most useful):

1. Buy a few issues of "Make" magazine, or issues of Popular Mechanics from the 60's. Some of the projects will be advanced, some within your capability, but perhaps more importantly, it will give you a small window into the sorts of things that people do, and how they go about it, how they think about it and approach it, and simply that they do it. There is nothing in "Make" that you couldn't get from the net, but having it all edited and assembled and made easy-to-digest it probably worth it for you.

2. Keep an eye out for things that interest you and start playing with them. You can't learn everything at once, but start with something of interest and start learning about it. As you learn more, and can do slightly more complex things in that particular area, the skills you pick up will be useful elsewhere, opening up new areas where you don't have to start from scratch, but get into already knowing a fair chunk of what you need to know. From there, you branch into other fields, followings your whims or where your skills lead you. (I tend to spend a few months on one "topic" (eg geiger counters), learning lots before something else shiny catches my eye. Each new topic adds knowledge and experience to the next).

After a while, you have such a collection of skills that you can bodge together pretty much anything - even if you don't have the right skills, you can use whatever you know that is the nearest fit.

3. Yes, just put your hand in things. Throwing out any broken appliances or anything? Take them apart before you toss them. See how they work. Is there any part that you're not sure why it's there? Work out why it's there.

4. Design in your head, work out what would make things better. Work out a way that you could make that improvement with what you feel able to do. Work out everything that could go wrong, and what needs to be done to preclude those possibilities. If you need to learn something specific, consider learning it and doing it.

5. When a friend could potentially benefit from some help fixing their car, or plugging a leak, or even Painting The Fence, or whatever, offer to help. Even if you're doing monkey work like "hand me that wrench", it demystifies the process, you see how it's done and start to understand it. You both benefit.
posted by -harlequin- at 7:45 PM on January 31, 2006

Hildago

"I'm sure there's some genetic component.. some people are better problem solvers... "

I may be wrong, but I have a suspicion that the real "genetic component" here is how handy the father was, and how much time you spent with him while he was being handy :-)
posted by -harlequin- at 7:49 PM on January 31, 2006

I'm not sure there's a real secret other than doing things. Pick a project which interests you and do it. But as a not-particularly handy guy, here's a few things I've noticed:

If you're a geek who's used to working in the virtual world, or even an artist with flights of fancy, you might find that you're not used to paying attention to things in the real world around you and shaping a response in real time, and tend to oversimplify/abstract steps involved in doing things. This leads to problems like my 8th-grade self had in shop: I figured that since a tool could be used for planing a side straight, that I could just slide a piece of wood through without paying attention, and it'd come out straight, when it would turn out how you applied pressure could make a huge difference. This problem is also how I lost a fingertip to a belt sander.

I finally stopped feeling completely unhandy when I tried volunteering with a local habitat humanity group, and went consistently for a few weeks and learned how to do various things.

I also got a boost when I succesfully took apart the top half of a carburator and reassembled it. I had no real special knowledge, I just was careful to record/mark which pieces went where so I could reassemble, and the thing was half-hopeless anyway, so why not? That's when I realized that if you were paying attention, recorded things carefully, and had the basic tools and time, you could probably do an assembly/disassembly on most things. Very small, very sealed, and very large heavy things being something of an exception.

As I've started a few projects without really knowing some basics, it's also helped to go into the hardware store with the willingness to ask questions of the staff and even risk looking ignorant (which, in some cases, is quite true). This seems to have worked out well. I feel more educated, and they often get to sell me something.
posted by weston at 7:54 PM on January 31, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Trial and error. I was never particularly handy, then I bought a house. There is nothing like owning a house to motivate you to figure out how to do stuff.
posted by oddman at 7:57 PM on January 31, 2006

diy'ing is like dancing, everybody can do it, you just have to start and it'll be fun if you allow it to be
posted by suni at 7:58 PM on January 31, 2006

6. Don't sweat failed or unfinished projects. So long as you're learning, and you're not incurring costs you can't afford, then it's not a disaster, it's part of the learning process, and lessons learned will save a future project.

This is not new age fluff. In some fields (like robotics), experience of all the ways things go wrong usually makes a bigger difference to getting a working end result than a far more advanced knowledge that is largely theoretical.
posted by -harlequin- at 8:01 PM on January 31, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Buy an old house, my man! Or short of that, pick one project where you live now--something like patching a hole in the sheetrock, or installing new faucets, or putting up a fence--and have at it. Whatever you are doing, Google is your friend.
posted by LarryC at 8:15 PM on January 31, 2006

experience of all the ways things go wrong usually makes a bigger difference to getting a working end result

I tend to agree...maybe except for things like electricity. Or gas lines.

One issue that hasn't been brought up yet: a lot of people who call themselves "handy" are just cheap. I can do some plumbing, but I find value in having a pro do it better. I wish the guy who owned my house before me had felt the same way--I'm still cleaning up after his DIY muddling.

On the other hand, I've successfully replaced simple window glass before by myself, and been amazed at how much money I saved.
posted by gimonca at 8:15 PM on January 31, 2006

"...how handy the father was, and how much time you spent with him..."

Not really. My father wasn't handy at all, but two of his kids are inveterate tinkerers. The need to build -- and destroy creatively -- runs deep.

To echo some other folks:

1) Develop an interest in how things work. Take apart appliances, go down to your local pick-and-pull and take a car apart.

2) Respect the work. It takes years to become a master craftsman in any "handy" trade. Trust me, yes it CAN be that hard just to nail two pieces of wood together. And don't even get me started on screws.

3) Get your hands in there and start messing things up. Try not to make the same mistakes more than five times a piece. Forget and make them a sixth.

As for the intimidation issue, you should realize that master craftsmen very often trade services with one another. It's all well and good to strive for the MacGyver ideal, but in real life people tend to know one area (plumbing, carpentry, auto repair) very well. Pick something you like and learn just about that.

If you're at a loss of where to start, might I suggest wood working? There's plenty of cheap wood about (you can start with scraps) and you can build various handy items for yourself. Don't forget to learn how to finish the wood surfaces, which often takes far longer than constructing them.
posted by tkolar at 8:28 PM on January 31, 2006

I find that a big part of handyness is the ability to look at a complex problem and "see" a simple solution. Then you go about solving it.

If you want to build a tree-fort with plumbing and electricity, learn to do the following first:
1. build a tree fort
2. install new plumbing
3. install new wiring

then
4. build a tree fort with plumbing and wiring

When you are starting out, you don't need very many tools. Back when I took woodshop class, we learned to do a ton of different things with just a backsaw, sanding block, and a hammer. Additional woodworking tools changed the quality of what we could make, but didn't dramatically change what we could make.

When I work on my compuers, the only tool I need is a #2 screwdriver. If I'm working on a laptop, a few smaller screwdrivers might help as well. I have a shoebox sized toolbox now, but 99% of it goes unused for most of my projects. The remaining 99% of the tools are there either because I needed them once, or because they came as part of a set. I know what they each do, but I don't let their quantity or diversity intimidate me.

Final words: SAFETY IS KEY!!! One of my grandfather's friends was a renowned surgeon whose career was literally cut short when he carelessly took the end of one of his fingers off with a band saw. If you aren't careful, you can do serious damage to yourself even if you are only using hand tools. Learn how to be safe. Wear the dumb looking goggles. Don't wear loose clothing around fast moing equipment.
posted by b1tr0t at 8:45 PM on January 31, 2006

I had to learn to be handy with our car (we rent our housing) because of money. I learned to change my own oil and it saves me around $40/change. When our breaks needed to be fixed and Midas told me it would be around $225, I immediately bought a manual on my Durango, the break shoes and rotors and the necessary tools (Torx bits for the caliper pins.) and I saved myself like $150. Other repairs have been necessary and I have done them myself because of money concerns. I suspect if I owned a house, the same would hold true. If the money isn't necessarily that motivating, you might do it to save yourself some money and put whatever you would have spent on the repair labor in a fund and save up for a nice treat such as a new widget, a nice dinner, new book, cd, or dvd, or anything else that would motivate you. If you were any kind of good in school, you should be able to read a manual and get some things done.

I also suggest the Reader's Digest handyman books with tips and tricks and how to use various tools. They were pretty helpful to me.
posted by jxpx777 at 8:48 PM on January 31, 2006

As others have mentioned upthread, reading is important in learning new skills...;-)

One book filled with meta-handy nuggets of advice (and a bunch of quasi-metaphysical and narrative stuff of questionable direct relevance to what you may think, at this point, you want to learn) is Robert Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (also available in full text HTML form). ZMM, as it is known to its fans, is a bit much to wade through on the Web, but in book form, it might be a worthwhile "first tool" in your tool box. A lot of good meta-advice about developing a craftsman mind (reality based humility, genuine curiosity, the value of fatigue, etc.) , re-valuing information we learn as we do things, avoiding and dealing with frustration ("gumption traps") etc.

But as any surgeon will tell you, you can only learn so much from reading books, and trying things on your own.The next thing that is important to do is develop a new level of communication and respect with your hands. Unhandy people have a learned lifetime of experience not listening to their hands, and so, their hands no longer tell them much, in my view. You've got to begin by developing some sensory awareness of how your hands work, what forces your body can apply to objects, especially through tools, and how to listen to the world through your fingertips, and by extension, tools. A great exercise for this is getting a drill, appropriately sized bits for it, and a tap and die set which you then use to drill and tap about 20 threaded screw holes in a piece of 1/8" thick rack panel plate. Most apprentice mechanics do stuff like this early on to develop a "mechanic's feel" for how much metal can "stretch," in forming operations, which is something you need to know to tighten and untighten fasteners properly.

In many communities, you can take evening or weekend classes, which offer the great advantage of presenting both practical theory and supervised skill development in a structured setting. That's a good way to learn to do things like woodworking, welding, and automotive repair. You can go to the Home Depot stores you dread, and sign up for free classes of short duration in painting, plumbing, and other home maintenance and repair topics. Look around for other resources in your area at craft shops, tool rental places, and community colleges.

One of the advantages about signing up for a few classes is that you meet handy people, and can begin building a network of people who can help guide you to other resources for learning in your area. Another advantage is that you learn enough to avoid hurting yourself early on in your journey to becoming a handy person.
posted by paulsc at 10:47 PM on January 31, 2006

Public libraries are a great source of how-to books.

I second buying a house. My house has been maintained for the past 80 years by a 4th grade class on holiday, and nothing I can do to it would be worse than what has already been done. It has been a great confidence builder.

Generally, I look at something I want or need to fix, read several books on how to do it, and talk with my handy friends about my plan. I then readjust my plan, and start.

Watching handy friends, I see that they fail nearly as often as I do. But, they don't sweat it, they just redo it again and again until it works.

And, as my partner said about my last repair, "It was successful. Lis got a new tool." At first, you may need to redefine "success" a bit.
posted by QIbHom at 6:26 AM on February 1, 2006

I'm in the same boat, although I just got over my anxiety related to assembling IKEA furniture.
posted by grateful at 6:29 AM on February 1, 2006

Someone suggested in a similiar thread that volunteering for Habitat for Humanity is a good way to learn some basic tool skills and get over one's anxieties.

But there are some excellent suggestions in this thread too.
posted by terrapin at 6:33 AM on February 1, 2006

I'm considered "handy" now by many, though I was a clumsy oaf as a kid. Give me a kit to make a birdhouse and you wound up with a really small pile of glue-covered kindling and a screaming, cursing eight year old.

I think the biggest difference in me now at 34 is confidence (though I'm sure maturity helps a little). I don't quite recall what my first "handy" type of project was that got me going, but whatever it was formed the foundation of confidence I have today. Pick something really small around the house as mentioned above. When you fix it, be sure to realize that it wasn't nearly as hard as you thought. And if this thing's not that hard, then the next thing's not that hard either.

The two biggest motivators for me in doing things are cost (as with many DiY types) and dissatisfaction. There are so many things I've purchased that just aren't quite like I'd like them to be. Or maybe the product I have in mind isn't out there in the world yet - close things but not exactly. That gives me a motive to start teaching myself skills. Because of the dissatisfaction drive, I've taught myself how to sew, do basic woodworking, work with a few specialty type tools, write code, and work with electricity and phone lines to think of a few offhand. The cheapness drove my wife and I to do all of the renovations on our new home ourself, including gutting a few rooms down to the studs and rebuilding. Of course, neither of us had ever done anything like this before, but we learned and it turned out great.

Now that I think about it, my "handiness" has probably evolved just over the past five years. So don't worry if you're a late bloomer.
posted by Moondoggie at 7:10 AM on February 1, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Another vote for volunteering with Habitat. They'll ease you into it, give you work you're comfortable doing, and you can watch, help, and then do more and more complicated tasks. It's hands-on, and it's helping people who need it.
posted by Alt F4 at 7:17 AM on February 1, 2006

I'm Moondoggie's wife and I have to add that the biggest thing for me when doing DIY is knowing that just about anything I want to do can be undone by a professional if I screw it up. When I start a project, I ask myself how quickly a professional can come and help me if needed and it said professional can't get there for a few days, will that be a problem? It is for this reason that I choose not to do any work on gas lines, electricity projects bigger than changing plugs, switches and light fixtures and any plumbing that does not require turning off all of the water to the house.

Good luck. Just keep asking yourself "what's the worst that can happen?"
posted by SheIsMighty at 7:24 AM on February 1, 2006

My last sentence should read "... any plumbing that does require turning off all of the water to the house"
posted by SheIsMighty at 7:25 AM on February 1, 2006

I second everything said above: Reader's Digest books, owning your own home, investing in some good basic tools, just giving things a try, etc.

But another route that's been helpful to me is watching shows on DIY and HGTV, and especiall "This Old House."

No, your project will never go along as quickly or as glitch-free as theirs (if only). But you'll get a great overview as to how things like plumbing and carpentry work, the types of projects that are possible and what you might or might not want to tackle.

Finally - find a good, local hardware store, not a big-box retailer like Home Depot. Hopefully one with several older men working in it. You'll find them to be incredible sources of experience and advice - sort of like a good dad.

Good luck - it feels great to not have to call in the professionals every time a little something needs to be done.
posted by CMichaelCook at 8:15 AM on February 1, 2006

Hang out with your brothers and your roommate while they're working. Don't pester them with questions. Just sit and watch. Repeat 1000x. Eventually, they will get bored of having you watch them, and hand you a tool. Do what they tell you and try not to screw it up.

After a while, you will realize you possess the skills to do some projects. If you then go ahead and do them, your skills will continue to improve.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:22 AM on February 1, 2006

Another magazine to pick up might be Family Handyman. They run regular how-to's that are usually not overly ambitious [lay a rock path, replace a sink, etc.] Even the ones that are beyond your ability [new partition wall, add a closet] will make good how-to reading and will help demystify the stuff. The editorial tone is very welcoming and friendly; they won't dazzle you with unexplained jargon.

Overall, though, I second many of the other comments; pick some small things and try your hand. Once you learn some basics you realize that many other things are within your grasp and you gain willingness to try them."
posted by chazlarson at 9:17 AM on February 1, 2006