You should see this fence I've built. I've finally made it past journeyman.

Around a year ago or so, my friend and I were debriefing each other post-repair, which is nicer than saying we were screwing around and bitching about self-inflicted misery.

He started talking about how he has more stuff to do than time to accomplish it, and mentioned the fence around his backyard needing to be rebuilt.  To illustrate why this was a big deal, he started giving a loose description of prerequisite tasks that quickly became recursive. I said something to the effect of,

"Don't forget the time you need to spend learning about CAD software, so you can decide which program's going to be best to use for rendering a model and plans.  Not to mention the research on different material options and projected weather patterns for the next 10 years."

(NOTE: As I was writing this section, someone walked by the Eagle and said "nice fence!" to the owner of the adjacent house.)

We started joking more about it and coming up with more absurd dependency actions until the project would've cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $500K and a year's worth of man hours to complete before we'd had enough.  Since then, we've referred to situations where you're oblivious to the fact that you're adding many layers of needless complexity to a project, to the point of making accomplishing it less and less likely, as "building a fence", "fence building", and so on. 

The reason I'm sharing this anecdote with you is because I've been building a damn fine fence and want to tell you about it.

I'm lucky enough to have a driveshaft that I can use to make a serviceable replacement for the old one, and I don't want to waste my good fortune by being careless and sloppy when doing the work.  This means making sure the workpiece is secure while still being easily rotated when welding it, my cuts are square, and so on.

The crudely scrawled plans in the above image represent my concept for pieces of an adjustable leveling jig to hold the driveshaft in place while it's undergoing surgery.  The full jig is made up of three of these specialty tool and angle iron assemblies, which can be adjusted by adding washers to the joining fasteners, between the iron and wood. 

Far from a perfect solution, sure, but I'm just too damn neurotic to accept using big C clamps and winging the rest of it as a proper way to do this.  Regardless, I'm about to finish this smoke and go back in so I can get them wrapped up.  I just need to drill and countersink the bolt holes for two more and they'll be done. 

After that, I'll be able to waste hours on getting them adjusted until things are perfectly level from end to end.  If I complete that before the next ice age, then it's time to get to slashing and hacking the driveshaft to the point of ruin, followed by preparing a list of shops to call for quotes on Monday.