I was asked for input on a theme for the fencing at a research center of a major university. When I suggested a DNA top rail pattern they asked for a sample. It wasn’t as easy as it looks to make.
Once I had the image in my mind then fabricating it became the interesting part of the project. At the same time that the image came I recalled a roller I have for rolling tubing into circles. The roller was given to me by a friend much smarter than me who had made it. It had one small issue, it tended to spiral the material as it rolled it.
I cut another wheel for it with a bit of offset. My friend is smarter than me. I’m luckier than he is. The offset I came up with worked perfectly the first time out. I would much rather be lucky than good. Anyone can be good, that only takes effort and smarts, mostly effort.
It was a great idea. The DNA pattern top rail would be on all the fencing, even some of the handrails guiding visitors through the displays. I’m not interested in becoming a fence company doing thousands of feet of fence. I do some work occasionally for a company that does a lot of government work and they jumped at the chance of being the contractor for the project.
Stuff happens. A lot of stuff happened in 2008 that made universities revisit their budgets.
I still like the idea that the fence contractor couldn’t find anyone who could duplicate the fence sample. Supposedly a couple of companys tried and failed. Like I said, “I’d rather be lucky than good, anyone can be good.”