Digital designs for real, physical objects. A Universe of Things!

clintkc

Name: Clint
Location: Mansfield, MO
Registered on October 22, 2011
Last seen May 14, 2012

I'm a home-builder and/or general contractor by trade. I've built everything from small spec-homes, office infills, apartment complexes, hotels, and designed/built multi-million dollar custom homes.

I basically introduced 3D CAD design to the Springfield, MO area. I own advanced 3D design software such as Chief Architect, SolidBuilder, SolidWorks, AutoCAD, TurboCAD, Rhino, etc.

I started out framing homes in the Springfield area, and was one of the first (if not the first) framing/construction companies to offer 3D visualizations and photo-realistic views of custom homes and design concepts. This was virtually unheard-of in the industry, when I first started in the framing business.

I eventually expanded my business to general contracting, where I designed & built homes from the ground up. My business focused on the Mansfield, MO area, where I live and have built 4 spec homes and 2 custom homes, as well as 2 machine sheds.

When the market started slowing down, I started getting my insurance-adjusting license. It's a field similar to what I know best, and have done almost all of my life. I became licensed as of 2010, and recently spent just over 6 months in the Pennsylvania area, adjusting hail-damage claims and training 4 new adjusters.

Previous to my insurance-adjusting work, I spent 9 months in North Dakota as a crane operator, track-hoe operator, and general laborer for a pipelining company. My main job was to operate a Terex RT-555-1 55-ton rough-terrain crane... loading and unloading semi-trucks of 4", 4.5", and 6" spoolable pipe called Fiberspar (16-foot spools weighing anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 lbs each).

I also operated various Caterpillar track-hoes (primarily at CAT 320C-L excavator) on the pipeline (digging ditches for pipe), and a CAT 950G articulating wheel-loader that I basically used for clearing snow from the "Spool Yard" (where my crane was located) so that semi trucks could come in and out of my yard. When I wasn't sitting behind the controls of a piece of equipment, I got out & helped put together Fiberspar fittings (and I could still do that job almost effortlessly), as well as help welders and their crew. When it came to main lines (steel), I basically only helped welders when it came to underground bores (under highways, etc), when they were needing a track-hoe (excavator) to help hold the 12" steel pipes while welding, and to infill the ditches once welding, X-rays, and rust-preventitive wrapping were finished.

I've also worked in conjunction with Lockheed-Martin to design a privately-funded VTOL twin-jet private aircraft, and was chosen to design the 1/4-scale R/C model "test bed" of that design. Details of this project are (and always will be) protected by a Privacy Disclosure... but I think I'm allowed to say that it is a very superior design idea versus modern VTOL designs, and that technology simply hadn't caught up to our design specs at the time. Today is the time for that design to develop. However, the private funder ran out of development money & shut the project down.

Design is my passion. I've always been artistic and mechanically enclined. I've built homes that engineers said could not be built. I have a list of people who still call me for advice, whenever things go wrong and they can't rely on architects or engineers. (I also have a small list of people who are too proud to call me, and pay fortunes for advice that I could provide for 1/4 the price. But each to his/her own. I have no enemies.)

I also have a small sign shop, which is capable of printing just about any vinyl sign you need. I've designed many signs, and all of them are top notch.

I have an eye for design. And I love 3D. Some of my 3D designs for the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic might take a couple of variations to work as I expected (most people's designs do). I'm used to working with tolerances for metal lathes and milling machines (another one of my hobbies, as are R/C aircraft), and the Thing-O-Matic (with Mk7 extruder and Gen-4 interface) are all new to me.

Give me some time, and some patience. I'm not easy to deal with (I'm told I'm anal). But I churn out advanced designs, given some time and patience.