Cheers for your “origin story” yesterday; I’m quite in awe of some of the things you’ve made.
It also reinforced my awareness of just how profoundly ignorant I am re all of the things -- and people -- which make our technological civilization possible. (I find its fragility more than a bit scary, TBH.)
On a brighter note, it seems that Hillary!’s book is quite the POS (which will probably not hurt sales very much, given the likely level of intellectual acuity her supporters possess).
Oh, you mean the stuff that was Devil Music before rock’n’roll was. 👿
Also: I haven’t had a haircut in seven years. (HoneyLambK thinks the combination of slicked-back hair and my voice make me resemble a “Jersey hit man”, despite my flat midwestern accent.)
“Herschel Lefkowitz sleeps with the gefilte fishes.”
Good morning, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa, and Mac!
We definitely have a dearth of people in this country who know how to “make the tools that make the machines that make the things” and that won’t be to the good when civilization goes south. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d say the disparaging of skilled labor was a feature not a bug.
Manufacturing these days really belongs to the computer controlled machines and their abilities are awesome, but I really preferred the manual machines. Sadly, it is a shrinking field. Two of the shops I worked at I was the only manual machinist it very large shops. When I had my own one man shop I did the manual work for two CNC shops who had no manual machinists. They preferred to have me do that work for them than send their customers to someone else. Of course, a manual machinist is just not as productive as a CNC machinist and can’t make the same money, but I was happy enough. The problem I had was my short term memory was fading and I had arthritis in my hands. I had diminishing capability in a shrinking field, not good. I was lucky to connect with Titan when I did.
It is amazing what early machinists were able to do with primitive means. Watching a skilled blacksmith is incredible to me. I once had a bug to make a lathe myself but reconditioning the old Atlas cured me of that. The bed was the most work but trying to make the spindle journals round and concentric so the spindle nose would run true without machines was the most daunting.
It was not that long ago that precision machines were hand scraped because grinding was not precise enough. A lot of hand scraping is still done to this day. I used to have a student machinist’s book from 1914 and it had new students doing projects like making surface plates, squares, and angle plates by hand. They would saw off two or three chunks of cast iron, chisel them to shape, and then generate flat or square surfaces from first principles using three parts, with no master or reference gauge. In the process they would generate three copies, usually two good ones in cast iron and one working part in lighter material. Once they were accurate they would save one for future reference, use one as a working fixture, and discard the third. I have known so few machinists that even knew this was possible. I just love it, though I will forgo the pleasure thank you. I hate working with cast iron. I did a lot of that at Kor-It, a maker of drilling equipment for asphalt and concrete. I started there not long before 911. FDNY used our handheld units to drill holes in concrete walls to run in hoses or sensors or to connect lifting cables. We rushed out three units and some bits and got them to Moffett Field to catch a military flight taking emergency workers there (all commercial flights were grounded). I was very happy with the owner for that donation, it was over five thousand dollars worth on equipment.
Since I’m behind on things, Mac, I’ve just now copied your posts from yesterday, snagged the photos, and threw into Word. Printing now. Will read tonight. Thank you so much for sharing this.
You’re too kind Sir. I hope it is not a disappointment. I am afraid the pictures are not too good. The dealer I made the tool setter for tried to market it and I think I may have a marketing brochure buried somewhere. I also have some material for a quick change pallet system I designed and made for small CNC machines. He was reping a line of these and had a booth at the big tool show in Chicago. He had one of his machines set up making small give-a-way parts using my pallet system. A rep for a national company that makes bigger pallet systems, a big brand, was very interested in buying it to resell. It was smaller than anything they made and the market was probably too small for them to tool one up if they could buy it cheap enough. He came by the booth three times to see it in operation and get information. I was rather happy to hear this as it could have set me up nicely but we did not hear from them again. I don’t know if he asked too much or if they just decided it was not a big enough market. I did sell a few units but it never grew. I still have some of the parts. It was 6″ x 6″ and the pallets were 6x6 or 6x8 with the reusable bases being 5x5x 1/2 steel and the replaceable pallets being 1″ or 1 1/4″ aluminum. It was kind of neat. Wish it had caught on.
Humpy Hapday, Wheelizens!
Mac --
Cheers for your “origin story” yesterday; I’m quite in awe of some of the things you’ve made.
It also reinforced my awareness of just how profoundly ignorant I am re all of the things -- and people -- which make our technological civilization possible. (I find its fragility more than a bit scary, TBH.)
On a brighter note, it seems that Hillary!’s book is quite the POS (which will probably not hurt sales very much, given the likely level of intellectual acuity her supporters possess).
And people wonder why I’m such a misanthrope…
I don’t wonder, Fatwa. It’s that Devil Music you listen to! (or maybe the mullet?)
Top o’ teh mornin’, Mac!
I rarely listen to rock’n’roll.
Oh, you mean the stuff that was Devil Music before rock’n’roll was. 👿
Also: I haven’t had a haircut in seven years. (HoneyLambK thinks the combination of slicked-back hair and my voice make me resemble a “Jersey hit man”, despite my flat midwestern accent.)
“Herschel Lefkowitz sleeps with the gefilte fishes.”
We all know that Jazz music and Blues makes innocent young people do drugs and have sinful relations.
Far worse, it makes white wimmens desire non-white men.
And jazz musicians.
Good morning, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa, and Mac!
We definitely have a dearth of people in this country who know how to “make the tools that make the machines that make the things” and that won’t be to the good when civilization goes south. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I’d say the disparaging of skilled labor was a feature not a bug.
Manufacturing these days really belongs to the computer controlled machines and their abilities are awesome, but I really preferred the manual machines. Sadly, it is a shrinking field. Two of the shops I worked at I was the only manual machinist it very large shops. When I had my own one man shop I did the manual work for two CNC shops who had no manual machinists. They preferred to have me do that work for them than send their customers to someone else. Of course, a manual machinist is just not as productive as a CNC machinist and can’t make the same money, but I was happy enough. The problem I had was my short term memory was fading and I had arthritis in my hands. I had diminishing capability in a shrinking field, not good. I was lucky to connect with Titan when I did.
It is amazing what early machinists were able to do with primitive means. Watching a skilled blacksmith is incredible to me. I once had a bug to make a lathe myself but reconditioning the old Atlas cured me of that. The bed was the most work but trying to make the spindle journals round and concentric so the spindle nose would run true without machines was the most daunting.
It was not that long ago that precision machines were hand scraped because grinding was not precise enough. A lot of hand scraping is still done to this day. I used to have a student machinist’s book from 1914 and it had new students doing projects like making surface plates, squares, and angle plates by hand. They would saw off two or three chunks of cast iron, chisel them to shape, and then generate flat or square surfaces from first principles using three parts, with no master or reference gauge. In the process they would generate three copies, usually two good ones in cast iron and one working part in lighter material. Once they were accurate they would save one for future reference, use one as a working fixture, and discard the third. I have known so few machinists that even knew this was possible. I just love it, though I will forgo the pleasure thank you. I hate working with cast iron. I did a lot of that at Kor-It, a maker of drilling equipment for asphalt and concrete. I started there not long before 911. FDNY used our handheld units to drill holes in concrete walls to run in hoses or sensors or to connect lifting cables. We rushed out three units and some bits and got them to Moffett Field to catch a military flight taking emergency workers there (all commercial flights were grounded). I was very happy with the owner for that donation, it was over five thousand dollars worth on equipment.
Now can you see why I don’t make videos?
Nope.
Happy Wednesday. Tell you what, for being teh bestest place ever, that place sure does suck. Or maybe it’s just me.
Since I’m behind on things, Mac, I’ve just now copied your posts from yesterday, snagged the photos, and threw into Word. Printing now. Will read tonight. Thank you so much for sharing this.
You’re too kind Sir. I hope it is not a disappointment. I am afraid the pictures are not too good. The dealer I made the tool setter for tried to market it and I think I may have a marketing brochure buried somewhere. I also have some material for a quick change pallet system I designed and made for small CNC machines. He was reping a line of these and had a booth at the big tool show in Chicago. He had one of his machines set up making small give-a-way parts using my pallet system. A rep for a national company that makes bigger pallet systems, a big brand, was very interested in buying it to resell. It was smaller than anything they made and the market was probably too small for them to tool one up if they could buy it cheap enough. He came by the booth three times to see it in operation and get information. I was rather happy to hear this as it could have set me up nicely but we did not hear from them again. I don’t know if he asked too much or if they just decided it was not a big enough market. I did sell a few units but it never grew. I still have some of the parts. It was 6″ x 6″ and the pallets were 6x6 or 6x8 with the reusable bases being 5x5x 1/2 steel and the replaceable pallets being 1″ or 1 1/4″ aluminum. It was kind of neat. Wish it had caught on.