[AT] OT: non-tractor covid-19 activates

[Cecil Bearden]

I planned to open a machine shop when I retired..  However, here in OK 
there is not much demand and the only jobs I had were making some 
decorating crap for some traveling vendors.  The biggest job was wire 
forming for some Potpourri Pie holders.  I had to build a jig to bend 
the handles with an air cylinder and rack and pinion. Then I had to roll 
a ring and weld it together with m spot welder then spot weld the rings 
to the handles  The handles were also the feet to hold it above the 
stove burner.  I lost the pics of it.  I had a 20KW spot welder and had 
traded for a 10hp Variable frequency driver and motor from a technical 
school.  I dropped the amperage with the variable frequency drive to 
keep from burning the wires up.  The wires were about 3/16 dia.
It was fun for a while, then I felt like I was wasting my talents on 
crap...  Machine shops were  closing down here to send jobs offshore.  
So, I have a building with a 36x120 lathe, a 16x84 lathe, a 9x40 lathe, 
a Cincinnati Mill with a 16x72 table and universal head,  2ea Kearney 
Trecker mills with universal heads, another later model Cincinnati 
overarm mill with a 16 x 72 table, A Bridgeport, a couple of knee mills 
one Japanese, the other old old US made.  I did one job with the newer 
Cincinnati overarm making T-nuts for a big holding table.  Now they just 
sit in case I need to make a part for my old junk.  Then I was going to 
build industrial engines, and bought the boring bars, head work 
equipment and a big big crank grinder.  Never got the crank grinder set 
up.  It is still on a trailer and a stray tornado took out the building 
it was stored under.
Cecil

On 4/3/2020 7:01 AM, Mark Johnson wrote:
> Hey - no problem with the CNC talk, at least not from me. I've been a 
> software guy all my life but I find machining absolutely fascinating - 
> wish I had learned more about it! I'm learning now...
>
> Mark J
>
> Columbia, MO
>
> On 4/3/2020 5:38 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:
>> Hi John -
>>
>> Hope the list will tolerate some CNC banter.  We have 1 job that we 
>> hold close, using .0001" offsets; all the rest it would be more like 
>> .0005" or more.  Swiss excels in small precise stuff and also long 
>> slender stuff, and we are heavy on the latter. Don't need all that 
>> precision, but it's handy to have:  I can give the guys setup sheets 
>> with .XXX" dimensions and no tolerance, and they can hit the numbers 
>> dead-on quite easily. Keeps me from having to even think about 
>> tolerances which is quite a luxury for an engineer.
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