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

[Stephen Offiler]

Wow, Cecil, that's quite an equipment list!  Some big heavy stuff on that
list!  The only manual machining I do is making little tools, jigs &
fixtures, and "my" shop here at work has just one (very nice) Hardinge
HLV-H "Super Precision" lathe, a 2J-head Bridgeport, a Kent 6x18 grinder,
and a DoAll bandsaw.  The magic is always in the accessories; the 5C
collets and the 4-jaw chuck for the Hardinge, the R8 collets for the mill,
the various precision vises and other workholding for mill & grinder,
indexing heads, and a whole compliment of cutters, drills, taps, wheels,
etc etc.

Oh and I do owe you a response on the ESAB plasma cutter.  Unfortunately,
it's a pass.  Sorry.  We have this one job we're developing now that
involves making rather precise cuts, but we're already down that road with
a chop-saw that's working quite well.  We just do basically zero with sheet
material most suited for plasma.

SO


On Fri, Apr 3, 2020 at 9:54 AM Cecil Bearden <crbearden at copper.net> wrote:

> 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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