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

John Hall jtchall at nc.rr.com
Fri Apr 3 17:38:22 PDT 2020


Believe it or not, there are some guys that like to collect older 
machine shop equipment. Shapers seem to gather a lot of attention on 
Facebook. Those and belt drive equipment were signs of a shop to run 
away from when I started this trade.

Those big lathes are either a curse or a blessing. Our TOS will go 
around 30" with the gap out. There have been times we could have used 
bigger. Normally it collects dust, firing up 2-3 times a year. It pulled 
about a 3 week stint last summer.

John Hall

On 4/3/2020 12:01 PM, Cecil Bearden wrote:
>
> After Ithought a little, I forgot about the 48x120 gap bed lathe, the 
> 24in shaper, the 12x36 surface grinder and the other one sitting 
> outside that was dropped off a forklift at the shippers.  I have a 
> 36in Yates American Bandsaw that a forklift operator dropped while 
> loading.  It was one the Navy owned during WWII that sawed the decking 
> for ships.  I have another 36in that I need to try to get working.   I 
> also have a 40 ton horn press.  in addition to the 40 ton ironworker.  
> and a Warner swasey #2 turret lathe, and somewhere around here is an 
> old screw machine.  There is a couple of multiple spindle drills and 
> all manner of old machines....  There are not very many young folks 
> that know how to operate these old machines.  Just not a lot of demand 
> for one-off repair work either..  Both old guys that were my teachers 
> in my machine work are now gone..
>
> On 4/3/2020 10:46 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:
>> I was just out on the factory floor and noticed one of the CNC's was 
>> about to hit a bar change, and figured I'd try to capture a video of 
>> the whole thing.  It starts with a quick overview of the CNC and the 
>> bar feeder sitting at idle.  Then it shows the part being made, which 
>> is the handle of our double-ended machinist scribe.  Then I fire it 
>> up to make the last possible part before the bar is effectively 
>> consumed, then we see a part being made, although it is kind of hard 
>> to see due to the coolant splash.  Then it does the bar change, 
>> consisting of pulling back the "remnant" (the end of the bar that's 
>> now too short to make another part) while dropping a new 12' bar, 
>> engaging it, and feeding it into the machine to continue automatic 
>> operation.
>>
>> https://youtu.be/uy57CqHdicg
>>
>>
>> SO
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 3, 2020 at 10:27 AM Stephen Offiler <soffiler at gmail.com 
>> <mailto:soffiler at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     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 <mailto: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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