From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "Richard Smith"  wrote in message news:m1y0qan51h.fsf@void.com...   
      
   The essence is that anything I want to do I have to do it all myself   
   in-house.   
   I previously asked about "machine tools" and you were all absolutely   
   emphaticly "yes!".   
      
   The reconciliation in the mind is that the mind which sees the "useful   
   projects" and the way to do them has learned from doing and driving   
   before.  I have to do that doing.  That it is unlikely that group   
   projects on my aspirations can deliver.  You always end up having to   
   accept a compromise which has even more consequences than you could   
   visualise departing from the plan you had - with huge time-consequences   
   and waste of energy "flogging dead horses" and that energy not put to "I   
   got the steel in; I welded in my outbuilding; I ...".   
   --------------------------   
      
   When designing and building industrial electronic test equipment I was at   
   the mercy of mechanical engineers and the machine shop for everything I   
   couldn't make with a file, drill press, sheet metal shear and brake.   
   Whatever I wanted had to be fully described and toleranced on a drawing,   
   they wouldn't tolerate cut-and-try. I can't blame them, degreed engineers   
   can be notoriously clueless outside their specialty, and sometimes at the   
   hands-on aspects within it.   
      
   As I didn't know machining at the time I couldn't distinguish the hard and   
   easy ways to do a job, for example I would round a corner to control 40   
   KiloVolt corona discharge by grinding and filing, the shop would order a   
   corner-rounding end mill in the size I specified. They knew nothing of   
   electrical problems so they would suggest the solutions they could do based   
   on how they chose to interpret my attempts to explain.   
      
   I found that a local school offered night classes in machine shop and jumped   
   on the chance to learn, as also with programming, welding and blacksmithing.   
   The student-abused machines were valuable to learn proper versus excessive   
   cutting feeds and speeds through experience as well as how to accommodate   
   the wear and damage to the old lathe, mill and surface grinder I bought.   
   Fortunately others made the more spectacular mistakes such as shattering a   
   surface grinding wheel, I only burned an endmill.   
      
   The buying approach I partly chose and partly lucked into was acquiring   
   machine tools sized above model steam engine building and below what's   
   practical for production, apparently a range meant for a model shop, tool   
   maker or inventor. Old American iron was available when I looked in the   
   1990's, for less than what new import machines of similar capacity and   
   weight (rigidity) cost. I probably could have done most of the same work on   
   new imports, perhaps an 8"~9" diameter lathe and square column mill drill. I   
   had to sadly pass on larger machines I didn't have room for, a Bridgeport   
   and Monarch. The surface grinder wasn't as necessary and the mill eliminates   
   the need for a bench sized drill press and the clearance space around that   
   it consumes.   
      
   My machines suffice for most of what I want to make because I know their   
   limits. I've learned enough to adequately specify the jobs I can't do and   
   send out to a larger shop. There have been a couple of them this summer, not   
   too expensive because I did the prep and fixturing. The DIY constructions   
   you've described are in the same range of size and power.   
      
   My most recent lathe job was a custom 5mm automotive screw of non-standard   
   length with a turned-down section on the shank to captivate it in the partly   
   tapped bushing on the distributor cap. I made it from stainless because the   
   original rusted, froze and broke. It's a small simple part, but essential   
   and unavailable for a 25 year old car, particularly in stainless. The mill   
   had drilled out the broken screw remains in the distributor casting   
   accurately and squarely enough to keep the drill bit from deflecting into   
   the softer aluminium.   
   jsw   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)