From: null@void.com   
      
   "Jim Wilkins"  writes:   
      
   > "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, ...   
   > ...   
      
   You were forced to overspecify everything... ?   
      
   "The pigs all had their snouts in the trough".   
   By this everyone can get paid for doing nothing.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)