Quote:
Originally Posted by Xringer
Welcome back Jim. Seems like you and I have a lot in common. But, I must be younger. 
Since my little shop has cheap, Chinese made tools.
But maybe that's because I never had the time to develop any strong machining skills.. 
So, why buy a race car when you don't have the talent to do right by it?
And, there's the books.. My book pile is just sitting there gathering dust.
My weekly hours of reading books and turned into hours reading the web..
I used to buy at least one book a week, then it became one a month. 
My current reading, is the manual for the TriStar TS-45 Charge Controller.
Anyways, it's nice to see a Recycling-DIYing Brother in Arms, as it were, here on the eco forum.
Cheers,
Rich |
Maybe you are younger. I'm 58, just changed my profile to show that. My reading is mainly internet these days, mostly because books have gotten expensive and I'm out of shelf space.
My machine tools are old because they were cheap but solid, and I have learned how to bring them back to life of necessity. I have two lathes, a shaper, and an rf-30 chinese/tiawanese mill drill I bought used. There is no old american iron that corresponds to the far eastern mill drill.
If your equipment isn't true junk, you should do fine. By that I mean that your tools are capable of machining accurately if you learn how to work with them, and within their window of capability. One of the biggest problems I have seen is that everyone is in a hurry to get stuff made. They try to take heavy cuts like a commercial machine tool and are disappointed when parts get ruined. It is better to take 20 minutes to make a good part than 19 to make scrap. Oh, and lots of racecars are maintained with machine tools that modern industry would sneer at.
I have always thought that home shop machinists were true recyclers. We recycle parts, materials, tools, tooling, and often extend the life of equipment that would otherwise have to be scrapped and replaced.
If you want to talk more, send me a private message. I don't have enough posts to pm yet. I don't know if extending this discussion is appropriate under the introductions thread, so I guess we should go private.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.