Always Random
Just worth saying
What will it cost to make this for me?
I receive requests from designers and people with ideas asking if I can make something for them. Most of the time I say no, because I have enough projects of my own on which I would like to be working. There are also some designs that are beyond my means, usually because it is too large or requires special tooling and materials. (I wish I could charge the designer for the new tools!!) Some if not most of the designs also suffer from knowledge of how things are made on machine tools. The sketches and drawings show holes where they can’t be drilled or unnecessary and difficult areas requiring multiple setups.
These requests show that there is a need for prototyping services and these inventors and idea people have problems turning their ideas into products.
But prototyping is not as simple as sending out an unproven design for bids. (Yes, I know it is done.) But I am talking about solicitations from hobbyist and small time inventors who have never worked with a prototype or even in a machine shop. A good design is one that can also be made as inexpensively as possible on standard machines and tooling. That seldom happens on the version #1.
What I am saying is the folks who approach me don’t realize their design may need a lot of cooperation (face time) between the designer and the maker. Of course I am not talking about a bar of aluminum with two holes drilled into it. The designer can do that himself. I see the hard stuff, like machining threads on a very thin tube and the tube is thinner than the thread depth. (Yes, I have seen this.)
Outsourcing prototyping is not inexpensive. Building a prototype may cost 100 to 1000 times what… Continue reading
Metric Thinking
I have been selling some metric tools (Proxxon) and actually using them too. I have discovered it is actually quite easy to work in either metric or SAE (inch) standards. There is no evil in either. I (almost) hate to admit I enjoy metric.
Of course the U.S. general prejudice to metric stemmed from our indoctrination, from what I now view in retrospect, to be a very lame educational system of the time. Post WWII there was a push for the USA to go metric. The requirement was to teach young children to exactly convert through (then) seemingly complex formula from one system to another. Remember, there were no calculators in those day. I could derive the equivalent answer but it made no sense why we would want to do this. The same thinking was crammed into our brains about temperature conversion.
In those days a student was not permitted to question the process but only to do as instructed.
As in learning a new language, it is very cumbersome to convert every word from one language to another. You only become efficient when you start thinking in the other language without the conversion. That is how metric should be understood.
I learned Morse code as a radio amateur. All radio operators will tell you that you do not become proficient until you stop counting dots and dashes and start “hearing” the sounds of letters. The really good can hear words. The very best hear Morse as a conversation.
When using metric hand tools I do not think of what millimeter is equal to in inch measurement. A good mechanic looks at a bolt and can say it is ½ inch or 12 mm, not stopping to think they are almost the same. When cars started using a lot… Continue reading
Weekend Puttering
While waiting for the new stepper couplings for the HB2 to arrive, I decided to do a little house cleaning around the shop. After pushing things around for a few hours, and sucking up what debris I could with the shopvac, I figured I should lube the ways on my machine tools. I can appreciate a one shot lube system as I have to do mine the long slow way. I finished and every machine is operating pretty slick now…
I spent a lot of time detailing out the Taig CNC mill. It is still in wonderful shape after all the machining it has done. That is really a great little milling machine in its size and class. I had to fire it up with the MACH3 in control and it wasn’t long before I was dreaming about the next project I should be running in CNC on that machine. In fact I “air cut” a couple of projects just to give the parts (mechanical and electronic) a little work out. It runs so sweet!
I have added a new Proxxon rotary hand tool to my workbench. I have more than I can handle (literally) but there is always room for just one more. This new tool is the Proxxon Micromot 50/E low voltage rotary hand tool. This is the first one of the 12-18 volt tools I have tried and I am amazed!
I already have and operate the Proxxon IB/E professional 120 Volt rotary tool. It is wonderful and definitely exceeds my two Dremel rotary tools in quality.
The 50/E is about ½ the size and power of the IB/E but is every bit as good. It is lighter, smaller and easier to hold for long periods of detail rotary work. I think I will prefer using… Continue reading
Small Update
I haven’t written here for some time. I have been spending a lot of time on the HB2 making stuff from wood that just didn’t seem appropriate for posting here on the machine shop blog. However, it is machine work when you come right down to it. It just isn’t a METAL machine shop project; picky, picky.
Yes!! I have posted SOME of the wood projects so the choice isn’t an absolute.
I have started to build up a materials order sheet for making a small model airplane diesel engine. It looks like a fun project and totally within my capabilities. I may have to push a little into some inside threading work that I have not done but that doesn’t stand out as a problem. There will also be some machining of clear plastic required for the fuel tank. I am wondering how that will go. That is also new to me.
I have been kicking another interesting opportunity (for using the machine shop) back and forth through emails with a friend. You may know that I am a long time (40+ years) Amateur Radio enthusiast. There is an area in UHF and SHF radio type activity that could use the skills of a machinist. The microwave bands use very short wavelengths measured in inches or less. The radio generation, amplification and transmission equipment is not made like High Frequency equipment. There are NOT a lot of wires and discrete components connected together in a loose arrangement. That just doesn’t work at microwaves. Many parts are actually machined from solid metal and use extremely precise dimensions in cavities and rod length and other very mechanical contraptions. Metal patterns on circuit boards become active radiation components just from their shape and location.
I have a fair idea how all this… Continue reading
Taking Stock
I am sitting here in my work shop typing away at the shop computer. Until I started typing I was just surveying the machine tools and just sort of taking stock. I always do that, especially after a clean up session. That’s another thing I just did. I gave the workshop a good clean up.
Now the clean up is not a perfect one but it looks better than it has in a long time. I have had just too many things going on with the disasters and all, to stay on top of it. But now I actually have clean space again to work on projects.
To me “taking stock” is not so much a literal term but includes examining myself and deciding what are my work shop goals and objectives. I let the HB2 project kind of rule the shop. That is what was needed to stay on track and get it completed. HB2 took about a year. Time really flies. Now I am considering , “What now”? HB2 will get a workout on carving projects but I need some metal work too. The Pennsy A3 is still calling me.
I renewed my subscription to the Model Engine Builder. I like IC engines as well as EC and there are some folks doing wonders in miniature engines. The shop I have is perfect for most of that work so I am considering another engine project. Probably a model airplane Diesel or glow plug engine. I’ll see what grabs me…