Always Random
Just worth saying
TEDEX Forum
This blog is only a few short of 1000 members as of this writing. I believe many signed in to exploit the BLOG. It is a dead end if that was the purpose.
I am the only author in this site, but members are permitted to comment as they see fit. The first comment is held for me to determine who you are and if the comment is on topic. The spam filters work very well and I delete a lot of known spam. If I let you through the first time, I don’t moderate after that. But I can shut down anyone who is not pure in heart (intent) at any time.
I also run a Bulletin Board called TEDEX. I shut it down from (open) new memberships about a year ago. Same reasons. It is a nasty world out there. I trimmed it down from hundreds to just 43 contributing members.
TEDEX has more user features. Lots of folks like the BBS format better than the BLOG. On TEDEX you can start your own threads, post pictures and have a whole lot more interaction.
I just did something with TEDEX I said I wasn’t going to do. I unlocked the registration again. I’ll see how it goes. If you have an ugly email address or ugly user name, don’t expect to get in. I respect real people with real names. Reasonable “handles” are OK but be sincere in who you are.
I am willing to host a blog with many author contributors. I am thinking about a new challenge R&D project I am looking into I call RoboBoat. There is a post in TEDEX about the subject. The blog would be a society or forum for developing this topic… or it could just live in… Continue reading
Where is it made?
I received an email from a person who had been viewing my ecommerce web site. He asked me where (what country) a certain product I sell was made. The product is sold from Germany but the first thing I replied was, “with today’s world economy, he should have asked where the product was assembled.”
I didn’t know the answer so I gave this person the toll free number of the distributor in the USA and also the email for the same. I also made a remark (maybe unfairly, sorry) that it is far easier to dial a free number and ask, than to read three mindless guys posting pure speculation in a forum like somehow the answer was a secret and none of them had a telephone.
At least my guy wrote to me (a dealer) to ask. I wasn’t chiding him. It’s OK to ask the horse for the answer and hear it directly from its mouth… Ha!
That is as far as my response went, but it did set me off to thinking. Asking where (what country) something is made is a fair question. It is interesting information. I use that kind of information to influence or create an image of quality or sometimes lack of quality. It’s a common marketing ploy.
Today it is more smoke and mirrors than helpful decision making information. Leaving politics out, we are truly in a world economy. Many things are much better made and lower cost because of this fact. Even the American (Made in the USA) slogan where some people here in the USA demand 100% USA parts, seldom get it. The bauxite used to make the aluminum I machined on my Asian lathe to create the Made in Texas, USA component might have been imported from Canada. Yeah,… Continue reading
A Visit to My Personal Machine Shop
I keep judging my shop’s quality. I consider, “Is this as professional as it should be? What are the right tools for me?” I feel it is so much a personal decision; I will never see or believe an answer from anywhere but within my own desires. If I am doing machining just for the challenge and personal pleasure to myself, no one else can tell me what’s right for me. One thing a personal machine shop is… is that it is personal. So be it… it is then a personal machine shop.
Is there a difference between a hobbyist’s machine shop and a personal machine shop? I think it is mostly just a difference in title, but that little change in thought from hobby to personal does make some subtle change in impression. To me it removes the vision of play and non serious application of time. It sounds a bit more “professional”. Maybe even to the imagined ability of producing professional grade work. The roles and actions have not changed at all. It is just word crafting to create subtle changes in how some people relate words to meaning. It is the basis of how “political correctness” works. What’s the difference between garbage man and sanitary engineer?
I have never had a hobby where quality wasn’t important. Many hobbyists find a way to maintain the very highest standards and output from the skills and equipment they have and can afford. Hobby machinists for example, can generally produce with a far better standard than is needed for professional work. Even with “hobbyist” machines.
I feel describing my shop as a “personal machine shop” can be an image enhancement to the non hobby person. The same reason the personal computer (PC) is now seen as a professional tool. The… Continue reading
Hotter Than Hades
Triple Aces!
I just spent the Father’s Day week end wanting to start a project in the workshop. I say wanting because nothing quite got started that I would call a machining project. The old road to Hades is paved with good intentions.
There were a lot of other things that got done though. Even with the intensely hot (100+F) Texas temperature I did get some shop cleanup work accomplished. I did think I was in Hades while I was working in all the heat. Ha! This is my annual rant about the Texas heat.
I envy but do not quite covet those folks who work in conditioned spaces. I know what it cost to maintain the temperature differential of 20 to 30 degrees. I think if I had a full time shop (not just a weekend warrior) I could justify maintaining the space temperature at a more human bearable setting.
However, the problem with intermittent cooling of a garage workshop with steel and iron tooling is the temperature variation with adjustments and calibrations constantly changing. Worse is the cooled down shop suddenly exposed, through opening a double garage overhead door, to the inrush of very hot and humid outdoor air. Instant condensation and rust on all cold metal surfaces. All the built up expensive cool air will simply dump down the driveway.
My tools have very minimal surface rust as their surfaces never get below the dew point of the outside air. So moisture in the air doesn’t condense. I take a cold Dr. Pepper to the shop in the summer and the can immediately begins to sweat. It is well below the dew point of the air.
I never set a cold beverage can on a metal tool surface or directly on the workbench. I don’t enjoy cleaning… Continue reading
Change to New URL
I had to take a lot of time away from my pursuit of machine shop pleasures. There was a cyber DDoS attack on the shared IP address I use for a lot of my domains. More details are over on my personal blog, Ramblin’ Dan. Let’s just say my shared Internet address was very busy for a few days.
One of the things I did was to give this blog its own web address. This site used to be a sub-domain of TEDatum (THMSBlog.TEDatum.com) on a shared IP address, but now has its own identity (THMSBlog.com). Note the TEDatum is gone in the middle.
It’s a bit of work to make that change (switch IP addresses) and it was actually a nice (?) learning experience. The old URL with the TEDatum will continue to work but I suggest if you have this site book marked, you change to the new shorter URL, just in case there is another DDoS or someday I forget and remove the cross link. Not likely to forget, but I am getting older…
I don’t know why the attack started and persisted so long. I assume what I do here is pretty innocuous to most folks. However I do not know who or what else may have been on the shared IP. Just roll with the punches and they won’t hurt so badly.