Woofers and Tweeters Posted February 13, 2017 Author Share Posted February 13, 2017 4 hours ago, MookieStl said: James is ...James is going to drive 6 hours each way and spend whatever it takes to drive out to collect my dollar. I really like your operation. Everything from the ownership to the throughput of your floor plan...especially the LaScala out in the shop. Don't you have a SWI Prototrak TRM, or two? Wish that i had one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 11 hours ago, Woofers and Tweeters said: You have the most valuable part(s) in your tool pouch. Learning, experiencing and recognizing has you set up to have the outcome you want. There's not an app for that and it can't be downloaded. Either way, you'll have too much of this and not enough of that. A lot of the equipment might be special to what they were doing, so you might not need it...but that's sometimes where the bargains are and you'll get a lot of what you do need. What you're touching on is what a lot of people don't think of when they thing that they want a lathe or mill: The support equipment. A mill requires a vise, colettes, chucks, super-spacer/index head, end mills, drill bits chamfering tools, center drills...and that's if they are doing the basic chit. And the measuring tools lol. You're way ahead of many with what most don't have: knowledge and experience. There are a number of things I would be looking for...A nice LARGE bandsaw with a built-on band-welding and annealing fixture and grinder would ALWAYS come in handy! I have learned to deal with slop on equipment, simply because I always had to do so...never seemed to be the time for us to shim things up to tighten up the mill tables and such...always too busy and under-manned at the foundries where I worked...along with tight-wad owners! I never had an opportunity do work on brand-new equipment in a machine shop...must be nice, though! But, the other side of that coin is that lots of the newer equipment won't still be usable for over a century, either! In order to get SOME things which were manufactured with quality, it is almost a requirement to buy used. As for all the things necessary to do the job on the equipment purchased, I fully understand how all of that adds up, and buying used CAN make short work of acquiring a lot of that....a nice boring bar fixture (with wooden storage box) is something I would be looking for, too! I have worked with some REALLY OLD equipment, which when set-up properly did the job quite well! One of those was an old re-purposed rifle-stock blank sizing machine that actually came from a supplier of gunstocks for the U.S. government arsenals...I am talking about the gunstocks for 30/40 Krags and M1903 Springfields! We used it to make tapered table legs at a woodshop I worked at for a couple of years! The gunstock blank patterns were leaning against the wall back in the corner, covered in thick layers of dust and crud! It was an amazing machine...and HUGE! In its day I would bet that the pieces that came out the end table were sized, shaped and inletted to better than 95%! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofers and Tweeters Posted February 14, 2017 Author Share Posted February 14, 2017 12 hours ago, HDBRbuilder said: There are a number of things I would be looking for. Careful there, it's similar to audio equipment in that you'll keep recognizing that this is superior to that. You are on the right track and Mark is right in that CL can unearth some real scores. Stay away from anything that was used in production. Look for tool-room equipment that was used lightly to produce one-off, inhouse repairs / in an environment that wasn't looking for production. Union shops, usually, aren't tapping the upper limits of the motor amp draw . On a lathe, look for wear / abuse close to the head / chuck area. Things coming off of the chuck has a peening affect on the ways. Also, anything that has had abrasives such as grinders will fret away at the ways. This will cause one to tighten the gibs in one area and loosen them in others, cause tapers and chatter. Another trail that you are on is the quality of the build, and you're right: they don't build them like they used to. in one way that's a good thing, but it's a trade off. Names such as Lodge and Shipley or Monarch are the ones to score. At the same time the newer CNC, such as Trak (that's what I have with a Buck Chuck) can produce desired tapers, threads, and finishes that look like they were from a grinder (micro / mirror finish)...over and over. The other thing is are you going to produce Imperial and metric chit? Cost can play a part in it too. There are too many things that you might want / need, depending on what you're going to take on. Personal use, industrial repairs, neighbor wants you to fix a bicycle that was hit by a train... PM sent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MookieStl Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 On 2/12/2017 at 9:10 PM, Woofers and Tweeters said: You did the right thing by walking. They are looking for a machine operator, not a machinist. A shop like what MookieStL has needs a machinist. He custom makes everything and that requires someone who can approach every task different than the task before. I used to put machine operator or welder in my ads but now put "fabricator". I seem to like the guys that consider themselves fabricators better and they seem to be a better fit for all the "stuff" we throw at 'em. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MookieStl Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 On 2/12/2017 at 9:18 PM, Woofers and Tweeters said: ...James is going to drive 6 hours each way and spend whatever it takes to drive out to collect my dollar. I really like your operation. Everything from the ownership to the throughput of your floor plan...especially the LaScala out in the shop. Don't you have a SWI Prototrak TRM, or two? Wish that i had one. Two: Prototrak Lathe and an End Mill. You don't need one, you can use mine if no one is looking. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofers and Tweeters Posted February 17, 2017 Author Share Posted February 17, 2017 On 2/15/2017 at 8:10 PM, MookieStl said: On 2/12/2017 at 10:18 PM, Woofers and Tweeters said: Don't you have a SWI Prototrak TRM, or two? Wish that i had one. Two: Prototrak Lathe and an End Mill. You don't need one, you can use mine if no one is looking. I have several mills, I want the SWI. I have the SWI Trak 1745. Is your mill a TRM or DPM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MookieStl Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 14 minutes ago, Woofers and Tweeters said: I have several mills, I want the SWI. I have the SWI Trak 1745. Is your mill a TRM or DPM? DPM 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woofers and Tweeters Posted February 17, 2017 Author Share Posted February 17, 2017 Okay, I'm still learning....I hope. I have the ratchet that transmits power to the time train back together. I have the three train (time, chime, hour strike) movement back together with the help of two 100 ton bottle jacks, chain comealongs, forklifts, pry bars and a cutting torch. The escapement and I have been playing the Ninja slap / red hands game for a few days. (For the ones, like me, who thinks that an escapement is a plot to ditch a blind date gone bad, in this case, it's not. The clock escapement is a spur (toothed) wheel and an 'anchor' that is connected to the pendulum which all works together. It meters out the weight that is making the hands move, AND it is what imparts energy back into the pendulum to make it swing...which is what keeps time.) I have put the movement in and out of the clock about 4 times (unlike the ones that has spring for energy, this one has weights and it requires hanging where the chains, weights and pendulum can play together). After dialing the anchor / spur wheel in where it tic toct, i was happy....only to find that it would stop after ~ 15 minutes..grrr. Come to find out, the pendulum was still swinging but so little that it was hard to see...and the escapement was still metering out the weight....that was only one of a few problems. Tonight, I dialed in the anchor to where the pendulum has been swinging for a few hours. Another problem is that the chime was out of timing and one hand was staying lifted in the wrong position. ALSO, the strike (the strike is the train that lifts and drops three of the five hammers to sound the hour) was / is fookt. I think that I have almost everything lined out but i will have to remove and disassemble the movement to tweak the strike movement so it doesn't hold the three hammers off of the chimes. Pictured is the escapement and silver anchor in the middle. To the right is the 5 hammers, 3 of which are, wrongfully, lifted. The thin plates are fans that regulate / govern (we can talk fan / HP relationship later) the other weights and the tone strike speed. (In the picture) under the left fan, there is another spur wheel that lifts and drops hour strike. Obviously, I moved this one upon reassembling, I put the movement together a tooth or three off. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungkiman Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Seems you've mastered the language, anyway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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