FWIW first welding job, 2 years on (2025 Update)

The valuable equipment is a lathe for power transmission components and a vertical mill for the static structure, plus a horizontal bandsaw to cut stock.

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I didn't include a drill press because the mill makes a good one on small parts and the lathe drills into large parts such as the ends of long shafts that can pass through the spindle bore. Its size is a consideration if you plan to build or repair machinery. My lathe takes 1" diameter through the headstock in 5C collets and 1-3/8" in a chuck. The 18HP tractor engine has

Collets are very convenient if you make parts from new ground rod stock but one 4 jaw chuck will let you do almost anything.

A woodworking drill press may not be rigid enough to drill accurately perpendicular holes in steel.

There are indexing fixtures for a mill that allow cutting splines in a shaft and teeth on a gear, so you can repair a broken tooth by building up with weld and then trimming to match the others.

I ground a lathe bit into a fly cutter shaped like the tooth gap and machined a replacement for the steering sector gear on my old tractor. The original cast gear didn't survive the extra stress of my bucket loader attachment. The motorcycle chain sprocket I bought to drive the rear wheel on my sawmill has 13 internal spline teeth. If I'd noticed I would have asked for one with 12 as all factors of 24 are easy to index. I used a 52 tooth lathe change gear to index and mill matching slots in its drive shaft.

I'd like to have a lathe again for sure.

When I was a youth I had no connection to anyone familiar or who could mentor me. Now I have been involved in a lot of commercial manufacturing operations and done a fair amount of machining. With landing-down here, might soon come time to look at this - getting some machine tools.

I'd like to have a lathe again for sure.

When I was a youth I had no connection to anyone familiar or who could mentor me. Now I have been involved in a lot of commercial manufacturing operations and done a fair amount of machining. With landing-down here, might soon come time to look at this - getting some machine tools.

------------------------------------- Since cost normally scales up with capacity it would help to note what you would do with it. I learned foundry practice by age 5, had been making gadgets on wood shop machines since I was 8 and ran industrial machinery during high school, so I had a pretty good idea of what I would buy when available.

My lathe turns up to 5" center height, 10" diameter to the left of the carriage. It's fine for delicate instrument work, adequate for making and repairing tools and outdoor equipment to at least 6HP, but it can't turn my brake drums or rotors. Replacements for them are cheap enough to not justify a larger lathe. It was nice for designing - while - machining a prototype or one-time custom job but would be uncompetitively slow for a commercial production run. You could note the size of custom lathe-turned parts on the mining equipment.

There was a phone call received from an installer at site which was essentially "What's going on? Everything fits!". That was when what I made had gone by the galvanisers and began arriving at site.

There was a phone call received from an installer at site which was essentially "What's going on? Everything fits!". That was when what I made had gone by the galvanisers and began arriving at site.

-------------------------------- Were you let go for embarrassing other designers?

There is something to be said for trying to finish a project on a Saturday afternoon, and being able to make a part complete the job today. As opposed to waiting until Monday to run down to the store if you have the time on Monday and if the store actually has the part you need. Or worse have to order the part and wait until Monday until they ship it... at the earliest.

I've spent $100 (or more) worth of my time to make a $2 part more than once to finish a job and get it DONE rather than having another unfinished job on the list waiting on parts.

There is something to be said for trying to finish a project on a Saturday afternoon, and being able to make a part complete the job today. As opposed to waiting until Monday to run down to the store if you have the time on Monday and if the store actually has the part you need. Or worse have to order the part and wait until Monday until they ship it... at the earliest.

I've spent $100 (or more) worth of my time to make a $2 part more than once to finish a job and get it DONE rather than having another unfinished job on the list waiting on parts.

Bob La Londe

----------------------------------- I'm likely to want something I can't buy, like those bolts threaded far enough that the solid shank bore the shear load and the flange nut bottomed on the threads held the parts just free enough to pivot. Most of the sawmill and gantry bolts have been turned smaller and beveled on the end to help align the heavy parts.

When I was driving lasers at microwave frequencies I made everything at home because of severe packaging and operating constraints, and uncertainty of what I could get away with until the signal path had been partly completed and tested on a Vector Network Analyzer. I even made 0-80 x 1-1/4" fillister head screws and hand-fitted a heat spreader to a warped heatsink too thin to fly-cut.

They are pleased. It's a small Company, and the niche of doing detail on components is a bonus they didn't know they needed but are happy to have.

They are able to squeeze variability given the hints in the info. I provide - which benefits everything and everybody. So a niche role so far is having a general benefit.

They are pleased. It's a small Company, and the niche of doing detail on components is a bonus they didn't know they needed but are happy to have.

They are able to squeeze variability given the hints in the info. I provide - which benefits everything and everybody. So a niche role so far is having a general benefit.

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I liked the freedom at small companies that allowed me to expand into functions they didn't have. Usually I ended up responsible for all aspects of custom product creation, electrical, mechanical and software, after I had proven able to handle them. Symbolic of those companies was a note for the last one out to please lock the door, the job was interesting enough to work late.

The downside was their high failure rate, at times from lawsuits by less successful competitors. I was un- or underemployed during economic downturns when startups folded and R&D investment dried up. I learned to live very cheaply, cutting firewood for heat, maintaining the house and car and using free antenna rather than expensive cable TV. That's why my Internet access is somewhat limited, right now to 10GB of tethered cellular per month. In those times I was free to scout auctions etc for good deals on orphaned lab test equipment and metal shop machinery.

I am feeling happy at this place. It is hard to predict what the future will hold. I can only hope that if things turn difficult in ways which seem possible (I am in Britain), local manufacture will be favoured.

Order a box from McM and see where they came from. Actually, McM will tell you if you ask, I'm told.

Joe