Newbie : tool cleaning

That is because it is composed of metalworking fanatics. :-)

How easy is it to own metalworking equipment in France? It

*might* be that the lack of a similar newsgroup or mailing list reflects the difficulty of becoming a metalworking hobbyist in France. (I have read of similar difficulties in Germany.)

Then again, I see from your .sig block that you are not *in* France, so you might not know the answer to this question.)

And perhaps that could best be done by someone coming into the newsgroup from the basis of another language, as the special use of words to which we have become accustomed might become invisible to us, as we have *always* used them.

I must admit that your English is much better than my Spanish. (I did not study French in school, as I did not expect to need it, and then I had to spend some time in Paris when my mother was in a hospital there. As it turned out, the times when I could not find anyone who would admit that they spoke English, I was able to find someone who spoke Spanish, so I was able to communicate -- with some difficulty.

Best of luck, DoN.

P.S. I see that you are posting from a Wanadoo address, so I fear that you could not send me e-mail directly, as I have a lot of Wanadoo in France blocked for spamming (and for not doing much about their users who are spamming. :-)

Herold, most people think I'm stupid and offensive right away! Soon after, I remove all doubt.

on

Chuckle! What was that saying------It's better to be thought a full than to open your mouth and remove all doubt?

I don't care what you say, Tom. I think you're Ok. A little tight with the freebie brushes, maybe, but Ok.

Harold

Wow, he really told you, you OK Tom?

Dumb ol' bully, if he'd have said that to me I might have done something about it, pretty soon.. lucky for him he didn't, yeah boy, I'd have told him..

John

Scotch 3M pads (grade 100 to 1000) are excellent for removing rust. Forget the paper.

Nick

"Thought a full" works quite well in that context, doesn't it?

Yeah, waaaaaaay too tight. He oughta do like the drug dealers do: Get us hooked with freebies until we NEED to buy the good stuff from him.

- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened. ---

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Tom Gardner (nospam) wrote: Everybody knows that wire brushes get dull

Tom:

How about some info on the resharpening? I reverse the reversible ones and have occasionally run a hand stone lightly against one before reversing, but I'm guessing there's more to it than that.

John Martin

In France? Someone willing to speak something different that French? Or at least trying to understand your not so perfect french? What a joke!

Nick

In the land of Deckel, Gildemeister, Maho, Weiler, ...? No, you get the tools etc., but it's hard to find people having the same hobby/dedication and so someone willing to share the knowledge for sources of special stuff. That's why I'm here, sitting on the RCM-sofa, having a beer or two and watching the jokes & tips passing by. :-)

... and busy filtering that damned OT. :-(

Nick

Everyone knows that 6 strokes from a diamond micro-file on each side of each wire of the brush is the best way to sharpen them.

Note to Tom: Record the breakins with a $69 recorder TODAY ONLY!

- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened. ---

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I use ATF ( automatic transmission fluid ) as a light oil in my shop. It has some antirust additives in it. To prevent rust I sometimes rub some wax on things and then wipe with a rag with some ATF on it. The ATF helps to get complete coverage.

Dan

Tom Gardner (nospam) wrote:

Hello Don I'm living in a french oversea country beetween madagascar and Mauritius island In france there is no problem to get a metalworking equipement but in reunion island : it's quite impossible with 12000 kilometers (in a strait line) from France everything turn to be difficult By plane the shipping price is more than expensive for equipements witch weight is over 250 Kg There is no local reseller from any of the well known factories I am an hobbyist, what in french, we call a "bricoleur" doing some little thing but wanting to do some things more difficult My first idea was to buy a micro lathe and a mini drill, but damned, I was astonished by the prices A mini drill and a mini lathe are more expensive than a medium manual drill and lathe with their standart accessories My next idea was to try buy one drill and one lathe from France, my third idea was to buy them directly from Singapour or one other eastern country In any case I stopped my dream with the amount of shipping and to find a trading agent The next idea was to buy a drill and use it like a mill The previous posts upon the subject were precious for understanding that I was in wrong (I loosed my chuck falling down every minute but I was thinking than the chuck was bad) What a curse to be in a charming island with a lot of sun but far from anywhere ,-)

Jean-Luc

Chuckle! You know--------that sucker looked just fine when I sent it. Where the hell was my head? Anyone with smarts knows it's *fool*. (Or is it fuel?)

Keep working on the cheap bastard! (Or is it *cheep* bastard?)

Harold

I am sure that I would have had more trouble with a less than perfect French (which I did not have), than with my existing less than perfect Spanish. There are enough people from Spain in Paris so apparently my odds were improved. And at least the fact that I was able to speak at least *one* other language than my native English (or American if you so desire) defused some of the insularity.

I also understand that outside of the Paris area, people are less upset by French which is less than perfect.

The woman who was the desk clerk at the hotel at which I stayed was from Britany, and had pretty good English, and also reasonable Spanish, so sometimes a switching back and forth between the two languages enabled a conversation which we could not have had in either language alone. (And apparently, those from Brittany also suffer from the inability to speak "perfect" French -- at least according to the Parisians.).

A nurse at the hospital (the American Hospital in Paris) spoke French and Spanish, but no English. That was sufficient.

A taxi driver spoke both French and Spanish, but no English. Again, that was sufficient.

In both Ecuador and El Salvador, people were *thrilled* that I would attempt Spanish, even though it was far from perfect. I had no advance warning about the trip which landed me in Paris, and the official plan for it was for me to simply change planes in Paris, until My mother wound up with a relapse on the flight from Cairo to Paris, so the hospital stay became necessary. And I doubt that I could have learned enough French even in a two week crash course (had there even been time for that) to handle my needs.

But -- Spanish is similar enough to French (both derived from Latin), that I was sometime able to recognize a word, either spoken or printed on a sign (but seldom both for the same word) so I had a bit of help there.

I was in regular phone conversation with my wife back in the US, and she had grown up in a French Canadian family, and had visited Paris prior to our getting together. She was able to suggest words which would help me to order food, and to recognize places were food could be purchased.

And -- of course, the big Financial places like American Express and the travel places (e.g. TWA) would have at least one person who could speak English.

Yes -- I would have been more comfortable if I had a working knowledge of the language, even if I were to be snubbed when I attempted to speak it, but I was able to manage.

FWIW I had studied Spanish because I grew up in South Texas, where there was a lot of Spanish spoken, so I had developed an ear for it, even without knowing what was being said. As it turned out, I also had a friend whose father was in the Diplomatic Corps, and who had spent a lot of time in various Spanish-speaking countries, so we were able to use Spanish between us (including to keep my younger brother from understanding when he would eavesdrop on a phone call). This gave me enough practice so I was able to retain a lot of it.

In contrast, when I took German in college, I had no one which whom I could use it, so it has almost all faded away.

Enjoy, DoN.

And, according to my wife, it is a volcanic island. Hopefully it will remain inactive while you are there.

I can imagine that. Have you looked into the costs of shipping by sea? That might be more affordable, if significantly slower.

My wife found that word unfamiliar, so she went to a dictionary which she keeps handy, and that suggested "handyman" as the English translation. A subtle difference, but it suggests that you will need the ability to use these tools sooner rather than later.

I can understand that. It is very frustrating to not be able to do something because of a lack of the proper tools.

That could be because fewer of them are sold -- especially in the markets in which you are looking.

Have you compared the prices at the various US sellers? (Ones like Harbor Freight maintain web sales sites which should allow you to check their prices, at least.)

However, for shipping, perhaps Australia would be your best bet. They tend to have a lot of the same Chinese and Taiwanese machines which are sold by US vendors like Harbor Freight, and the shipping cost to you would probably be less. I don't know what the exchange rate would be like.

My wife suggested South Africa, but we have had posters here who have had problems getting machine tools -- other than used ones imported from the UK some years before.

I don't know whether you care whether the tools are calibrated in Imperial units (inches and thousandths), or metric units (mm and hundredths). That might determine where you buy, because the Australian ones would be more likely to be Metric, while most in the US are Imperial.

You are lucky that the chuck did not chase you around the room with a sharp cutter mounted. Others have had that experience.

I would be very frustrated. Or -- I probably would re-focus my interests onto more affordable hobbies. Photography -- especially digital photography with today's digital SLR cameras, involves fewer expensive purchases overall, (though the first few are killers), and the weight is minimal.

Of course, you *could* try the series of books by Gingery dealing with building your own machine shop from scratch. They start with teaching you to melt and cast scrap aluminum, and to use that to build machine tools, starting with a lathe. It would be some time before you had a lathe or a milling machine (they also teach how to build a shaper), but he shipping costs would be minimal. Paper weighs a lot less than sufficient cast iron to make the tools which you need.

Is there a classified ads section in your local newspaper? Is there a possibility that someone else may already have such tools and be looking to sell them (perhaps after moving up to a larger version)?

Given the shipping costs, perhaps a 3-in-1 tool (lathe, drill press, and mill) would be a better choice for you, in spite of the known problems with such machines. At least, you would be paying only once. (Though most who have started with a 3-in-1 machine have moved on to separate machines after a while.

Best of luck, DoN.

Brilliant! In spite of my dislike for such tools, this is a classic example of where one might benefit by owning one. I heartily endorse the idea.

Harold

I owe you big time over the years, what do you use? Send me a ship-to address and I can remidy your brush needs!

Reversing a wheel is the first step to the trash but then the brush was misused anyway. As soon as the wire starts to lay down, it is no longer a cutting tool but now a burnishing tool. So, the operator just naturally applies more pressure. A slippery slope to the trash. Try and find the right mix of speed, wire dia., wire length and wire alloy. There's the rub, that's a lot of variables so you compromise with a sacrificial general purpose brush. That's ok. In another world, a process needs to get "X" number of parts done with a brush before shut down and brush change. That's where fine tuning the brush variables pays off.

All wire brushes, power and hand, the sharp corners on the ends of the wire do the work. As the work is done the edges become rounded and the cutting action changes. Thus if the wire ends are ground square again before the slippery slope, the brush will do more, consistent work with less energy. So, sharpen your brushes or buy a lot of new ones! Sound advise, but some people think I'm being smart-assed.

Just don't tell anybody!

anyone

air--------but

See? He's all heart!

Thanks, Tom, but each of us brings something to the table and I can't help but think that we're about even. Beyond that, I can't stand folks that take advantage of others.

It is fun jerking your chain, though!

Tell you what I'll do. When I'm finished building the house and I'm in the shop doing something constructive, I'll let you know what I can use and I'll buy them from you. I've always had a curiosity about your brushes.

Be well,

Harold