If you had any idea of the amount of stuff I have as "seconds" with a split in the wood, miss-marked or a spot of rust...still perfectly servicable! If there is an asbestos removal project going on in the area, I sell them by the drum. Send me your ship-to.
Done! (on the side), and thanks! You really don't have to.
Harold
So you sharpen wire brushes via a grinding wheel? Please expand. Delicately, in reverse direction, and by hand, so it leaves the wire edge on the cutting side, or what?
And how do cup brushes work on angle grinders at the 11kRPM speeds? It would seem that even knotted brushes would be sent, er, akimbo at that speed.
- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened. ---
Well, it's often best to just sacrifice the brush...thank GOD! But, for a bench grinder wheel just chuck it up in the lathe and spin it slowly and touch an angle grinder to the tips of the wires, just a few thousandths, to square-up the wire tips. Do you see why a reversed wire wheel works so good for a while? If the wire is tending to lay over, try heavier gauge wire or shorter trim length rather than more pressure.
For a hand brush, just wipe it on the side of a grinding wheel in both directions, being careful not to over heat the tips of the wire.
For wire cups in grinders you don't have the option of reversing so you use heavier or better wire or go to knot-type. Sometimes higher speed is detrimental to the operation, there are graphs of surface-feet/minute for average brushing jobs as a starting point to then be fine tuned.
The big-unknown to most people is the alloy. The cheap brushes that you see people complaining about here lately are most likely imports using hard-drawn wire that is 1/4 the cost of good oil-tempered wire but looks the same. Ask Gunner the difference, he's used them both. Hard-drawn has some advantages as does oil-tempered. Try and see the cost of a "brushing operation" and the cost of the brush is only a part of the mix. Sometimes a big part of the cost, sometimes not. Just like the rest of life, nothing is assured.
Indeed! Great brushes. I figure that Im about 4 or 5 to one, imported brushes versus Toms brushes, based on rust/slag removal and how often I have to trash one of his. I was buying them 6 at a time from the hardware store, and now I replace one of Toms after completing 4-5 times the work.
Gunner
Spoken like a true businessman. ;)
Thanks for the info.
- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened. ---
snip---
There's no way I'm going to put off finishing that damned house from hell-----particularly when I have a wife that has never badgered me to get it finished, and has worked side by side with me every step of the way, without complaining. She even drove to the laundromat until we could get her washer and dryer up and running. At this point, it's sort of a contest between me and the house, anyway!
For us, the shop came first, or almost first. The first thing we built was our pump shed (so we'd have water), then the shop, all 2,600 square feet of it. It is now home to us, while we build the house, and is a very cool place. Tiled shower, with a toilet and lavatory. Built in vacuum cleaner system, hydronic heating, (49) 8' 2 lamp fluorescent light fixtures, 3 phase power, and totally finished and painted inside, with synthetic stucco exterior. It's nicer than some of the homes around us. Probably makes it easier for you to understand my determination to get the house finished. I won't have my shop back until I do. ;-)
By the way, we're on 5-1/2 acres, which was totally wooded when we purchased it. Having lived in a sub-division prior, I can't imagine how I put up with if for so many years. No way could I go back to living that way. I really enjoy having space to waste, as I'm sure you do!
Harold
Your experience is completely different than mine. I've been quite some times been in France and they never wanted to understand me (3 years French at school + 4 weeks intensive course in Cannes/France). Maybe it has to do something with beeing a German. You can ask any German and you will always get the same answer: French are not willing to help/understand. Also, they were kind enough to steal my MX-motorcycle two days before the race. :-(
Nick
Actually an Emco - if he has the money - would give him a good lathe plus an OK vertical milling machine. Preferably a Maximat 11 but you can do an awful lot with a Compact 8.
As for freight from Australia, should be possible if time isn't of the essence. The other consideration is that we're 240V 50 Hz power, dunno about Reunion Island. Getting a 240V - 110V transformer is a piece of cake tho, I have a number of them lying about at work for visiting Americans to use. Machines here are a mixture of metric & Imperial, a lot with metric dials but imperial leadscrews due to demand but pure metric machines are available. Since you can fit a DRO and swap between metric & imperial at the push of a button, IMO it makes sense to get the leadscrew you'll use most for the threads you're planning on cutting and getting by for the other ones.
Indicative price for a lathe/mill/drill from Hare & Forbes Sydney is $AUD 1295. I really can't see how machines of this type can be satisfactory milling machines. Drill presses & lathes, ok, but unless you pack the mill table waaaaay up off the cross slide, how do you get a milling cutter to the work? The Emco units have the head independent on its own column. Serious money, tho.
The following URL has an interesting machine option at the top. I've seen these and they're more useful, IMO, than the 3-in-1.
I reckon he's pretty safe, judging by my experience with finishing building houses. I moved out of the last one after 20 years and it
*still* wasn't finished. This time round I gave up right away, built the small shop off the living room and moved in some of my tools. To hell with aiming at finishing the house, I only work on it now when I've run outa other things to do and I have a shop to play in on cold nights without having to go outside. The kids can finish the house as penance for inheriting the place.Next I'm building the big shop; I have 3 acres of land to spread out over.......
PDW
I am looking at a PC based DVR eight camera system with cool software that can do all kinds of stuff in addition to triggering an alarm with ADT.
But not with the milling arificial limb on the Compact 8. I have one, used the "mill". Years ago the mill has got its own table and is serving as drill press. This works. But that piece of crap would not withstand side load, the mills get pulled out etc. No please!
The mill for the maximat-series is something really different. The same head was used on Emco's PF2 (or was it FP2 or the like?). This thing looks good, but the PITA with dual use remains ...
Nick
Are you sure the guards and the thiefs are not the same people... cs
Oh, x2.
That's about 9 minutes too late. How about sliding bar grates for the interior perimeter. Once the PIR goes off, it drops the bars around the building, maybe holding the perps in long enough for an armed escort out. Only cost $10/11,000 and a man-month to do.
Move the PIRs after each burglary. I'd suggest fencing in the interior of the building (barewalled factory?) and the perimeter but tool-wielding burglars breaking into a metalworking factory would have too many tools at their disposal already.
Here's one solution to cat burglars:
---=====--- After all else fails, read the instructions. ---=====--- Website Design and Update
We've built only two----but the first one
For us, no waterfront, and retired, but still left with the building project. And the move, which took three containers and three semi's.
Ouch! I was somewhat more fortunate in that my fall, which was only about
6 feet, didn't break anything. Got a concussion and serious bruising where one of our building blocks (RastraSounds like a fun project. How large are the port holes?
I'm not convinced a house is every truly finished---although for the first time I'd like to assure it is as close as possible. We're quite comfortable in the shop, but as I said, I'd enjoy having it back so I can use it properly. The vast majority of my equipment isn't operable because we're living where the items would be placed in use.
Harold
I've built 3 houses so far. What I learnt after building number 2 was to never do it again. Number 2 was 3 storeys on a big suburban lot, with a 30' x 30' metal shop drive in basement and a 16' x 20' wood shop under the deck, all with 3 phase power.
Then I found a perfect piece of land, which I could afford but not if I had to pay a builder, in a different state, on the waterfront and 15 minutes from my new job. Oh hell.
Tent. Genset. Single phase builders power pole. Hut. Temporary shed for the woodworking gear so I could build the cottage and store materials undercover. Shipped down the DeWalt sliding compound mitre saw, the table saw and a truckload of other woodworking tools. 18 months later, move into cottage with big living room, kitchen, bathroom, heat, insulation. Bliss. Build west wing with master bedroom and 15 x 18 workshop opening off living room via prepositioned doorways and smash left elbow in 6 places in the process by falling when a ladder slipped loose. 3 operations and 8 months of physiotherapy later.... 3 phase power connection, move in welding gear, small lathe, small mill, big bandsaw, boxes of tooling. Still got sufficient space for the B/port and tooling, the rest of my stuff is stored at work where I have a warehouse.
I can build another wing on the cottage if I need it but have no immediate plans to do so. I'm going to build a 16m by 13m workshop barn near my power pole and run 3 phase to it. Move the rest of my tooling in and then take it easy playing boatbuilder. Hah.
I ordered some bronze porthole castings yesterday so I can see how much of a PITA it's gonna be to machine them up myself. It's good to be back to the point where I can do metalwork at home again rather than having to use the shop at work for every little job.
The 2 immutable laws of building I've learnt are that nothing ever happens on time and nothing ever happens on budget, so I know where you're at. Eventually you'll get to where the place is 'good enough' and can move on to other things. You'll know when it arrives. One of these days I'll make the fancy drawer fronts for my kitchen.......
PDW
Yeah, agree about the dual use headache. I never used a Compact 8 milling head, only the Maximat 11 as a friend of mine had one. They did use the same head on the FP2 mill, IIRC. There was also a reasonable Taiwanese knockoff copy available at one point some years ago.
PDW
Mine only took 2 containers but the old house still has all its furniture etc. All I shipped was tools & books.
These ones are only babies - approx 9" OD with opening glass ports. 3 castings to machine plus a few pins, screws etc for the clamps. I have a few I inherited from my father; one weighs approx 40kg but it has a solid bronze storm cover that clamps over the glass port.
Pleasure boat gear is unbelievably overpriced for the engineering involved. I look at sheet winches and shake my head in disbelief.
Even with the little portholes I suspect I'll end up putting the 10" rotary table on the B/port. Almost need a small crane to lift that bit of gear nowadays so making a rolling table for it when I uncrate it is a high priority. I'm mounting more stuff on castors nowadays.
Yeah, been there, it's a pain living with metal swarf & sawdust everywhere. If you don't take it all too seriously, it'll work out fine. I refused to move into my cottage until everything that was going to make a mess was finished - and I worked from the top down so I wasn't crapping up finished surfaces. The last job was getting the timber floor sanded & sealed. By then the ceiling was finished, the walls all painted and all I had to do was architrave & skirting, which had already been cut to size and prefinished. Ditto with the shop space, including painting the floor with paving paint before I had a chance to spill oil on it. I lined the walls with good quality plywood this time so I can hang stuff anywhere I want without having to find a stud, and if I *do* need a stud, the screws holding the plywood up make their location obvious. I guess by the time you do number 3 shop, you have a fair idea of how to arrange things to suit yourself. Might not suit the next owner, but that's their problem.....
PDW
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