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ever buy tools you don't know how to use?
- Thread starter gerber boy
- Start date
Firstram
Red Skull Member
She's probably tired of moving your unfinished projects out of the way to change your sheets. Move out of mom's basement
gerber boy
Red Skull Member
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hahaha, after i bought my model A i said something about wanting something to fill the gap between it and the nova project so something in 40's-50's
conversation went like this.
dad- i think i know where there is a 40 or 41ish ford, that was draggins car in the late 60's, its been parked since the 70's or 80's (draggins is a local car club)
me- oh? that might be cool, any info?
dad- he got mad at the club, pulled motor, sold it and parked the car
me- well see what you can find out
dad- ill get mom to see if its still there
me- huh?
dad- she use to date him
mom- ill see if he still has it
still haven't heard about it yet though, parents are in their 70's so probably forgot.
PAToyota
Red Skull Member
She's probably tired of moving your unfinished projects out of the way to change your sheets. Move out of mom's basement
Hell, bought my own place in my mid-twenties, built my own workshop with my own two hands, have my own business, and Mom still sees me as about a middle schooler...
Lee
Guild of Calamitous Intent
Sort of matches the theme of this thread.
There's a pair of WWII era New Brittan screw machines that were still making parts in my Grandpa's shop when he passed away unexpectedly in '09.
I can flip the rotary phase converter on, power up a machine and make the same parts he was.
I spent a lot of my youth catching parts and cleaning chips out of the hoppers, but have no clue about how to set one up.
There's a pair of WWII era New Brittan screw machines that were still making parts in my Grandpa's shop when he passed away unexpectedly in '09.
I can flip the rotary phase converter on, power up a machine and make the same parts he was.
I spent a lot of my youth catching parts and cleaning chips out of the hoppers, but have no clue about how to set one up.
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Firstram
Red Skull Member
Same here, now that she's nearing 80 it's getting worse.
bgaidan
Red Skull Member
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Sort of matches the theme of this thread.
There's a pair of WWII era New Brittan screw machines that were still making parts in my Grandpa's shop when he passed away unexpectedly in '09.
I can flip the rotary phase converter on, power up a machine and make the same parts he was.
I spent a lot of my youth catching parts and cleaning chips out of the hoppers, but have no clue about how to set one up.
I've seen so many screw machines and turret lathes sell for pennies at local auctions over the past few years.
I remember one where at least a half dozen screw machines went for like $200 apiece and and entire giant wall of cams and tooling for them went for another couple hundred. If someone had the space and took the time to set them up, they could still be money makers for big quantities of simple small parts.
PAToyota
Red Skull Member
Yep, mine is in her 80s as well and her seeing "the end of the road" is just stepping up the "you should get rid of everything you own because it is only going to burden someone else when you die" refrain.
arse_sidewards
Contrary to everything
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And you could probably outcompete China for a lot of shit because you don't have to ship across the ocean.
Bridgeport clone and be done with it.I have a whole box of tools that I bought and don't know how to use
I have a tig, never set it up so 🤷.
I want a small mill, probably a Chinese one to play with...
Lee
Guild of Calamitous Intent
I've seen so many screw machines and turret lathes sell for pennies at local auctions over the past few years.
I remember one where at least a half dozen screw machines went for like $200 apiece and and entire giant wall of cams and tooling for them went for another couple hundred. If someone had the space and took the time to set them up, they could still be money makers for big quantities of simple small parts.
Yeah, some of the stuff in the shop is still of value, but there's no market for pre-CNC screw machines. Dad had talked to one of Grandpa's old employees about running the shop, but nothing really materialized. That guy is retired, and has plenty of things to occupy his time, without trying to keep some ancient machines producing parts.
Grandpa was running the shop solo and/or "retired" for 10+ years, but still did jobs pretty regularly. His idea of retirement was that he didn't bid jobs anymore, but between a cattle/hay farm and making parts for other shops he had built relationships with over the decades to help meet their deadlines, he had plenty to do.
There's a lot of awesome stuff in his shop. Clausing lathe, a couple mills, a dual head drill press, surface grinder, optical comparator, etc. I sat in front of a drill press drilling and deburing fan hubs (one of his regular parts) when I was a kid.
One of the Bridgeports is massive, and really early "CNC," it's got a tool changer, and uses a punch tape reel for programing. EVERYTHING that controls it is pneumatic, the number of tiny little manifolds and the rats nest of little air hoses is a trouble shooting nightmare.
I've toyed with the idea of converting it to modern stepper or servo controls, but that's way down the list of "things I'd like to do someday."
I made a website for him in college, (is Netscape Composer still a thing?
) was a project for a class, and was hosted on the university's server, so it was purged long, long ago, but I still have the photos. Here's an example of the parts he made. That little horizontal cylinder with a hole in the side of it (front left of the photo) that's the fan hub. I drilled an deburred thousands of those things.It's tough for me to go in the shop and see the condition it's in now. Not going to talk about it on a public forum, but will just say, you can't pick your family, and leave it at that.
WESTOF7
Fueled by hate and boric acid
There's less and less people that know how to keep them going.I've seen so many screw machines and turret lathes sell for pennies at local auctions over the past few years.
I remember one where at least a half dozen screw machines went for like $200 apiece and and entire giant wall of cams and tooling for them went for another couple hundred. If someone had the space and took the time to set them up, they could still be money makers for big quantities of simple small parts.
If I could find the right machines in the right situation I'd consider it. You can undercut just about anyone with those for small simple parts. You have to put the time in though.
Is it really worth learning obsolete machinery?
arse_sidewards
Contrary to everything
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Almost always no unfortunately.
The problem with these one trick pony specialized machines is that you need to make big volume for them to be worth setting up and running and you can't make big volumes without big customers and big customers like to jerk their suppliers around.
Cranston Print Works used to make the patterned textiles sold with the crafting and sewing shit in Walmart in their US factory. They had their production machinery absolutely dialed to the point that nobody could compete with them because that's what happens after you practice something for 200yr.
MBAs decided to cut that product line. Company decided that it was time to close the factory and sold out to a strip mall. The MBAs realized without that product to round out their offerings they weren't selling as much of the other stuff. Now the product costs more and comes from China.
WESTOF7
Fueled by hate and boric acid
I used to deal with a couple of older guys that had them running. They're sadly gone but it was cool to see. It sucks because I would have bought out the last guys shop etc but he died suddenly of a heart attack and the kids hired a auction company before I knew what happened.
MBAs are a cancer
It keeps happening a lot to niche companies and in a lot of cases now you can't even get the "good stuff" anymore. All from China
PoBoy84
Kantuck
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Then you're doing it wrong. If I buy something I don't know how to use, I usually completely shut off life, and research the fuck out of it so much, that when I pick it up and get it home, I'm already an advanced beginner at least. I don't remember the last time I bought something I had zero idea how to use because of this. I'm also extremely obsessive when it comes to projects and tools. I stay in rabbit holes, lol
AlxJ64
Rust is Paint
This is 100% me. I just bought a lathe over the weekend and even though I recently had a similar and smaller version, I already knew everything about this one even before loading it on the trailer.
RunningProblem
Red Skull Member
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I won’t shut my life off to figure out how a tool works. I guess this is why I buy tools I don’t know how to use.
PoBoy84
Kantuck
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Lol, I will. I can't make my brain stop. My strengths and weaknesses are one in the same.
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Tech Tim
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WESTOF7
Fueled by hate and boric acid
I was just a mechanic that could somewhat weld 14 years ago.
Bought a little crappy atlas lathe I had no idea how to use and set it up in my basement. Fell in love pretty quick.
Bought some tools I didn't know how to use and now I own a legit full on machine shop with multiple employees 14 years later.
Bought a little crappy atlas lathe I had no idea how to use and set it up in my basement. Fell in love pretty quick.
Bought some tools I didn't know how to use and now I own a legit full on machine shop with multiple employees 14 years later.
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WESTOF7
Fueled by hate and boric acid
Exactly. It's crazy what you can figure out with a little time and effort.
This is the best thing about the internet. All this readily available access to information. You can figure out damn near anything now with minimal effort.
I spent about a year running cam driven screw machines. The setup time on them is the killer, especially if you have to make cams. A small cnc lathe with a bar feeder will produce more overall with way less attention.
Yup...I've never had formal training or even anyone to teach me on welding or machining on a lathe or mill, or a bunch of other things...just research/read a bunch, then get to mucking with it. The key to ACTUALLY learning something is not just repeating what someone is showing you, but understanding the physical process and variables and how they interact...the underlying science of it all. So many people who think they're "smart" because they memorized some bullshit are actually just dumbasses. Break things down to their very simplest root components and then you can put all the pieces together any way you want to imagine.
WESTOF7
Fueled by hate and boric acid
You're entirely right. Well said.
It's incredibly rewarding to research, learn, truly understand and finally master something.
I don't know how most people can be content just going through the motions only repeating what they've been shown without any curiosity or drive to understand how things actually work.
PoBoy84
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I have a severely obsessive personality in my case. I don't do anything just a little bit. I don't know how if it interests me.
arse_sidewards
Contrary to everything
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Knowing the underlying physics and engineering will make you faster at getting good but time spent practicing and getting a literal feel for things matters a lot for things like welding and machining and other "people spend a lifetime operating these tools" type skills.
Running pex, running a trencher, anything else that some illiterate in English felon gets paid to do, you don't need to practice shit. You just gotta know how you're supposed to do it and do it that way.
Knowing the underlying physics and engineering will make you faster at getting good but time spent practicing and getting a literal feel for things matters a lot for things like welding and machining and other "people spend a lifetime operating these tools" type skills.
Running pex, running a trencher, anything else that some illiterate in English felon gets paid to do, you don't need to practice shit. You just gotta know how you're supposed to do it and do it that way.
Absolutely true, practice is just as important at mastering something...but I'd rather go into it understanding why wire speed and voltage and material thickness and such matter, rather than just blindly twisting knobs and laying beads. If when I start practicing I understand the relationships between the variables at a fundamental level, I can make that exercise more effective at dialing in my senses to the variables.
I guess what I'm saying is understanding what you're practicing will make your skills improve faster when practicing. I am a very practical person in the end (I don't like reading text books, I like trying shit out) but I also break things down to their fundamentals so I can actually know wtf I'm doing.