Your machinist personality

This may be true:

If you go to a psychologist and he asks you if you think you are crazy, the best answer is YES.
If you answer NO he will think you are crazy....:dancing banana::dancing banana::dancing banana::dancing banana::dancing banana:
 
I bought a lathe with 31" between centres at a point when the longest job I needed to do was 6", one consequence of this decision is that I still have the same lathe over 20 years later and it is still meeting my needs.
If I had followed a guide to my "Machining Personality" I would probably have ended up spending more than four times the money over those 20 years in changing machines to meet my changing needs and still not have the quality of my current lathe.
 
I think mine would be: "An means to an end"
A couple things got me into machining as a hobby.
1. My father was a machinist (many years gone now).
2. I remember enjoying it in High School shop class.
3. A few years back, I had a part fall off a farm tractor I had, basically a double shouldered pin. I priced a replacement...$75 !!!!
I remember thinking, if only I had a piece of metal and a lathe, I could make it for under $10.
I was fast approaching the age where I could retire and remembered a time that there were a half dozen small machine shops in my area where I could have parts made/repaired. Now there are none.
I also consider myself as a bit of a backyard/garage inventor. I've came across a few examples in my hobbies and other related endeavors, instances where I could make minor improvements, make it myself for a lot less money, make it to sell, etc....
I initially considered just using "eMachineshop.com", but ended up shopping around a buying equipment at a price that I figured I could easily get my money back if I decided I didn't want to do it anymore.
Then, as Terry said, the slippery slope hit. The more ideas I had, the more stuff I wanted.
 
Chris, sorry to say this but I'm afraid your personality has very little to do with the fact that hobby machining is a big HOLE with its own gravity. You think that typing yourself will provide some rational approach but it won't help, brother. Hobby machining doesn't care if you're rich or poor or have bills to pay or food to buy. It will work on your mind and cause you to make decisions that a rational person would not make. The minute you find yourself saying, "I can make that!", you're done. I guarantee you that to make that thing, you will need to make or buy a tool you do not have and that tool will cost three times what the thing would have cost you to buy it. That won't deter you because you'll rationalize it by saying, "Yeah, but I can make a thousand of the thing anytime I want!", forgetting that the cost of the materials alone would not justify making even one of them.

What's worse, Hobby machining will cause you to Covet! Yes, I said it. It will cause you to covet stuff. Do you honestly believe that a HF digital caliper will suffice when you can buy a Brown & Sharpe dial caliper for only ten times the price? Despite the fact that the quality of the caliper has nothing to do with your ability to machine accurately, you will somehow equate it with the size of your man parts. You may be able to resist it for a while but you won't be able to resist it all - drills, chucks, collet chucks and so on and on and on ...

You think this is said in jest, right? That's because you are a newbie. Those of us who are looking back can't even make out the glimmer of where the hole entrance was! Anyone who says this is at all untrue is in denial. You are warned - the only way to stay out of the hole is to never get close to it in the first place.

A hobby machinist is always growing, always learning. He/she is one of the most resourceful, knowledgeable and self-reliant of folks and it is this, the potential for growth, that is the source of the Hole's gravity. The common hobby machinist isn't in this for money; its for himself and the satisfaction of becoming more than he was, and you can take that to the bank (where you have to go anyway to withdraw the money for your new rotary table)!
 
Surely people have budgets? And stick to them else risk financial ruin? And surely people have the choice of self-control or lawless chaos? And people most definitely have the choice between acceding to temptation or not!

Haha, but that's not the point of this idea - it's purely a way to best ease people into a new thing.

Selfishly, I'm currently dealing with 'so what next', and the only threads (seemingly anywhere) about "tool path for the newbie" generally involve "you need every tool ever so buy them all". For example, I have a budget for 2018 to buy tools and materials. I cannot buy everything, so what should I buy? My first project aims to be a t-nut for my QTCP, so I probably need a set of parallels, perhaps the correct collet to hold a tap?

Like it is too easy to say 'here, buy this list' - can the hobby advance to the point where you can say "I have this, this, and that projects lined up - what tools will I need? what tools are nice-to-haves?". I am presuming this is called "night school machinist courses". ;)

I think this thread has highlighted that, if nothing else: "This is a hard thing to figure out, because there are a million ways to skin a cat." :D
 
chris.trotter said:
Surely people have budgets? And stick to them else risk financial ruin? And surely people have the choice of self-control or lawless chaos? And people most definitely have the choice between acceding to temptation or not!
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You mean amongst hobby machinists? No, not really. Well, we have budgets but we tend to ignore them as a general rule or we stretch out the budget's time frame. We sometimes delay gratification until we find the thing we want at a decent price but it is never off our radar. Self-control is a delusion, Chris. You have not been in this hobby long enough to understand that while it might seem to you that I was joking ... I was not! Wait. Come back to this thread in five years and tell us what you think. Thinking yourself a man of self control in this hobby is what is commonly known as Delusions of Grandeur!

You say, "For example, I have a budget for 2018 to buy tools and materials. I cannot buy everything, so what should I buy?" Well, you buy what you can afford this year and make a list so that next year you get more stuff and covet more stuff and it goes on and on. Sort of self-proving, don't you think? ;)
 
I always suggest that prospective lathe and mill owners to think ahead a bit and consider if they might want to work on larger projects in the foreseeable future as, long term, an undersized machine will likely end up costing you more when you find you have to sell it then buy a bigger one.

Once you have your machines there is no need to buy anything not required for your current projects, in fact, if on a budget, you'd be a mug to buy things you don't need until you have completed all the projects you have planned.

Having met your "Needs" first, then address your "Wants" in any order that makes sense to you :)
 
mikey said:
Self-control is a delusion, Chris.

Well, you buy what you can afford this year and make a list so that next year you get more stuff and covet more stuff and it goes on and on. Sort of self-proving, don't you think? ;)
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As humans, self-control under our own power and will, yes, I agree with that. As for 'covet' - I would debate the use of that word here. That implies unbridled selfishness, and something that is in control of us. Perhaps I am in the weeds here, but if I'm ensuring my commitments are met, social responsibilities covered, and am still free for generosity - does covet come into the picture? I'm not a drug addict pawning my children here...

Further, this problem is one of human nature, and has so little to do with machining specifically. (race cars, anyone?)

magicniner said:
I always suggest that prospective lathe and mill owners to think ahead a bit and consider if they might want to work on larger projects in the foreseeable future as, long term, an undersized machine will likely end up costing you more when you find you have to sell it then buy a bigger one.

Once you have your machines there is no need to buy anything not required for your current projects, in fact, if on a budget, you'd be a mug to buy things you don't need until you have completed all the projects you have planned.

Having met your "Needs" first, then address your "Wants" in any order that makes sense to you :)
Click to expand...
Yeah, so this is kinda the thought. "needs" is subjective (as this thread is demonstrating). Haha, TBH, this is obviously some kinda holy war, so maybe best to let the thread die. :)
 
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