Projects? Tool improvements or real projects?

[7milesup]

I began this hobby because I thought it would be fun to cut, burn and smash myself while spending 60% of my time looking for a tool or part that I just had in my hand.

So far, I have not been disappointed.

 

[Weldingrod1]

Wrapping up the Murphy bed...
Need to make some senior presents for my graduating FRC kiddos
And OMG do some clean up/put away... I'm drowning!

Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

 

[f350ca]

I started out playing hours upon hours with a Meccano set, always wishing I had more gears and parts.
Then at probably at 13 or 14 building what we called dune buggies, (certainly no dunes around here) out of what were then relatively plentiful rusted out Volkswagen's. Learned to sort of weld then with an AC stick welder that dad had.
Took machine shop in high school, loved it, brought on a whole new appreciation of what was possible.
Somehow managed to get into university with marks that reflected my misspent youth, and graduated with a mechanical engineers degree.
My wife and I moved around a lot but managed to collect a set of wood working tools and at one point built a house and all our furniture. We loved the ocean, though it was a thousand miles away from our prairie home and decided to build a 40 foot steel hulled trawler, while living on the prairies. Had a neighbour and friend who owned the machine shop where most of the custom work the company I worked for was done. Needing parts for the boat Terry would build them for me for nothing but had to do it when he had free time. That wasn't working for me so I bought a 14 x 40 Taiwanese lathe and started to learn. The internet was just starting then, didn't mater what you tried to search you got maybe 20 hits, 19 of which were porn. lol so learned mostly from books and Terry.
Unfortunately I lost my wife and with her the desire to finish the boat. Had two young boys to raise now. Had a housekeeper till the boys got older and wouldn't listen to her while I was away, which was most of the time. So I packed it in at 45, high stress to zero in two words, I QUIT. With time on my hands and the notion to build a BIG clock I bought a new Bridgeport clone. Never did make it but built a snow blower for the tractor, pro driven firewood saw and a backhoe, while restoring a big log house, still on the prairies.
Finally escaped the prairies and moved back to where I grew up in Ontario. Built a 24 x 36 two story shop, machine shop downstairs and cabinet shop above.
Still have the same mill, but bought a 16 x 80 Summit lathe, replaced the 14 x 40 with an old Hardinge HLV, added an 18 inch shaper, radial drill, small surface grinder and home built CNC plasma table. Then last fall a Tormach 1100 CNC mill, huge ongoing learning curve there.
Most of my time is building and repairing for other people, all word of mouth in both the machine shop and cabinet shop.
Have built myself a sawmill, firewood processor, both diesel powered, utility vehicle for around the yard and saw mill, timber framed sheds for the mill and equipment storage the list goes on, but not that much tooling aside from jigs. Have found a new interest in building model engines but have a hard time finding the time. This retired life is getting stressful.
A very long winded way to say mostly projects.

Greg

 

[RaisedByWolves]

I worked for a company 20 years ago that had what was referred to (not by upper management) as MOBI: Museum Of Bad Ideas: this was a collection of bits & pieces, partially built equipment and completed projects that didn’t work as planned. They didn’t get rid of anything and several times during my tenure I tried making some of them work and used others as starting points for successful projects.

I have something similar at work, the "Box O Shame".


This is where all of engineering and maintenances finished and never used, semi finished or outright abandoned projects go.

 

[projectnut]

I think some here are a bit too critical of ideas that didn’t make it to production machinery. In reality only 1 in ten ideas make it through concept, prototype, and into a production ready machine

In addition those that do make it to the production floor usually go through several design changes before they’re built in multiple numbers

Many things can influence whether an original design makes it to production. Included are package design, product design, production speed, machine flexibility for future products, machine cost, etc., etc.

Some of the machines built by the company I worked for were originally designed in the 1950’s. By the time I retired they had been redesigned several times for more production through put, different products, different formulas of the original products, and different packaging.

Most of those machines are now retired, but they spent over 60 years running 24/7 with only a couple weeks a year down for heavy maintenance.

The best thing about working for the company was there was no animosity between engineers, machinists, and assemblers. We all worked together. We shared ideas, fabrication methods, and design changes when needed.

Management was in full support of the projects and didn’t second guess design or fabrication decisions. One reason projects were successful is that the designers were responsible for the machine from the time it went into production until it (or the designer) retired. People didn’t make half-assed designs and try to push the project off to some one else

 

[SouthernChap]

The talk on this thread about production stuff is really quite interesting (especially for those of us who never worked in that domain) but ya know, the OP posted this thread on hobby-machinist.com and was talking about what we do in our hobby shops.

The production engineers and machinists on this forum are such a vital source of learning and their knowledge and experience is such a fantastic resource (@RaisedByWolves has been a particularly 'good bloke' as we say here in Blighty, to me).

That said, hobby machinist work is a different beast and so any useful answer to the OP's question probably wouldn't make sense in a production environment or even in some cases make much sense to those steeped in a production culture.

There are clearly a few reasons for tool making and machine improvements to be of particular interest to hobby machinists.

One reason is possibly a bit of overcompensation for our small(er) machines and amateur backgrounds. "Hey, we can do just as well as those calloused old hands with their honking big machines and their formal training". So we talk about the high-falutin stuff like scraping and bed-levelling and all tbe stuff that your standard machinist wouldn't necessarily have to worry about.

(Kinda like recreational shooters often have a thing about sniper rifles and precision shooting; a vital resource and one that can really be a force multiplier but ultimately without the PBI and the armoured forces, you're unlikely to take and hold ground )

Even if that is a little bit true, that's only a teeny part of it, of course. There's a long tradition of model engineers focusing on toolmaking and machine improvements. Partly due to not having access to the facilities that a production machine shop has, partly due to limited budgets and space.

But mainly I reckon, due to the simple joy and challenge of taking raw stock (or an unsatisfactory tool) and turning it into a useful tool.

A lot of people on here became interested in tools primarily and the projects they enable as a secondary (but eventually just as joy bringing) pursuit afterwards.

 

[Aaron_W]

As with anything, you are going to have people who are only interested in the final product to those who nerd out on every little detail.
Hobbyists tend to lean into the second category, but there are certainly those for whom the tools / techniques are just a means to an end.

I've seen the same in many professions. I've worked with firefighters who are basically just there for the paycheck, schedule and image. They couldn't care less about the history and traditions of the organization / service. Couldn't tell you one thing about the piece of equipment they ride except "it's red".
Others know the intimate details of the equipment and will happily spend hours regaling you with the origin of the Halligan tool, Pulaski, how Dalmations became associated with the fire service or why firefighters wear suspenders. Some have both a profession and hobby, collecting professional paraphernalia. (As a guy with a fire engine in the driveway I'm definately guilty ).

 

[David2011]

And it's amazing how much one can get done even without the creme de la creme... One of the most accomplished machinist's I've known (member of the local machinist's club) worked out of a space that I'd guess was 8' x 20'. Based on his work, I think he could have built a bulldozer or dump truck in there - somehow. He was a master at making small machines do big stuff. He was living proof that it's not the tool...

GsT

There’s a YouTube channel, probably from Indonesia, Philippines or somewhere in that region. The machinist had two tools in his lathe; both shop made brazed carbide. He did everything with those two tools. Turning to diameter, chamfering, facing and even putting radii on corners by manipulating the cross slide and carriage together. It’s very humbling when I consider how many tool holders and different tools I think are necessary.

After a lot of searching I finally found the video in the above reference. It's long but it's interesting to see what this guy does with what he has.