The madness needs to stop...how about a GROUP PROJECT?

I was concerned with the final product and shipping and for sure that can be an issue, it would have to be bang for the buck. Even if not for group use after the fact, a group build would be quite the collaboration. Fun? For sure. Great practice for some of the newer people into machining? Absolutely. Smaller yet more complex (many working parts) maybe a better fit. I know it's not for everyone, but anyone really into machining and the challenges of machining, this would have to be really be a draw for.
I don't see any reason it would have to be a mod that the completed parts would HAVE TO go to, but someone whole could spec the final parts to thumbs up or down the part would be a must. I can see why this project has never left the ground but there are far more challenging issues we have all come up against and overcome...where there's a will.....
I think about the combined knowledge base here, the equipment at our disposal, man! What potential! I'm scratching my head right now, but I'm still trying to find the answers.
 
I'd love to do this! This would be a lot of fun :) I have a new large shaper, and a large lathe, so anything on the larger side is doable :)

I'd hope we could do something interesting, but the idea of a "Hobby Machinist Library" of group made tools would be pretty cool as well.

I would be willing to buy my own materials to make my part (and I presume others might be as well!), so perhaps the money-to-a-mod would be unnecessary.

So I think the hardest part would be to come up with something complicated enough we could get about a dozen people working on it, but easy enough that the tolerances wouldn't be deadly.
 
Yeah, I blow so much money on this hobby, what's a small bit more for materials? I was thinking if there were some materials that cost more than others, this could balance out the unfair weight on any one person. A shaper? That would be a huge asset and that gets back to the combines knowledge/combined available equipment....we could build a damn GoBot! I'm sure someone has a the ability to harden steel, maybe a smaller (lighter) tool library with things like broaching tools/keyway cutters, ring roller, I don't know. Maybe a 8-12 person per project is a decent number, I guess the complexity of each project would dictate.
 
thomb said:
Sounds fun! An idea? Perhaps there are others like me who enjoy making multiples of the same part (I enjoy learning and improving the repetitive process to reduce cycle time). Assign a part and everyone ends up with one of the resulting tool/item.
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I think that might get more traction as all the participants would have something at the end, instead of one item shared which seems kind of awkward. Fun for the project but not really practical to actually get use of a tool.
 
Aaron_W said:
I think that might get more traction as all the participants would have something at the end, instead of one item shared which seems kind of awkward. Fun for the project but not really practical to actually get use of a tool.
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To be sure I understand what you're saying: if there are 10 members of the participating group, each member would produce 10 each of their part(s)?
 
extropic said:
To be sure I understand what you're saying: if there are 10 members of the participating group, each member would produce 10 each of their part(s)?
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That is kind of what I was thinking. Would have to be something kind of simple with just a few parts of roughly similar material value.

Something like one of these tool makers clamps would be a possibility. It could be done a few ways probably generating 5-7 pieces with some wiggle room in division of labor. Something like this also favors using different machines, so someone who only has a mill or just a lathe can still participate, and possibly gets a tool that would be difficult to make in their shop. Also small enough that a guy with a Bridgeport and a guy with a mini-mill could both participate.

Lets call it 5 pieces, so you make 5 of your parts, and everybody gets what they need to build a clamp, make 10 and everybody gets a pair of clamps. Five is small enough to be able to find enough interested parties, but also small enough that if there were a lot of interest it could be broken into multiple project groups (2 groups of 5, 3 groups of 5 etc). Cheap and simple enough that if a participant fails to come through with their part not really a big deal, someone else can step in and make the parts or it can just be finished on your own.

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The clamps are just to illustrate the kind of thing I think would be a good starting point for such a project. A fairly simple project to help smooth over the inevitable bumps. If it works then it could get more ambitious, if it fails no one is out much but some time and material. The actual item built could also take advantage of what individuals bring to it, machines available, skills, comfort levels, desired objectives.

I think one of the major learning benefits of group project like this would be having to build to a spec. No fudging and hand fitting, because you don't have the other parts until, everybody is done.
 
extropic said:
To be sure I understand what you're saying: if there are 10 members of the participating group, each member would produce 10 each of their part(s)?
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I hadn't thought about that, but that might get boring. I was thinking, say a device that is being made had 10 parts....10 people, 1 part each. I feel (this is just me) it should be somewhat complicated (not a key holder or a bird house) and require a a fair amount of tight tolerances (+/- .002"?) How cool to put this...I dunno, lets say a dividing head, together and have something made as a team. I agree with you @Aaron_W about that complete device not being in the hands of all that made it..maybe the making 10 identical parts for the 10 other people making their own different parts for 10 complete, identical items for all involved to have one.
I can't be the only person that thinks working from a drawing/blueprints to make a part of a complete machine is awesome? Its like the guy who contacted me here to make him a timing wheel for his plane He sent me plans, I matched those plans and he has since sent me a video of the plane running. It was pretty cool as I have never seen the motor nor know anything about planes.
Has anyone seen the group builds by all the machinist folks? This OldTony, Blondihacks....no?
 
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