T-Bone

Charlie Holenbeck built the cabin I live in with logs off this land. He did it all by himself, and it's been here for some over 35 years already. He was a collector of about everything. I've found old double bit axes and a host of other old items that were in pretty bad shape that he left behind.

I get great joy out of refurbishing the old stuff and putting it back in service. Sometimes it takes some reverse Engineering, sometimes a blueprint is nesc. I have access to a number of machine shops. There is not much that can't be revived

You are spot on there T-Bone. Most of our manufacturing is now in China. What's left here is multi axis CNC mills and lathes that American companies see fit to put kids off the street on because they can pay them chump change. They pretty much have it as "Press the button, get a peanut". Problem with that is they also have kids on the Solid Works stations that can't program to save their scrawny butts because they've never run a machine. To them it's like the ultimate video game in real time, but no real connection.

So there sits a 3 million dollar machine with an attendant that has no training. Now he downloads a program that a chipmunk could have done better and Ka Crasho! The machine tool companies love this as they get to realign the machines for 10's of thousands of dollars.

Stand one in front of an engine lathe and ask them to cut you a thread, or ask one to set up a sine bar on a Bridgeport. Bewildered looks is about what you'll get.

I lived and worked when this country ran on American iron. The Kerner & Treckys, the Devliegs, Gidding & Lewis, Lodge & Shipleys,Bullard and the real machines that had enough power to pull a building off the foundation. One by one the Japanese put them under just as the Chinese are doing to the rest of the American workers. All for the sake of more profit.

It will be short lived though. What it took Japan 30 years to destroy China will do in less than the next 5, and then, it will start to come around. What happens is you start out with a country that has a mean wage of $1.30/hr. All of a sudden the factory is buried with work and the labor starts demanding more. And they get it. Now they are living a better life style and they want even more. It's human nature. In not so long the labor base is same same as the parent country and the work migrates back.

Sad to say, we won't be ready for it because our machinist base has decayed. I'm one of the last machinist/Engineers left that can run any machine manual or CNC up to 7 axis, mills or lathes, program them, and design on the fly.

How good was I at it? When the Brits bought out Smith & Wesson I was summoned by the new CEO and given the task of refurbishing the entire plant. Took them from the stone age to a full blown up to date manufacturing facility complete with robotics and automated in process quality control. It was written up in a number of trade journals. And we never laid off so much as one person when it was done!

Sometime back there were massive fires out west that burned millions of acres of forest. The Fed sprung for a re seeding project and Twin Rivers Engineering up in Boothbay got the job of building the equipment to do the work. One of my colleagues was working the project and called me one day saying they were stuck and wanted another pair of eyes to look at what they had. So I took the trip.

They had quite the rig going. A seeder was designed to be pulled behind a dozer and sew a whole new forest. Problem was they had mechanical fingers picking the seeds from the bin and the fir seeds would either get missed or a clump would get grabbed. I watched for a few minutes and went to get a coffee. Henry followed me and ask what I thought. Rather than look in the box they were working with I simply said, seeds are to small.

Ole Henry was quick to respond with they only come in one size ya idgit!  True said I, let's say we make them bigger. Dumbfounded look. Peanut M&M is......bigger than the peanut, yes?  Eyes start getting a glint.

We coated the seeds in a foam that made them 10 times the size and the fingers were getting a 99% pickup rate. The added benefit was the foam retained water and was the perfect media for the seeds to germinate.

Later I was asked how the Hell I ever came up with that idea. I looked Scott straight in the peepers and said "Saw it right off, basic Engineering". Then I ran like Hell because I really thought they were gonna kill me

So I don't have my own shop, never really needed to. I have clients all over New England that I can call on when I have a project.

Hope I answered your question, I see I went off on a tangent there.....

 I know I'm really late to the discussion but thought I would add my thoughts.  I'll add to the group using the renzetti traveler vise.  Bought mine about three years ago and can't see I'll ever need to buy another one in my lifetime!

-Nic

With all this rain what's there to do except cruise the net looking for new toys

That Dyna King Ultimate Indexer looks like one impressive rig.  Anybody got one of those critters?