T-Man 1066's shop adventures

[T-Man 1066]

Haven't posted much here for a spell...

This part is a base plate for a custom machine I am building for a customer. The plate is 1-3/8" thick, 28" wide and 120" long. On my scale it weighed about 1385#.

The mill only has 4' of travel, that is why the plate is hanging so far off to the left in the first pic.

Never mind the mess, the shop is pretty packed. There are actually two grinders under the mezzanine.

I will periodically add more pics as I finish up this machine. Hopefully not too boring for you guys.

[SparkyPrep]

Not boring at all. Fascinating.

[T-Man 1066]

Nothing to do with my shop, but this is a pic of the tool room at NCR, National Cash Register, in 1904.

Love all the windows for natural lighting. No night shift going on here... Also no OSHA. You either had common sense, or only about 7 or 8 fingers.

[SOCOM42]

When I was age 12, I started running machines just like the ones in this NCR picture.
Overhead belting was a common feature around here, in the Worcester area, even right into the 1970's, some even later..
Shop my father worked in still had them right up till he retired. Just looking at the picture makes me "hear" the belts slapping all over again.
There was a company called Forbes and Myers in down town Worcester, owner would let s kids come in and make stuff for ourselves (weekends) on his machines. Company made custom electric motors and grinders. I put together a couple of handguns out of scrap parts from H&R. Old man Forbes was ancient to us! But a real nice guy.
No, he was not a Ped. either, Some of the workers there started the same way.
When he died he left millions to Worcester Tech, and his Mansion next to the school, which is still used today as a dorm for students,
has 20 rooms in it and is something like my 13 rooms on the next street over from his, that I sold 48 years ago.
There is a St. Vincent hospital sitting on top of where his factory was........

[T-Man 1066]

Back in 1992 a friend of mine asked me to help him pick up some machinery. The feller died, his widow wanted to clean out the house. It was a small 1300 SF house, maybe 50's era, in Rockford, IL. He was retired from Barber Coleman (Think gear hobbing machinery), and had a lathe, grinder, and horizontal mill, all line shaft driven, in his basement. Power supplied from a 240v 1ph electric motor. We completely stripped out all the machinery, and all the line shafting, etc.

In the other side of the basement, was a small airplane he never finished. Never knew what happened to that...

[red442joe]

Excellent thread!!!
Please keep it up!

Joe

[SOCOM42]

The best tapping shit, I have ever used, was also used in the screw machines that I made form and shave tools for.
It is re-sulphurized lard oil. Problem is that I am deathly allergic to it Skin blistered like hell, just like poison ivy.
I still use it, even when single point cutting threads, Screw shops would spin the chips to extract the oil to use it over.
We were making 20 MM projectiles by the thousands.

I should correct myself here, We made thousands of 20 MM projectiles every day, 24 hours a day.
Also made in the same place on another line, driving bands for 40 MM grenades, again by the thousands a day.

[T-Man 1066]

Yep, one of my best friends had a screw machine shop. Rockford Greenlee 4 and 6 spindle machines. Largest two were 2-5/8" cap. Lead screw threading. Very familiar with the benefits of re-sulphurized oil. He had a Tolhurst chip spinner. Oil wasn't cheap then, even less cheap now.

Another shop I worked at in the early 90's had 16 Acme Gridley 8 spindles. At least 4 or 5 of them were 4-1/2" bar capacity. Went through ALOT of material, making CV joints - automotive. Good times...

[T-Man 1066]

Yall know I drill holes in metal for a living, you could say. I have 5 manual Bridgeports, 3 CNC retrofit Bridgeports, and my Okuma CNC machining center. I have a horizontal boring mill. I have 7 drill presses. One benchtop, two free standing drill presses, and my 30" radial arm drill. And 3 working drill heads from an old delta gang drill. I have 10 electric or pneumatic hand drills. That is alot of equipment to put holes in metal, right?

So I used T-Man 1066 anti-reasoning, and decided I needed another drill press.

I have been wanting to buy a mag drill for about 2 years, but used prices are high around here, even at auctions. So I said the hell with it, and pulled the trigger on a Scamazon chi-com one. Time will tell how well it lasts, but I was able to push a 5/16" drill through 1-3/8" steel plate, no pilot hole, without breaking the magnet. Nice thing is it is only 15#'s which is nice when I need to do overhead drilling.

[1skrewsloose]

Those are really nice to have, at the plant I worked at we hand one with a 1/2" chuck and a smaller one with 3/8. Super handy, so much less effort to drill holes. Used them almost daily, always some new crap they wanted hung onto an IMM.

I've wanted one for a long time, instead of taking the work to the drill press, bring the press to your work.

[1skrewsloose]

Just to add, it always amazed me how many people don't know how to drill a hole properly, they think high speed drill and run wide open!? Proper pressure and speed and the material should come off in a spiral, slow sometimes is faster, more efficient. my .02.

Long as I'm on proper tool usage my other gripe is seeing someone use a metal file like its a piece of sand paper.

[T-Man 1066]

Just to add, it always amazed me how many people don't know how to drill a hole properly, they think high speed drill and run wide open!? Proper pressure and speed and the material should come off in a spiral, slow sometimes is faster, more efficient. my .02.

Long as I'm on proper tool usage my other gripe is seeing someone use a metal file like its a piece of sand paper.

Exhibit A of a decent drill chip. 5/16 in low carbon steel. Dormer TiN coated jobber drill.

+1 on the file. Also needs a handle if using it on a lathe. The tang going into your palm or wrist will hurt. 100% guaranteed!

[T-Man 1066]

Needed to drill a 5/8" hole through 1-3/8" steel plate. Mag drill would hit the motor and miss the hole location, so had to bust out the big drill press. By radial arm drill standards, its pretty small, but by home shop standards its awesome! It only weighs about #3000-ish, so I can move it around with a pallet jack. It brings a smile to my face everytime I use it!

[Hawg]

That is a beast of a drill press!

[1skrewsloose]

It only weighs about #3000-ish, funny, like as much as a small car, to drill holes!! Love it!!

[T-Man 1066]

Ok, now this is going to turn into a shop related rant.

Rant #1. I haven't went to the eye doc for about 10 years, and my eyes have changed quite a bit. So I go there. I always buy 2 pair of glasses. 1 is no line bifocals, with the scratch resistant coating and transitional lenses. Second pair is safety glasses. Z87.2 with side shields. Also bifocals, no tint, but I always get them in real glass. Working around machinery I always have little pieces of metal fines, grinding dust, etc in the fibers of my shirt, and I am really guilty of just wiping my classes clean on my shirt. Real glass doesn't scratch. The polycarbonate glasses even with the scratch resistant coating, will scratch.

So I asked for glasses that way, and apparently they told me real glass lenses are almost a thing of the past. Grr....

Also, they ala-carte the pricing to the moon. Exam, frames, lenses, + for no line bifocals, + for scratch resistant coating, + for anti-glare coating, + for transitional lenses.

Rant #2. Got a job I run about once a year for a customer. Aluminum plate. 1/4"x 2-1/2" x 4" long. Usually 100 pc order. My saw is just a horizontal saw (I have 2), but no power feed. The steel supplier has what is called a cold saw. Like a carpenter's miter saw, but for steel. They are automated, very accurate, can saw and hold +/- .003" on length, and a super good finish as well as burr-free. So in 2024 I ordered the material that way, awesome. Pop the holes in it, deburr, and ship.

in 2025 I got the order again, ordered the material, well this time the steel supplier sawed them on an automatic bandsaw and left 1/8" of finish stock on the length. On my purchase order, I specify the cold saw as well as the on size length. So I called the sales guy back, he knocks the price in half and credits my account, but now I have to drill the holes, tool change, and side mill 1/16" off each end. The part length is 4", but my vise width is 6". So I have to unclamp, flip the part, re-clamp and mill the second side.

Completely do-able, but more work than I expected. Its a low margin job, I only get about $1.50 each after the material cost.

So last week, job comes through again, I CALLED the salesman, explained what I wanted, and then sent in the purchase order specifying cold sawed parts again. He forgets to specify it on the shop work order, and once again, the showed up too long.

All I want in life is for people to do what I ask, or tell me they can't. Is that so damn hard???

[Hawg]

I had the same problem with glasses. I've always used glass for similar reasons and you almost can't get them anymore.

[SOCOM42]

Motch and Merryweather cold saw, best one going!

Use to sharpen those saw blades when I worked for someone else.

Screw, I rinse mine 90% of the time, then use Windex.

Now I rinse, windex, and use a paper towel, just place it on lense and press lightly no side motion, it works well.

I use to go through a pair of glasses every three months.

Optivisor lenses about the same rate.

ALL GLASS no plastic lenses.

Had my face in front of a B&S surface grinder wheel profiling die sections, about 8 hours a day, everyday.

Or in front of a Moore or Hauser jig grinder, profiling punch sections mating with the dies I ground.

Did that for about 30 years straight for other people.

[1skrewsloose]

They always tout using microfiber cloth to clean lenses, I got in the habit of rinsing the lense first with plain water to get rid of abrasives then wipe dry. Not sure if it helped or not, made sense to me, better than rubbing grit into the polycarbonate.

[T-Man 1066]

I have been a toolmaker / machinist / machine builder, some level in the industry for 34 years. Worked for the man for 29 of em, self employed for the last 5+. Have had some level of personal hobby shop for 32 years. Of course it has morphed from some old clapped out junk to better industrial machinery. That being said, I take immense pride in what I do.

So One of my out-of-state customers sent a RFQ for 400 pcs of a set screw that I machine the tip to modify it into a tiny drain plug for a micro gearbox. I have 3 variations of this screw that I do for the customer, but this particular part, I had ran once in 2023, and once in 2025.

When the buyer sent me the email for current pricing, she attached a updated print (Revision: D) on this part. I didn't see the attachment, but I recognized the part number, and searched my job folder and found it.

So I emailed back the updated pricing, she said no problem, and processed the order and sent me a PO (Purchase Order). The PO listed the part number, quantity, and due date, but did not list the Revision level.

Parts shipped Monday, and incoming inspection recognized I made them to the previous revision, not Revision D.

The parts are re-workable. The customer is a really good customer, probably my 4th biggest customer, and always pays the bill on time. So we have a good working relationship.

This customer from day 1 has offered to pay collect for all UPS shipping, I have their UPS account # to use.

She is going to pay to ship the parts back to me, I will rework (No charge), and ship back to them UPS collect.

This re-work is only costing me time, but its 400 pcs, and I can run about 3 pcs per minute, so a few hours.

I am aggravated. Probably should have emailed and confirmed the print revision. I do know they switched software to some different ERP system that does not populate the Rev level.

I feel like it is partially my fault for not confirming that, but also feel some blame should be on them for not declaring the Revision level on the PO. Yet its not worth fight with the customer over. At least they are not asking me to pay for round trip shipping. For reference I do probably $8-15K in sales per year with them.

Anyways, just pissy, because this is only the third time in 5 years I have ever sent anything out that was non-conforming, and I take great pride in that.

[Chiefster23]

“Taking great pride in your work”. Something that is pretty rare these days. Good on you, sir! 👍😎