- Joined
- Aug 8, 2009
- Messages
- 930
- Reaction score
- 12
Greetings from Koleeforneea as it's now called.
If someone told me 15 years ago I'd be spending nearly all my evenings reading forums and posting messages, I'd have said they were crazy but here I am, again, in a new forum. Each more interesting than the last. I've joined this one after a few months of sandbagging and consequently my participation in forums previous must now diminish as my attention turns. Every new hobby I get into seems more exciting than the last. It's a good thing I'm scheduled to retire in two years because I just never have enough time for these all-important hobbies. There's always so much to learn. To do some things right, you have to spend as much time researching and thinking as you do working with your hands and it appears this hobby is no different. But I ramble...
How I got here: I became interested in building Rolling Ball Sculptures a couple of years ago after watching the movie Fracture which highlighted a few very nice sculptures of this sort. Well, to master that, I had to buy a welder and learn to weld. You welders know that is no simple task in itself. Later, I needed special bushings for some of the moving parts and came to the realization that I had to make them myself so I bought a HF mini lathe to handle it. After having worked with a Jet wood lathe for a few years, some of the techniques came naturally to me but of course, there is still so much to learn. The mini lathe is such a nice, cute little machine that I was thinking I should probably make better use of it. It occurred to me that I have always wanted to build little steam engines and perhaps now was the time to get rolling in that direction and the timing is right too because I need to stock up on all the tools I can while I am still working and can afford it 'cause the ol'wifey-poo is not gonna let me spend like a sailor once I become like a drone bee, eating honey but not foraging for it. :redface2:
So-o, I paid a little visit this summer to the Bay Area Engine Modeler show near San Francisco. Many of you know how impressive that can be and inspirational to boot, plus, everyone there looked like me! You know, wrinkles, white/gray beards, bifocals, Birkenstocks, etc. :big: Now I'm hooked. The same thing happened to me with my beekeeping hobby but this one costs a little more.
Now, as nice as it is to own and operate a metal lathe, it became obvious that I was going to need a HF mini milling machine as well. Thm: I don't know how to use it very well yet and the only things I have made so far is a set of clamps that hold my vise from the sides and a pair of aluminum soft jaws for it. Dang, my arm got tired of rolling the table back and forth a million times! I'm pretty sure I ruined the 3/8 HSS bit I was using too. That steel was hard and coated with scale.
I'd better bring this to a close so perhaps should mention my daytime job is chip design (CPU stuff) for the World's Largest Chip manufacturer. I've been doing that for about 15 years and before that I was an Engineer designing high end audio equipment. So, a lot of electronics stuff and some materials science in there as well.
There is a lot of stuff to read here and I've read a lot already. Mr. Zeeprogrammer, I've read your stuff over the last few days and have to say good job to you and to those gurus who have been advising you. Not to ignore all the others on here who contribute so generously, it's been a pleasure to read all the posts and will be a pleasure to participate.
trout..
If someone told me 15 years ago I'd be spending nearly all my evenings reading forums and posting messages, I'd have said they were crazy but here I am, again, in a new forum. Each more interesting than the last. I've joined this one after a few months of sandbagging and consequently my participation in forums previous must now diminish as my attention turns. Every new hobby I get into seems more exciting than the last. It's a good thing I'm scheduled to retire in two years because I just never have enough time for these all-important hobbies. There's always so much to learn. To do some things right, you have to spend as much time researching and thinking as you do working with your hands and it appears this hobby is no different. But I ramble...
How I got here: I became interested in building Rolling Ball Sculptures a couple of years ago after watching the movie Fracture which highlighted a few very nice sculptures of this sort. Well, to master that, I had to buy a welder and learn to weld. You welders know that is no simple task in itself. Later, I needed special bushings for some of the moving parts and came to the realization that I had to make them myself so I bought a HF mini lathe to handle it. After having worked with a Jet wood lathe for a few years, some of the techniques came naturally to me but of course, there is still so much to learn. The mini lathe is such a nice, cute little machine that I was thinking I should probably make better use of it. It occurred to me that I have always wanted to build little steam engines and perhaps now was the time to get rolling in that direction and the timing is right too because I need to stock up on all the tools I can while I am still working and can afford it 'cause the ol'wifey-poo is not gonna let me spend like a sailor once I become like a drone bee, eating honey but not foraging for it. :redface2:
So-o, I paid a little visit this summer to the Bay Area Engine Modeler show near San Francisco. Many of you know how impressive that can be and inspirational to boot, plus, everyone there looked like me! You know, wrinkles, white/gray beards, bifocals, Birkenstocks, etc. :big: Now I'm hooked. The same thing happened to me with my beekeeping hobby but this one costs a little more.
Now, as nice as it is to own and operate a metal lathe, it became obvious that I was going to need a HF mini milling machine as well. Thm: I don't know how to use it very well yet and the only things I have made so far is a set of clamps that hold my vise from the sides and a pair of aluminum soft jaws for it. Dang, my arm got tired of rolling the table back and forth a million times! I'm pretty sure I ruined the 3/8 HSS bit I was using too. That steel was hard and coated with scale.
I'd better bring this to a close so perhaps should mention my daytime job is chip design (CPU stuff) for the World's Largest Chip manufacturer. I've been doing that for about 15 years and before that I was an Engineer designing high end audio equipment. So, a lot of electronics stuff and some materials science in there as well.
There is a lot of stuff to read here and I've read a lot already. Mr. Zeeprogrammer, I've read your stuff over the last few days and have to say good job to you and to those gurus who have been advising you. Not to ignore all the others on here who contribute so generously, it's been a pleasure to read all the posts and will be a pleasure to participate.
trout..
