This hobby is like swallowing a fly.

[90LX_Notch]

"There once was an old woman who swallowed a fly...."

Much like the story, it's seems like building tooling and the tooling to build the tooling just compounds. I needed a jig for a bolt circle. I already have a block with a stub spindle that matches my chucks that I can do bolt circles with in the mill. I use to draw up a scale in CAD and tape it to the chuck OD for the required spacing. I decided to eliminate that and make a ring with index holes that slips over the chuck. Well to do that I needed to make bushings for the lathe change gear so I could affix it to the stub spindle. Then I find out that I don't have enough Z axis travel with the drill chuck in place for this project. Then I made a holder for the 1/8 center drill to fit the 3/8 collet in the mill.

 

[GailInNM]

Let's see.
It all started about 60 years ago when I bought a file and my father gave me a hacksaw........
And the story still continues on today.
Gail in NM

 

[mklotz]

We ought to have a numerical scale to denote how far we've penetrated into this hobby...

making a part = level 0
making a tool to make a part = level 1
making a tool to make a tool to make a part = level 2

etc.

I know I've made it to level 3 a few times but I don't think I've ever been any higher than that.

 

[rleete]

Level 4: saying the heck with it, and buying the damn tool in the first place.

 

[Omnimill]

I've only got up to level 2 but I still end up spending more time making tools than making stuff with the tools I've made ... ;D

Vic.

 

[Tin Falcon]

You start with model engine building make an engine or two with commercially available tools. then you get more complicated and make some tools to make parts. then you want to do your own casting so get woodworking tools to make patterns and flasks. then build a furnace . you need special tongs and foundry tools so you take up black smithing. ..........
Sound familiar ???
Tin

 

[Herbiev]

Dont know what level im on. Thats where you make a tool to make a tool (after numerous hours of machining) then I find original tool snaps or bends due to poor design or wrong materials and then you go out and buy the tool I wanted in the first place ???

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Level 5: The ability to jerry-rig any known tool just by configuring clamping set parts.

 

[Swede]

This thread is a good illustration of our hobby. I've tried to explain it many times to guys who wonder. "Machine tools are the ultimate 'starting point' for lack of a better word, for just about anything. If I cannot make it with a machine tool, I can create the tool that CAN make it. A machine tool can make another machine tool. There is hardly anything mechanical that cannot be created, and it opens up an entire world to the hobbyist. Try that with woodworking equipment like a table saw." ;D

 

[Wrist Pin]

You start with model engine building make an engine or two with commercially available tools. then you get more complicated and make some tools to make parts. then you want to do your own casting so get woodworking tools to make patterns and flasks. then build a furnace . you need special tongs and foundry tools so you take up black smithing. ..........
Sound familiar ???
Tin

Tin
Don't think I would quite that involved.....

 

[el gringo]

Don't know where I am on the numerical scale but I'll bet it expands like a parallel universe........
Ray M

 

[tel]

On that scale I would be up (down?) to about level 87

 

[Russel]

We ought to have a numerical scale to denote how far we've penetrated into this hobby...

making a part = level 0
making a tool to make a part = level 1
making a tool to make a tool to make a part = level 2

[...]

Ah, fond memories of the times where I had to make a part to fix a tool to make a part to fix a machine that broke down.