Trickymissfit
Well-Known Member
Gary,
When you posted 4 years ago that came up with the same mods as me for the co-ax, I was shocked. And you said you were a retired machinist.
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f28/hard-time-between-forster-redding-83133/index5.html
I remember thinking, that I were managing your life [me being such a selfish schemer], that you [being that smart], you would have made a lot more money than a machinist.
Now it looks like I was wrong. You did ok.
A machinist I once was, but also a machine builder. The machinist part was just something that was added to the pile close to fifty years ago. Yes I made a hell of a lot of my own parts, and always had some sort of a "government job" on the burner. Still running a wire EDM is not something I could readily do. I can do basic things on a machine center, but never tried to do much of the fancy stuff. Running a mill or a hand lathe is much more comfortable for me anyway. I had a crew to do the fancy stuff. External grinders still scare me, as I can't see chips. Surface grinding or internal work is a breeze. Building machines leads you into learning how they work. Putting them back together shows what won't work. I can safely say I've never wrecked a machine, but have repaired many that were wrecked.
Building machines actually is a lot of fun once you get your head strait. I love the world of super precision measurement. Yet I can say I've lost a lot of sleep more than once! After awhile getting it right becomes the only game in town. Built a lot of machine centers, and they will often separate the men from the boys when the error starts stacking up. Grinders are not all that bad once you know where the pit falls are. Still there are lots of pit falls to trap you in. I hated the term good enough. It's a cop out for not doing the job 100%. So what am I not so hot at? Truthfully; it's gears. I can get by, but never thought I was great at them. Once again I had somebody to bail me out. Spur gears yes, but the rest will make me pull my hair out!
gary