I'm gettin' edumacated...

[ex-Gooserider]

I've been having fun the past few days, which is also probably going to help me with my chair project...

In the past, I've suggested that folks that need to get access to tools and possibly help in working on their chairs look for a local "makerspace" or "hackerspace"...

Now that I have my drivers license back, I've been following my own advice, and have been starting to go through the process of getting involved in [url=http://artisansasylum.com]The Artisans Asylum[\url] in Somerville, MA, which is the best of the local hackerspaces...

These spaces are essentially shared "collaborative workspaces" that have all sorts of tools and equipment, starting with very well equipped metal and wood machine shops, welding gear, and assorted other stuff [url=http://artisansasylum.com/?page_id=18] (a PARTIAL list of the available stuff)[\url] They have a monthly membership fee that pays the facility costs and helps fund the cost of more tools and such, or one can often get a discount by 'leasing' your spare equipment to them... End result is access to a huge pool of high quality tools, and having a lot of experts in different things that one can ask for advice (the neighborhood helps, a very high percentage of the membership are students or professors at MIT or other engineering schools, or professionals wanting to have the same kind of equipment to do their hobby stuff on as they have at work...

The big thing that people have to do in order to use the equipment is to get "certified" on any of the equipment they want to use, which is basically a combination of safety training, familiarisation with the particular machine, and "testing" to show at least enough competence that you are not likely to hurt either the machine or yourself...

If you don't know how to use something, they also have courses, taught by other members that have appropriate skills, to teach it....

This past Sunday I did a couple of basic intro courses on the wood and machine shops that covered the basic power tools, shop safety rules and where stuff is... Tonight (Monday) I took a freebie course on the pedal bike shop, and got my testing on the machines I studied yesterday. Tomorrow is the Bridgeport mill class, and Wednesday is the Colchester engine lathe class.... I haven't gotten signed up for the welding (Oxy-Aceteline, MIG and TIG) classes yet, because the current batch has been sold out - but I'm on the waiting list for those....

After I get my chair built, it may even lead to other things - part of the membership is the right to rent spaces (starting from small office cube size and going up) for fairly low costs, and there are actually quite a lot of startups doing just that. I could see myself possibly using one of their spaces to start doing chair modifications and rebuilds, etc... Will see what develops...

ex-Gooserider

[440roadrunner]

'We got time for an O/T story?

In the early '70's I was stationed at N.A.S Miramar, N. of San Diego, AKA "Top Gun," or "Fightertown, U.S.A."

I had a part time job at the auto hobby shop, running the "tune up machine" and generally giving "help" to some of the souls I encountered.

ONE THING I observed back then, is that "sailors can break anything," including the heads of a ball pein hammer!!

Anyhow, when you "signed in" you got this ring of "brass chits" which you used to check out jacks, jack stands, tools, etc. Sometimes the "tool room boy" was not that observant, and if, for example, you wanted to use the oxy-acetylene torch, he might ask "you know how to use it?" and of course you, the dummy, answer. "HELL YES!!"

So now we have the rest of the story

Two poor souls had broken off a bolt, holding the fuel pump on a little Ford Falcon six, and broken an "easy out" (extractor) in the bolt!!!

They want to know, WTF??

So I advised them that a "good man" who "really knows how" to use a torch could blast the steel out of the cast iron block, without hurting the block.

The next thing I know, they have partially melted the mounting boss for the fuel pump with this great big torch, and IT IS MY FAULT!!! ---- because "I TOLD them to do this!!!!"

I guess I have at least a dozen stories about that place, but that one is what my mind thought of when I read your post

[Fulliautomatix]

I've been having fun the past few days, which is also probably going to help me with my chair project...
[Snipped]

Nice!!

[woodygb]

Easy Outs are to remove sheared off bolts or studs.
Sheered by either lateral force or over tightening thus the bolt/stud thread left behind isn't siezed up ...but merely stuck/inacessible down inside the hole .
Many people try to remove the bolt/stud thread after it's snapped off while attempting to undo it .. I.E. the thread was corroded / rusted into the item.... and don't realise that they are NOT used to remove a bolt/stud thread that is seized up ... if you do you WILL break the Easy Out.

[popschief]

I've used this and it works. Usually when the bolt twists off because the threads are frozen it does so at the top of the hole so the remainder of the bolt is flush with the surface. You place a nut with the hole the same size as the bolt and weld the two by reaching through the nut. The subsequent heating of the bolt shrinks it and loosens the rust freeing it up. This works best on large
bolts where getting the welding rod into the nut is possible. bp

[Burgerman]

Done that and it works well. Also where its BELOW the surface you can usually get a skilled welder to weld a heavy welding rod to the top of the sheared off bolt down the hole. And amazingly the heat usually frees it, so the rod is adequate to unscrew the bolt thread too. Easy outs seldom work. They are not for seized threads, are brittle, and smaller than the bolt was...

[ex-Gooserider]

Had the Milling class tonight, learned the basics of how to set up a Bridgeport and do facing, locating edges and drilling holes, etc...

Mixed feelings about how well I'll be able to use the machine - definitely will require assistance, as I can't reach the levers and such needed to change speeds, or the draw bar to change tools, and will need a stick with a hook on the end to turn the power on and off...

However I can work the cranks to do all the machine table movements, and do setup on the workpiece... It was definitely a fun class, and I feel like I learned a lot. (I'm also now "certified" to use the mill, although there is plenty more that I need to learn)

Lathe class tomorrow... I suspect that I will have less problems using the lathe given that it appears to be much shorter so everything should be easier to reach.

I was told to bring in some scrap aluminium, but I didn't have anything that would be suitable for lathe or mill work, so I stopped at a place in Woburn where there is a major supplier of non-ferrous materials, (Admiral Metals) and WAY over bought, as I ended up just cutting off a little chunk of one bar for the milling class - but the stuff won't go bad, so it could be worse... For anyone local, it's a good place to shop, as they have a "surplus center" where they sell the left over chunks from their production of parts for regular customers at a considerable discount from normal retail, and much smaller quantities - i.e. a few inches to a foot or so of bar stock, instead of a 20' length, or similar small sizes of sheet metal. Today I ended up with 67 pounds of aluminium stock in different sizes, (including a foot of 6.5" diameter round) for $2.70 a pound... Normal retail for full size lengths is around $4.00, so it's a big savings, but the supplier gets a lot more than they would have gotten for scrap, so everybody wins...

ex-Gooserider

[malamar]

Dear Gooserider ,looking at the gross weight of alloy american Quickies compared to ours all steel here , i feel like the way to go for a future custom chair project.
Yours is?? Any link to, just to browse?
Thanks a lot

[440roadrunner]

Had the Milling class tonight,......................will need a stick with a hook on the end to turn the power on and off...

However I can work the cranks to do all the machine table movements, and do setup on the workpiece...

ex-Gooserider

!!GREAT!! Just having access to this kind of machinery is a huge advantage over most people. I do have my own small lathe, an old Atlas/ Craftsman 12X24, and a used so called "mill drill" but I certainly would never call myself a machinist.

Probably the most delicate work I've done in my lathe is to modify some old lenses to adapt to my modern Canon EF mount:

My favorite FL conversion, a 19mm:

http://forum.manualfocus.org//viewtopic.php?id=16902



some more

http://forum.manualfocus.org/viewtopic.php?id=11381

The first one just was not enough:

http://forum.manualfocus.org/viewtopic.php?id=11415

Spotting scope adaptor:

http://forum.manualfocus.org/viewtopic.php?id=11503

An old Canon FL 28mm converted to EF. I like the older FL series as opposed to the newer FD mount lenses because the "works" are in sort of a capsule, and the aperture linkage of the FD lenses make them nearly impossible to work with:

http://forum.manualfocus.org/viewtopic.php?id=9092

[ex-Gooserider]

Well, lathe class was today, again mostly just covering the basics - turning and facing, boring, parting off, etc... Was a good class, definitely worth while... Very nice lathe, all dial gear changes, a good size swing, and very smooth operating... I find access is much easier on the lathe than it is on the Bridgeport, as the only thing I can't easily reach is the brake pedal (and presumably a stick would let me get that...) Only problem is that sometimes it's hard to see just what the tool is doing because I'm at close to eye level with it - as opposed to being able to stand over it and looking down...

I also got in on a presentation that a salesguy was doing on a really neat welding box - Victor / Thermal Dynamics brand, that is about as close to an "all purpose" welder as you are likely to get... It has a microprocessor control with an incredible number of adjustments to tune the processes being used. However the neat think is that this one welder can be used for stick, MIG, and some basic forms of TIG. I didn't see all the presentation, as I had to get ready for my lathe class, but I did get to run a bit of MIG bead, and it was a really smooth operating machine... It also had as much claimed power as my Lincoln, and was about 1/2 the size...

I'm also signed up for a bunch more classes - more advanced machine shop stuff, Oxy-fuel, TIG, and so on...

I'm figuring that in a few more weeks I'll be ready to actually become a member, and start working on my chair for real...

ex-Gooserider

[LROBBINS]

Goose,

I suspect that the unit you saw is http://www.thermadyne.com/Thermal%20Arc%203in1/Fabricator%20181i/images_clients/Fabricator%20181i%203in1%20Multi%20Proces%20Welding%20System%20Operating%20Manual%20%280-5151%29_Apr2011.pdf

Looks like a neat unit, but it would be of limited use for Al as its TIG is only DC and there's also no RF for starting an arc.

Ciao,
Lenny

[ex-Gooserider]

Goose,

I suspect that the unit you saw is http://www.thermadyne.com/Thermal%20Arc%203in1/Fabricator%20181i/images_clients/Fabricator%20181i%203in1%20Multi%20Proces%20Welding%20System%20Operating%20Manual%20%280-5151%29_Apr2011.pdf

Looks like a neat unit, but it would be of limited use for Al as its TIG is only DC and there's also no RF for starting an arc.

Ciao,
Lenny

Similar - but I think it was the bigger 253 or something like that. As I understood the sales rep, the 181 was mostly intended as a small scale shop / homeowner unit, while the one we were looking at was their "production shop" model, intended for heavy use where several different process types were needed...

Not sure about the TIG capabilities, (Haven't had any TIG training yet, so I'm not up on what it requires from a technical standpoint...)but it is supposed to be able to run a spool or push-pull gun, so at least you'd have Al MIG capability...

Even if the TIG is limited, this seems like a nice unit just for the ability to do all the different processes that it can in just one box...

ex-Gooserider

[ex-Gooserider]

Oh and I started another class this evening - I had thought it was sold out, but I showed up to try and ask the instructor a question, and was able to talk my way in as an extra...

It is a course on "making things move" - dealing with actuators and motors of different sorts, and "physical computing" to control them... Tonight was mostly intro, with background math / physics stuff, and making a super simple electric motor (3 foot coil of magnet wire, connected via some wire "bearings" across a DC supply, and driven by a magnet...) Next to classes will use our laptops and an arduino - I will be playing a bit with a loaner in the next few days to get it at least somewhat working...

ex-Gooserider