Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Bad lathe week

I turn it down pretty regularly, Scott.

SOME I take.

....as you know , my little hovel is not exactly JPL.

GTC

I loved doing real work by hand. Hated the time I spent on CNC. Did as little CNC as I could.

I'm in love again!

� 'n' I ain't Fats Domino!

The one I fight on a daily basis ain't that pretty,...but it's been spinnin' since the early 60's,...and it's still right there

It is a LOT prettier than my lathe. But then I don't have a lathe any more.

As far as I'm concerned, you can have this one.

As of late,...I view a lathe like a ditch digger views a shovel,..

,..as mentioned,...I'm done,...

I dream of having something like a Harding I have an old rattle trap atlas that is in pretty bad shape and loose as a goose.
There is no precision work coming off of it.

Gotta LOVE those "Ivoroid" verniers !

Q: Did Hardinge market a taper attachment for those ?

GTC

I remember doing some of those things. Never had a Hardinge, though. As for the handful of parts, there have been times when I got a box of pins or screws and swore that there could not be 100 in the lot. Counted them, and there they all were.

Mostly now I help the other guys (2) and do odd jobs. I, too, am close to leaving, just turning 65. I don't think I will ever get the new guys to "will" the parts and assemblies like I do. The boss is already worrying about when I leave, wants me back at least part time.

Enjoying making things is a disease. Now, I will program and set up a CNC for even a few parts, if I can, making angles, radii, and odd threads intrigues me, and has been my downfall.

I'll still be here fer another 30 years...... Had good lead men during my apprenticeship made me do the things the hard way so I would appreciate the easy way.... The good ol die journeymen had me cleaning and painting bridgeports so much the first year that it made me pay so much attention to the littlest details and perform the best to my ability at even the simplest machining tasks they would give me for my snapper duties..... If I didn't there were always bridgeports that needed some cleaning.....

I pulled out a planer gage at a shop a few years back , and the newbies looked at me like i was Christopher friggin Columbus.....

And +1000 on the little hardinge...its truly the little engine that could!

I dunno,...I'd think so,..but for some reason they left off a lot.

I'd never run a Hardinge 'till I started my current job,..and I learned that there wasn't a saddle stop in the house for a Hardinge.

As far as I know, there's never been one,...until I made one.

The way wiper on the one that I use was rotten,..so I took it off,...made a new one from Delrin that didn't utilize two of the 1/4-20 holes an inch apart on the saddle,..and fabricated a saddle stop that attached to the two tapped holes.

It took a total of 27 seconds to visualize it,...but for some reason, Hardinge never got around to it.

The CNC boys were all agog at my L-shaped piece of cold roll that took an hour to fabricate.

I'd like to be humble,...but life just ain't allowin' fer it.

That is what I loved too only I didn't use CNC.


Made an 000-180 bolt one time and got it right the first time. Surprised the heck out of me.

Isn't that the machine that put Hardinge on the map? those little bench lathes?

Yeah,...they have a cult following now.

There's a couple of places that restore them to new.

They'll set ya back $20,000.

Like those variable speed monarchs 10ee I believe they are.

Guess I'm in the "old Farts machinist club" myself. Started cuttin chips in 78' myself. Just spent the past 3 days making alignment pins for a fixture on the EXACT same lathe.
I've been working as a product engineer, and doing some design work since moving out the Prototype shop about 10 years ago, so it was actually a bit of a treat to get back to simply cutting chips for awhile. Most of our team is younger, fresh out of college, engineers that wouldn't know the difference between a part-off tool and a allen wrench!! One of the little bastages actually called me "crotchety" the other day!

We have been eating our seed corn for a long time now. I finally got the corporation I work for to look at what the skilled trades market is going to look like in the next few years. We are going to be at a 70% retirement rate by 2016. I got tasked with our new apprenticeship program and put 6 on at Jan.1, with a review committee to recommend what is needed every year. Things are alot differant than when I served my toolmakers apprenticeship 31 years ago, but that is the same thing my dad said about his in 1946. Did a presentation to the incoming freshman at the local high school about the trades and got the deer in the headlights look. Have been on steering committees for the area colleges and tech schools, most kids don't even think about the trades until they are in their mid twentys. Russ

I would say that makes you a success.

I beg to differ, that is no damn bench lathe, but a dovetail bed "Toolroom" lathe

,....and find that their liberal arts degree is worth exactly $7.50 an hour down at the chicken wing shack.

I piss & moan about my work,...but I stumbled into it by accident (was working the door in a C&W bar and the bass player in the band needed a gofer for his machine shop),...and it's kept me from having to do stoop labor,..so,...considering the lack of direction my youth entailed,..and the fact that I had a fair amount of aptitude for the job that I fell into, and that I've always found it to be a satisfying way to spend the day, I should thank the stars, I guess.

If I had what I've earned, I'd be down on the corner hollerin' crazy stuff at passing cars with the rest of the local schizos.

I got a pass,...

Momma must be good at prayin',...