How To Use A Scriber - When The Map IS The Territory

Part 0. Move along, owners of CNC machine tools; you'll never use this stuff.  ;)

Part 1. The Whys And Wherefores

 The general idea of scribing lines directly on work to assist in fabrication, is to coat the surface to receive the marks with a thin layer of dark, non-flaking dye, and then using a sharp scribe to cut through the dye, making a physical groove mark in the material.

"Why scribe lines at all?  I own Sharpies™ er, Marker™, er, flow pens!"

 Because the width of the mark from an Ultra-Fine-Point Sharpie™ super fine pointed flow pen (cough) is .015 - .020, while the width of a scribe mark averages .004 (the size of some human hairs), that's why.

 "Who actually needs instruction on how to use a scriber?  How hard can it be?"

  Potentially everyone because the methods used will determine how close your layout comes to the print.

If accuracy doesn't matter, why are you using a scriber-and-fluid*?
Don't make unnecessary work for yourself.  I only rarely do
manual layout, but it sure is handy once in a while!

If accuracy matters a lot, you don't do layout at all.
  Choose a 0,0 on your part, put it in the mill, and
use the DRO to locate all features after that.
I jest; I get that this is not always possible.

 Hand layout methods are only useful within a single order of magnitude of accuracy, to wit:

.1 in. can be done with a paint marker.  Think structural steel and mag drills.

.01 in. is achievable with manual layout if you're consistent and careful. That's where this post lives.

.001 in. ain't happening with manual layout methods; choose another fabrication path.

 Why NOT to use scribed layout:

• It makes a physical groove into the material which may need subsequent removal if that
  surface will show.

• It typically raises the surface of the material surrounding the scratch mark, so cannot be used
  on dimensioned surfaces.

• If you screw up a marking, do your part dimensions allow you to grind or mill them off to start over?

Part 2. Getting Started / The Tools

 To do traditional manual layout, you need...

• a flat, clean, and brightly lit workspace
• layout fluid or flow pen in a dark color
• a scriber
• a steel scale or ruler
• a compass, probably
• vision magnification
• a prick punch
• a center punch
• a square

- When I say 'brightly lit', I mean as bright as you can stand it without getting a headache.  The brighter the workspace, the smaller your pupils, and the smaller your pupils, the greater your eyeball's visual acuity.  Your eyes perform at their best, and typically develop less eye fatigue, in brightly lit spaces.  My workspace is insanely bright.

- Layout fluid, sometimes called 'layout dye' is compounded such that a thin layer is very dark, allowing scribed lines on shiny metal to contrast brightly, and such that the dried fluid does not flake when scribing.  It is not terribly expensive, and a little goes a long way unless you work in production.  As a hobbyist, I've been working on the same little bottle for over ten years.

You can use "flow pen" aka Sharpie™ for small areas.

 I'm sorry, I do not have any tips for getting the commercial products to brush on evenly, I've been making a mess of it since 1976.  >_>   Part of my problem is that it dries faster here in Denver than it did where I learned to use it - in Illinois.  You can also get it in a spray can for big layouts; I've never tried that.

- Scribers come in several flavors, but for layout purposes, you'll probably want the pen type.  HSS points are less likely to break if you drop it or absent-mindedly tap the tip on something.  Carbide tips will mark hardened material and last a very long time between sharpening or replacement.  Don't spend more than $10, all you'll get is a fancier handle.

- A scale's markings are dimensioned from the physical end of the scale. Zero is the physical end of the metal.  This is handy for butting the end of the scale against things to take a measurement referenced off that feature.

- A ruler's markings are dimensionsed from a zero marking on the ruler.  This is handy for referencing another line, etc.  Most fabricators/machinists/bodgers have a preference for one or the other.  I find I do not need rulers, I can just use the "1" on the scale and subtract 1 from the measurement.

- Curved features are a given in metal working.  You'll need a compass AKA 'dividers', preferably one intended for a machinist and not a draftsman, so it will have hardened or carbide points in the kit.  I use a drafting compass and I have to sharpen one of the (plain steel) points too often.

- When you are trying to determine whether two lines are actually aligned, it sure is handy to have some kind of magnification.  If you already wear glasses, there are magnifying lenses which attach to the frames and flip into or out of your line of vision.  Many folks including a close friend swear by the Optivisor™ or MagniVisor™ headbands, but for some reason, the visor magnifiers give me a headache. YMMV.

top: Starrett No 816a prick punch -- bottom: shop-made center punch

Part 3. Methodology

 When reading drawings, never use the drawing to directly compare to your part - ie, don't use it as a ruler or gauge; use the dimensions printed on it of course, but place your layout marks on the part manually.  This is because printers will often happily print your drawing a few percent larger or smaller than exactly 100% even while telling you it's exactly 100%.

 Making straight lines on dimension
  Lines have non-zero thickness.  Declaring one side or the other of a line to be the reference edge rapidly leads to stacked dimensions and confusion during layout.  So we always deal with the center of a line.  This is part of the allure of scribed layouts; scribe lines have less thickness than Shar- I mean, "flow pen" lines, and because the line is a groove, it self-centers the scriber for subsequent marks.  It's easier to stay closer to the desired dimension if a line is narrow, and scribed lines can be arbitrarily narrow.

 When making a line from a point to a point, be sure to hold the scribe square to your ruler or scale at first, to ensure the point is exactly on dimension before you put it at an angle for making the line.  When you start scribing, support the point well so it doesn't chatter.

  Making center punch marks on dimension
 Ideally, you would only ever make a center punch mark at the intersection of two lines you have high confidence in.  The lines let you know how close your punch point is to where it ought to be before you whack it.  Post-whack, the lines let you see how well you did and whether you ought to move the mark.

 Using a "prick punch" (Starrett makes beautiful ones, and it's a small item with no moving parts, so fairly affordable even new - you can also make your own if you have a heat-treat oven), make your first punch very, very light, holding the punch vertical to the surface.  Even a small angle on the punch can move the mark off of dimension. Using a loupe, examine the mark.  It should be circular - not oval - and centered on the lines.

 If it isn't centered, a light mark which is only slightly off can be moved by holding the punch at an angle (pointy bit toward direction mark needs to go, hammery bit away from desired direction), and hitting it just a little bit harder with the prick punch.  This makes the mark deeper and wider, with the new mark's crater bottom now in a different place.  Note this makes the top of the hole slightly oval.

 A light mark is all you need if that location will only be used with a compass to make curved features.

 If the part will be drilled in that location, then enlarge and circularize the mark by placing your regular center punch (which has a much wider angle on the point) in the mark and giving it a good smack.  

I suggest you practice this on scrap before you need to use it on a real part.  ;)

BTW, I don't recommend automatic center punches for layout work, but they're great for casual cut-drill-and-weld sortsa work.

 ~≈{👁}≈~

 My next post will be off-topic from shops and tools, and will discuss Nuclear EMP and why you can stop worrying about it.

________________________________
*ain't got layout fluid? Shar- (er I mean, Magi-, dammit, I mean flow pen) -- also works.

rust

 This is what happens to your mill vise when you use water-based cutting fluid or an oil-water emulsion and then don't remove it from the "inaccessible" nooks and crannies.
It turns out there are no corrosion inhibitors in either window cleaner or the green soapy stuff, who knew?? This mess was under the fixed jaw, which most people never remove. Factory really didn't want it removed either, as the two bolts were fixed with both fancy super-aggressive double-sided lock washers, and thread locker. I used a torque wrench and my skinny little arms.

I assume this was caused by using mild soapy water as cutting fluid for plastics - well, there's not a lot of choice there. I don't think shop air would have got the fluid out of there, and I don't use shop air as much as other people, I prefer the shop vacuum, so as not to drive chips & dust into places they don't belong. So what do I do, disassemble the vise each time I cut plastics? (possibly yes) The only other cutting fluid I use is Tap Magic EP Extra, which is oil-based AFAIK, and shouldn't have any water in it. The good news is that all that horrible rusty crap came right off with brass bristle hand brushes and less than an hour of effort. Brass bristle because these surfaces are precision-ground and I don't wish to cause the slightest bit of surface abrasion by using steel bristles. I should have taken 'after' pics, because there was no pitting from the rust, I got pretty lucky.

At the end of the day, having the fixed jaw be perfectly aligned with anything else - even with the moving jaw - isn't all that important, because the fixed jaw is the only reference you trust, and you tram it with the table whenever you take the vise off. When you're squaring new work, you don't trust the moving jaw anyway; for the first squaring cuts, you place a bit of brass rod or the like between the moving jaw and the work; this only allows the work to align with the fixed jaw, rather than imperfections of saw cuts in the work causing the two jaws to fight each other. Then you put your freshly milled-square work face against the square jaw, and so forth and so on. So all the fixed jaw has to do is A) not move at all - not even 1/10,000 of an inch - and B) be perfectly parallel to the axis of table motion, ie; parallel with the table ways. Every time you take the vise off the table, or move it or whatever, you have to re-align the vise's fixed jaw with the table ways. It's not deep' you just mount an indicator on the spindle and move the table back and forth, observing the change in reading caused by the vise being at an angle to the axis of motion. Then you gently bash the vise with your deadblow hammer in the right direction and check it again, lather rinse repeat until there is no change in the reading. This is called tramming.
(see YouTube for detailed instructions)

Pro machinists gripe about this slightly, because time is money, but it takes me only five minutes to tram the vise or the head, and I'm not making a dime. Professional machinists also prefer to keep the machine in tram/square, and find other ways to cut angled features (vs. putting the head at an angle) if they can. It's kind of a philosophy of precision; once you've got the machine exactly right, you may be reluctant to take it out of tram again. ;)

Me being a bodger who rarely holds a thou, never mind a tenth, and being unafraid of the shop time taken to tram, I don't hesitate to use every feature of the mill if it will make my life lower-effort. ^_^

(If you ever move the head in any of its three axes, you will end up tramming the head afterward as well. That requires an additional inexpensive little doodad but it's not much bigger a deal than tramming the vise.)

I wish I'd taken photos of the bottom of the vise, as there are some interesting convenience features there which I do not use but I feel I ought to discuss. Some day...

~≈{👁}≈~

science! (of sweetening one's tea and coffee)

 Ever since I was a young person, I have believed that how I stir sugar into my coffee is faster than how most people stir sugar into their coffee, all other things being equal.  It's a casual idiosyncrasy, I haven't talked much about it, I must have thousands.  I felt it was self-evident once explained, but I never really looked into it.  If I investigated every trivial thing like that, I'd never get anything else done. ;D

 I was today years old when I looked in google scholar a bit, learned what the experts call things and which fields of study were most applicable.  There were plenty of hits and what really shut me down was a very old Royal Society paper that came up; this (stirring and particle dissolution efficiency) is not a new field of study.

 And it turns out that yes, I'm right... and it was well-understood a century ago. >_<

 Okay, okay, I'll stop teasing... but I think reviewing the basic theory is actually a good idea;

 If a soluble particle sits in a solute and starts to dissolve without moving at all, a zone of higher concentration (of the particle in the solute) will build up around the particle, and slow down dissolution.  Right.  That's why we stir.  If there is motion between fluid and particle, that zone gets swept away, exposing the particle to fresh, low-concentration solute. 

The greater the relative motion, the faster the particle is dissolved.

 It should be further evident that particles entrained by a flow will have lower relative velocity than particles in chaotic or constantly reversing flow.

 And so, instead of stirring one's spoon in a constant circular motion, reverse the motion of your spoon every 180º.  This appears to create more chaotic flow than moving it back and forth linearly, too.

 That's it, that's all I got today, I think.  Science so easy a child could do it and almost certainly has.
I wish there was a master index of all Science Fair™ projects ever. ;)

Going through a bit of a rough patch right now, not working in the shop very much.

~≈{👁}≈~

update; big dial indicator

 I took off the back and found the guts were clean; none of the cruft from the dial side had made it through the pointer hole.

 Note the plunger passes all the way through the indicator body; if I had more parts (rare) the other end of the plunger could be used for lifting the probe end, for example on a comparator setup on a mini-plate.

 Somewhere in that stack of jewels and gears is the reason the pointer won't return to zero reliably.  Somewhere in Colorado is someone who knows how to fix that.  Somewhere on YouTube there is likely to be a video (Blondihacks I think) on DIY repairs.

 I did some digging on services. Apparently almost nobody just replaces crystals.  Most shops have a flat fee which covers everything you could want, including a clean-lube-adjust (or whatever - do these things get lubrication? I wonder) and replacing the crystal.  This is $25 - $50 for one unit, possible discounts might obtain if you have a box of them.  Traceable cal not included.

 Well crud.  That's starting to make this indicator an expensive one.  All right then... on the one hand, it's a Federal (a good mid-grade), not a B&S, Mitu, or Starrett but also not junk; and B) new ones this size are well over $200 from anybody, even Fowler (cheap, low-grade brand).

 So, I guess I'm willing for this to eventually become a $100 (to me) dial indicator, it would be worth investing that much to have one Big Bright Beautiful Bezel, I mean crystal heh, and a movement that is smooth with no hizzups, on a dial three inches across because my eyes need a clean-lube-adjust too.

 Oh, apparently this original Federal movement didn't win any awards, so Federal came out with a new one with real jewel bearings they called the Miracle Movement which was much, much better.  MM indicators cost more than $28 shipped you can be sure. ;)

PS: if you find yourself taking one of these apart, DON'T LOSE THE SCREWS.  You won't find exact replacements anywhere.  Period.  You might find close approximations from jewelers or watchmaker's or clockmaker supply houses.  Then again, you might not.  Don't lose them.  They are vanishingly small, Fillister-head, #0-60 or smaller, with pointed ends (but I think that one feature is just an aid to assembly, it's not necessary).

PPS: On the advice of The Cranky Old Men on Practical Machinist, I attacked the crystal with plastic polish and to my surprise, it removed some of the amber, as promised. Can't remove it to attack the other side without also taking off the pointer, which opens a can of worms. I'd rather leave that work to a professional worm wrangler.

 More as it happens.

more links on fixing dial indicators:
Nik Colyer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoqvDueMn0E
Mr. Pete - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9gNrmxW_nU

~≈{👁}≈~

I am waiting until June to spend the $35 - $50 a worm wrangler indicator repair shop wants to fix it up.

~≈{👁}≈~ 

>_> Never a Fremen around when you need one. <_<

I am not as fastidious as I may at first appear

there is a dark side and a light side

 I need my shop time.

If I can’t do anything else (cough lathe borked cough), something always needs cleaning. "If you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean..."

I said once that I wasn't going to bother with cleaning the mill knee, because fluids are always going to be dripping down it, re-dirtying it. Eventually it occurred to me that it has fifty years of grime on it, AND that given my light use I would be unlikely to put that kind of grime back on it, ever, AND it would make me happy, a little, to look at it if it were clean. So I've changed course and I'm cleaning the knee. Cleaning is an easy path to feelings of satisfaction; it's harder to screw up than making chips, for one thing.

 However, cleaning the knee is being fiddly.  To be thorough, I really want to unmount that little 3-way manifold to clean under it.  But that little tube that comes out of the top and disappears inside the knee - that looks real hard to put back if it were to pull out of the fitting and vanish inside the knee.  The only access to that area is through the hole where the lift screw goes, and I'm not sure I can get my arm in there.  The only alternative is to take the mill apart.  By which I mean, remove the table from the saddle, then remove the saddle from the knee, and then remove the knee from the column. If you think that is going to happen in my lifetime, you are very much mistaken.

 So I'm gritting my teeth and cleaning around it.  But I want you to know that the unreachable grime is really bothering me. :)

 By the way, the best concoction I have found for cleaning greasy "varnish" from a painted surface is 50:50 Greased
Lightning™ & 99% isopropyl.  It's better than either by itself, and this varnish is HARD to get off.  Elbow grease is still required, and I use a blue kitchen sponge for a lot of it, which is soft enough not to scratch the enamel.  Also lots of shop towels.

 I'm sure acetone would attack the HELL out of that varnish, and it would try to take the factory paint off down to the metal too.  Mineral spirits / paint thinner might be safe on the paint, but I dislike the smell and it probably causes cancer or something.  I'm not so worried about the isopropyl fumes, tho I did have to open a window and start a fan because I was evaporating a lot of the stuff.

 After starting this job, I discovered a manifold (sounds biblical, don't it?) on the saddle which is leaking oil, for fark's sake.  It is another part of the one-shot oiling system.  It shouldn't be terrible; it's only nine small compression fittings... 18 things to be tightened... at a bad angle... with a 3/8in wrench if I can even get one in there.  Already tried the right size of tubing wrench, it was useless.

 I might have to enlist my better half to pump the pump while I watch the various manifolds for drips or clues.

 To be honest, the biggest leakage of oil is what drips out of the knee-to-column ways, and I cannot begrudge that; they're vertical, it's gonna happen, that's what the cat litter in the base is for.  I don't know what the weight distribution is between column ways and lift screw, but there is a lot of real estate to lubricate.  And besides, I've only gone through a gallon of way oil in a decade, and I use it for other things too: the lathe ways (obv) but also slow bearings like the fan bearings in one furnace and also the swamp cooler.  Spindle oil is also perfect in faster bearings like nonsealed motor bearings.

 Whee!  Speaking of needful tools, I also would like my mechanic's creeper to elevate up into the air like an ambulance stretcher. <_<  And I want a suitcase full of money, and a pony, and world peace...

 If only the mill's knee could be raised and lowered - wait 😂

 Actually it might still be too high no matter what - I predict an unwelcome amount of bending to get the tightening done, and my back hurt when I woke up today.  Sheesh, what is this thing, a Harley?  After all, I always seem to be wrenching on it, and it always seems to leak oil... 😆

 (I jest, a little; machine tools are of necessity, oily.  A few drips are not wasteful in the grand scheme of things, but I'd rather not be constantly wiping them up from the shop floor.)

~≈{👁}≈~

I have done a very foolish thing

I just wanted to measure TIR

 It doesn't look wrong; just a center in a lathe spindle. You can't see the problem unless you know how the lathe is positioned in the room.

 What I did, that I should not have done, was to insert the center in the normal way, ie; shove the thing in with a flick of the wrist.

 Now it's wedged in place - the way it would normally be if you were going to use it - but I can't get it out again.

 I can't get it out again because the lathe headstock is up against a wall, preventing me from shoving a rod down the spindle to knock out things mounted in the spindle taper, the way one normally does.

 I literally have to move the lathe before I can use it again.
Plot twist: I have no way to move the lathe at the moment.

 It might be possible to remove if I make a special tool; I can't think of a way to get it out otherwise, short of moving the lathe and doing it the normal way.  I was gonna move the thing eventually, because of this, but I wasn't ready.  Ye gods I am dumb!  One instant of forgetfulness leads to hours of headache.

EDIT, later: man, this is a huge cockup.  I can't get the 3-jaw on over the center at all, and the 4-jaw I have is kind of a PoS, although it looks like it would mount over the center.  Even if it did, the center poking up through the center bore of the chuck will certainly restrict its use.  Nothing long at all can be managed, and centering in my 4-jaw is actually worse / more impossible than in the 3-jaw because it's also a scroll, not independent-jaw. >_<

The center can't be removed with a shop-made tool because the manufacturers machined it into a cylinder between the center angle and the spindle taper, so there is nothing to pull on.  Very convenient.  Clamp friction alone isn't likely to pull it out of a Morse taper, I suspect the clamp would just slide, although there is plenty of room for a very beefy clamp indeed.  The entire center is as hard as a bad day.

 Speaking of bad days, my lathe is now unuseable and I need a day out of the house because I'm now in a fucking foul mood.

~≈{👁}≈~

maybe polarizing contact lenses would help?

 I caught a deal on eBay and got this 3.25 / 85mm (.0001) dial indicator, cheap.  My other tenths indicator is dodgy, this one seems believable. 

 Big dial, big gradations, big pointer, big numbers, I figured it would be easier on this old gray duck's eyeballs. Well yes, but also no.

 You see, I can't hardly see through the crystal.  The yellowing is much darker in reality than it appears in this photo.  It also has brown cruft floating around between crystal and dial face, which seems to be old adhesive holding crystal into bezel.

A larger issue is it not returning to zero sometimes.  I'm investigating whether that is something I can fix or not.  The guts of these things resemble big watches, with a fine clockspring on the pointer, a fine coil spring on the plunger, and many fine gears between the two.  I am reluctant to stick my clumsy mitts in there.

 This thing entered the workforce when not only the tools smoked, all the workers and management did too.

 I'm going to investigate having a shop try to replace the crystal first because to DIY I'd have to:

• buy a small bench top arbor press
• fabricate delrin dies to turn it into a lens press
• find a way to carefully cut out a circle of acrylic for it
• find a way to fixture said disk to turn a tiny lip in the edge

 Ugh! Can I not, please?

 Even so, I'm mighty pleased to have her on board.  For now, I shall call her... "Amber".

~≈{👁}≈~

generations

  While it's true that young people ought to listen to old people, because by and large, old people know more about life, the universe, and everything, than young people.  It's inevitable.  Listening to old people - preferably more than one, because opinions are a thing - can help smooth one's path through life.

 But it bugs the everlovin' crap outta me when old people won't listen to young people.  Where do you think fresh ideas come from? (mostly) Old people need young people to provide the occasional fresh take. And conversely, young people need old people so they can know when their fresh take, isn't.

 Suprahz, suprahz, suprahz, the generations need each other!

 Besides which, some people do most of their learning via back & forth conversation, others in a structured theory environment, still others learn best through their hands.  I can do all of those things, always could, because like many of my generation, we were given the tools to be autodidacts.  Now that kids are being hamstringed by doing hard time in Drill School, and thus finding it difficult to self-instruct later, it is more important than ever for us Old Farts™ to engage with the young ones who share our interests.

 Let No Craftsman-Nerds Be Left Behind.

 The other day, I found a small Buck pocket knife - an older one - which I long ago found rusting in the yard, and fixed up real nice - weeks of once-in-a-while effort.  It's nearly as good as new now, and you can shave with either blade.  Why?  I have no use for such a thing, I always have my Leatherman on me, and if I need more tool than that, it usually means I'm in my home or shop anyway. 

 The answer is this: once upon a time, there was a tradition among men and boys - well, those of us not born with silver spoons in our mouths - when a young man would receive his first knife, along with a lecture, from Dad, Granddad, or sometimes an Uncle.  This happened with me, even though I didn't have any of those male peers in my life.  I'm ashamed to say I don't know which friends or neighbor played standin.

 The knife was always a small two or three-bladed "gentleman's pocket knife" kind of thing.  No belt pouch.

 The lecture had to do with safety, mostly in handling, and also about behavior incumbent upon anyone carrying anything that might be dangerous.  Boy Scoouts of America had a whole structure for it - with good training and merit badges to supposedly prove "I Get It", and an utterly useless Victorinox knife at the end. :)

 All the major brands ran ads supporting this tradition aimed at the boys not just the adults!  So you saw "his first knife" ads, which might not even SAY that, but they would SHOW Granddad handing a knife to a kid, and the kid receiving it like it was mana from heaven - in both Boys Life (to build expectation, LOL) but also Outdoor Life and the like to get the adults onboard.  It was mentioned in literature.  It was a real social phenom the knife companies were capitalizing on, not a commercial creation.

 So now I've got this nice little presentation Buck knife which, depending on how old it is, is made of either nice steel or VERY nice steel.  Their logo is a hammer on a knife cutting a soft steel bolt, remember.  Not sure how to tell whether the scales are horn or nylon or what.  But see, I don't have kids nor have I an uncle role with any family.  We knew someone who wanted me to be a godfather but that was a special situation I had to say no to.  And it was never something I looked for, I am not parent material, so I mostly don't like kids until they're old enough to have an intelligent conversation with. ;)

 So the knife lurks in my tool chest, and whenever I see it, I wish I had someone, maybe not even a kid, just someone younger than me, someone who is where I was in my twenties, that I could mentor, to pass on what I have learned so far.  It's not so much wanting to pass along the knife itself, but rather doing what it represents.  I feel a debt toward my community for having who and what I have in my life, and I want those things for my fellow handicapped, broken, ubernerds who press on through life against all odds.  I want others to enjoy what privilege I enjoy, and I want them to feel it as I do.

  The word 'apprentice' is not appropriate here because one apprentices to a Master, not a Journeyman, and I am barely the latter, and not formally - I have  no formal schooling in anything.  I say I am a "journeyman" because while I don't always know the answers off the cuff as a Master might, I always know where to look to find them.  Usually in a book.  >_>

 Or maybe I'm just lonely.

~≈{👁}≈~

"yeah, but imagine it without the knurling, how easy would it be to use then?"

  It doesn't matter how many tools you have, they won't be enough, ever.  New project?  New tool.  Might as well get used to it, or even make it a policy: don't start any new project, unless it requires you to buy a new tool.

 I get frustrated when what I want to make is a tool, because that tool is too expensive to buy and I am a broke-ass MF, and then it turns out I can't make the tool because I need another tool.

 It makes me want to set fire to things or put more knuckle-prints in the sheet metal of my storage cabinet.

~≈{👁}≈~

I just thought you'd enjoy this.

 This was listed as "India's Best Quality" right in the title.  I took one look at the photo and I lost it.

 My high school metal shop teacher would have granted this a 'B' grade, at most, and we weren't charging money for our work.

~≈{👁}≈~