random images from around my shop & their stories - - long

 

I finally remembered how to wrap text next to images, yay.

 Anyway, this is a funny: the original plastic knob broke, or fell off, so I replaced it with one from my knob bucket.  I'm pretty sure this knob came from a Mark Levinson amplifier. Which means the odds are decent that the knob alone is worth more than the rest of this cheap $29 soldering station.

 

 

 

 

--=O=--

 This is a small dream currently coming true. This is a rack cabinet (part# 308-95) for Durham Manufacturing's "Small Compartment Box" line of storage drawers.  They are super useful as organizers for drills, end mills, or other cutting tools, fasteners, clamping and fixturing accessories used on machine tools, and of course, small parts.

 The drawers themselves are super nice because:

• made of steel, with a piano hinged steel lid so they won't break easily - I've owned and broken too many cheap plastic parts bins and organizers - the clear plastic one are nice to look through, but fragile
  
• has a handle so you can pick up the drawer like a little suitcase and carry it to a work location
  
• the plastic inserts are thick, durable PVC or PP (I'm not sure which, but it seems to be oil & grease-proof, so possibly PP) - they make one with adjustable dividers, but I don't like them because they ALWAYS seem to not stay put, or bend easily, or break, or have other problems - I like the very solid fixed bin versions, and there are several designs to choose from, including no insert at all
  
• the drawer lid fits flush agains the bin divisions of the insert, and it has a snug latch, so when the drawer is picked up by the handle, the contents in the bins stay put (provided the bits are bigger than about 1/4 inch) - this is rather a big deal
  
• racks are stackable, and there are risers so you can mount one on a bench and retain the use of most of the bench surface
  

 These are somewhat expensive compared to plastic versions you can get in hardware stores, so when I first saw them in the old Enco catalog, I thought I would buy a few drawers first, since they are only twenty bucks or so each, then later, when I got tired of shuffling them, I would buy one of these racks, probably the 4-drawer.  So I bought my first drawer and promptly fell on hard times and couldn't buy anything more for a long time.

 TEN YEARS LATER, I finally feel sufficiently flush to buy the 6-drawer rack.  I'll fill in the other drawers in the coming months.  You can get these from Amazon at competing prices, although I am mildly cheesed off that they do not have all the models of drawer inserts available which Durham makes, so I am looking around at other distributors like - (ugh!) - Grainger.  Also Grainger charges top dollar.

RIP Enco!

--=O=--

 Honestly, if you don't know who this is, I feel sorry for you. This is Beaker, from The Muppet Show. He's about six inches tall sitting down, and was a gift from someone who appreciated the Mad Scientist in me.  I've actually received two; I gave the second away to a friend's kid who is a huge fan of Muppet Labs.  Huh: no one thought to give me a Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.  I think the implication might be that _I_ am Dr. Honeydew.  But I have all my hair!  Anyway, Beaker sits in the unfinished wall above my shop bathroom door.  Beaker has seen some shit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--=O=--

 These slogans are on the shelf over the doorway inside my shop, to remind me that if I want to make a living (or at least have a small side-business that actually generates any income at all) then I have to deliver; I have to get shit done.  It's a reminder that work I do for $ / others - even friends - has  deadlines and expectations attached to it, unlike work I do for myself.

 

 

 The two lines are, of course, taken from the infamous and nasty (but also brutally true) speech delivered by Alec Baldwin in "Glengarry, Glen Ross".

 

 

 

 

--=O=--

 At the entranceway 'twixt the garage and my shop and it pretty much speaks for itself, at least the actual sample foot-hazard attached to it should.

This is posted in the shop bathroom, but it should be at the entrance to the garage.  You'd be amazed what some people will whine about.  Some people don't get invited back to my epic house parties when they do that.

 

--=O=--

 

As a general policy, I don't do rush jobs.

--=O=--

 What indicator holders are good for, part 117: 

 In this case, I needed to measure the taper inside the spindle nose of my lathe, to identify what the hell taper it is. (I'm still not sure, but it's not Jacob's, Morse, or any collet that I can identify. I am so over the piece of junk.)

 So one indicator is measuring the travel distance and the other indicator shows the change in diameter over a given distance.  With a little math or trig, you can then derive taper-over-length or an actual angle, as needed.

 

 

 

 

--=O=--

 

 This is an inexpensive ($30 - $50) Digital Read-Out attachment for the quill of my mill.  Someone gave it to me for free, but it lay around unused for years because I didn't have the mounting bracket, and I didn't really need it.

 Since I started my recent initiative of cleaning up and fixing up my shop and its tools, I decided it was past time for me to either give it away or get it  installed.

 So I ordered the bracket from Shars, but they didn't include the two little clips which appear to be a part of the bracket, they are shown on the parts list and drawing included in the box... but they weren't in the box.

 Now when I asked them about this, Shars proved surprisingly un-helpful, and I became quite pissed off at them.  They insisted the two little clips always come with the DRO unit and that they had no source of them otherwise!  And note: if you buy the DRO unit and the bracket together, you get the clips.  Someone screwed up their purchasing and they are making it their customers' problem and I don't like it.

 So I made myself a bet: I bet myself I could mill my own little clips from solid aluminum - nicer than the stamped sheet metal clips that were supposed to be included - before I could get a reply from the seller.  I won that bet.

  Shars sells some okay bargains - caveat emptor- but when it comes to customer service, they are hopeless.

 

 

--=O=--

 

This is the label on the reversing switch of my mill.  It is a piece of obscure early hacker humor...

You can read the origin story >here<.

 I once had an actual "Magic / More Magic" switch on one of my own computers, and it was functionally useful: 

 When the Amiga computer was a new and glorious thing, I owned a 2000.  A new boot rom was released, and it was desirable, but it also broke a few games.  It came to light that one could "piggy-back" (by soldering) one of the ROM's on to the other, leaving out the enable pins, and bending both of those outward. Then you stuck the stack into the socket, and wired the two pins to a double throw switch; which ever pin was grounded was the enabled ROM.  All you had to do was turn off the machine, flip the switch, and reboot.  A terrific and easy hack back in the day.

 

 

--=O=--

 Now I'm off to get my spine zapped with high energy radiation (taking pictures of my innards! Gadzooks!) so if you're into praying, please pray that I do not have any ruptured disks or other spine damage, and that my recent godawful back pain is "merely" pulled muscles or a torn ligament / insertion or the like. O_O