Thanks, Phil

 So Phil made a comment and it sparked a memory.  

Story time...

We drove all day to go to my brother's wedding.  His buddy decided to throw him a bachelor party.  So, saddle up, boys, we are heading out...

Side note:  My bachelor party was pizza, pinball, goofing off, no major big deal at all, but just tons of fun with guys I grew up with.  All I really remember is joking around with a bunch of farmers, smiles, laughs, and friendship. This could be fun.

I hop in my brother-in-law's truck and off we go.  It's getting dark, I'm bushed from a 12 hour road trip, and start dozing off....  The RV point was a strip club parking lot...  "Wait, what? Where are we going?"    BIL says, "okay men, what happens here stays here. No tales will be told."  Not quite what I was expecting, but then I'm a simple hick, not a man about town...

Side note:  I had a big spiritual problem with this.  And a big mental problem with it.  This is not something I condone or encourage.  Just like putting raw pork chops in your pocket and teasing all the bobcats you can call up...  I want to support my brother, but not like this.  What to do? Science brain speaks up, "Okay bud, observe, see what they do, this is an experiment and you are the researcher.  Problem solved! Detached professionalism....  

 

 

 

engaged.

We pay the 5 bucks at the door, and find a table to sit at.  Since I'm no drinker, I pay 3 bucks for a Dr. Pepper.  I'm always the designated driver in a situation like this...  Women everywhere, dressed to impress.  As the night progressed an older guy starts paying ladies to "dance" for my brother.  The amount of money he dropped was impressive.  "Wow, that was enough to pay my gas bill to drive here."  "Dang, He just paid for one of my new tires."  What is the point of giving that much dough just to see her bones wiggle through her skin?

 

Side note:  I'm a mid 30's, father of 3, working an engineering job, making less than median in Houston.  I didn't have 10 bucks to spend on anything.  I figured I could spend maybe 15 dollars there, max.  And then the covert Pete's Pastrami run with my daughter was still possible for lunch the next day.  Hmmmm....

Some young thing walks up and asks me to buy her a drink.  Sure! 

(Research for science in 3, 2, 1...)  I paid 5 bucks for her fruit punch, and she sits down to visit.

 

Me                           Her

Worked here long?  Yeah about a year.

Make good money?  Oh yeah, a lot!

More than your expenses? Yes! almost, *blush* money to burn.

Have a day job?  Not anymore, but I trained as a secretary.

How long do you plan to work?  They make you stop when you turn 26. 

Are you investing or saving the extra?  Bleep, blurp, ding, whiz, pop! What? No!

So let me get this straight, you have an almost unlimited earning potential, and a set point where you will not be able to do this anymore, and you aren't making any preparation for the end?  You could be set if you play it right!  I gotta go.

Right then, I realized that not only were the big spenders idiots, so where the wigglers.  This was a place that had no point.  It was stupid beyond anything I'd ever experienced.

Thank you, no.

And our wives found out anyway and they were beyond angry.  

 

My research project was only profitable for me.  No one else cared what I discovered.

And lest you think I'm a total block head, there was this ice cube that severely tested my professionalism and detachment, it is burned into my mind, and I will likely never forget it.....

 

That theory that you can't study something without influencing it?  I think it works both ways.

That excellent gif is from here.

Photo Essay

Okay, my previous post didn't paint a decent picture,so a picture is worth a thousand words.  Here is the gear in it's home.

Side View

and....

Overhead view

and finally....

Exploded view?

Those two black parts are collars, that keep the gear where you want it.  The builders turned down the bolt to make a stub shaft.  It bolts through the side.  BUT....  The shaft is supposed to be 0.5" diameter, and it's some bit bigger, each is different sized but all are too big.

I've got to resize the shaft bolts to fit correctly, and make the bushings to fit the 0.75" hole in the gear and the newly turned down 0.5" shaft.

Rework is a hoot!!! Or not, for small values of hoot.  I'd rather have these uniform and not a custom one off job on each bolt.  So, lathe work tonight!  Alright!!

Proof of Concept

 Had a quick job to do today.  Had to check and see if this was worth doing or not.

Small gear, Boston 20 tooth.  Needed a 'reducer' to fit a half inch shaft.  There are two stop collars that are half inch so a quick sleeve would make this work RIGHT NOW.  This was spec'd wrong.  It has a 0.75" hole for a 0.5" shaft. 

So, here it is, pressed in the middle and ready for install.

The neat part: this doesn't rotate.  It is used as a stop.  Very interesting design.

Any way, This week has blown by, and left me in the dust.  My plan to post a million times this year is now behind schedule.  

Library Additions

 

I spent a few minutes visiting with my mentor this week.  He gave me treasure....

Editions 1,2,3,4,6,7

I love books.  I like the way they smell.  I like the way they feel.  Their weight says value.  And I LOVE the information that they hold.  They are there, rain or shine.  Ready to give what they hold by candle light, in an afternoon porch swing or any place you have light enough to read.  I have had the most wonderful trips, met the most amazing people, and have actually understood the mind of the long gone author by reading books.  I know it's old fashioned, but a library is a good thing.  And the way our betters are cutting people out of the loop, it won't surprise me in the least if our access to knowledge is curtailed... for some 'sin' we may or may not have done.

 

Looking at a website that has a scanned copy just isn't the same as knowing that I am holding a cherished tool.  Maybe it helped make the Jenny of WW1, or the P-47 or P-38 in WW2.  Did they use it to manufacture the iron lung that kept folks alive in the 50's?  You just never know where they come from, or what their owners did.  Yeah, I'm a bit mystic about historical objects, but I have a pretty active imagination.  

 

Hey, quick, what does a lathe apron look like?  You know, a cut away diagram.

 

Created with a pencil, a ruler, and a hunk of rubber... among other things

 

Hey, have you ever seen the drill press the Keith Fenner has?

How cool is that?

Thanks for stopping by.

Mid-Yeet

Well it appears we did see a yeet.  And now the there is a yeet to get rid of President Trump less than a fortnight before the inauguration.  Why would that be?  I think it is fear.

Inquiring minds would like to know.

New email for direct comms: budgetmachining at protonmail dot com

I've been working on a few projects.  more to follow.

But I find my mind wandering through the past two months.  What did I see?  What do I make of this?  How do I go forward?  How do I prepare and execute the right plan?  The pirouette of the mind can be paralyzing.  Especially when hope seems lost.

"In the course of human events...."

I find myself speaking low, "Pray for clarity and truth, Look around, See what is really happening here, Remember what you see and what you know.  Be strong and of a good courage.  Stand with resolve for the ones that look to you for strength."

Courage and Faith brothers.  We aren't the first to see this happen, we won't be the last.

What's a yeet?

 Have you seen this pic?  Or one of it's many iterations?

 

H/T Ninetymiles blog

I was drinking coffee, reading the folks I trust this morning and it struck me.  Those guys on line three are spelling out yeet.

I wonder if we are about to see a yeet.  

 

I made myself laugh....

Sometimes the old wet ware sees patterns in the weirdest places....

Steady Rest

I used a steady rest for the first time on the Logan.  I've watched folks do this a few times, and since I was just knocking rust off, I figured it was time to try it out.

Genuine Logan Accessory

I'll include a link to how to set these up.  Or maybe a couple links.

Here is Mr. Pete - This is the gospel according to St. Lyle

Here is Joe Pie up in Austin Texas - This is the high precision, professional way

Here is Quinn at Blondie Hacks - This is the hobby machinist view

If you look close, you'll see some black tarry goop on the tubing.  That is something that Mr. Pete mentioned some years back.  When I was first starting, I'd watch Mr. Pete and if he said it was good, it was ordered.  I've had this stuff for a while now, and it works as advertised.  I shudda bathed in this stuff this year.

Machinist's Brylcreem

Extra Credit Question:  What was Brylcreem's tag line?  

My runout at the rest was about .010"  Not good enough for precision work, but okay for a red Scotch Brite® 7447B scrub.  That stuff knocked the rust of easily.  I used a doubled strip about an inch wide, backed by a file.

I did some smaller shafting previously, and there was this wafting fog of rust dust moving around while I worked.  I wiped the ways after I was done, somewhat OCD about this Logan.  Mr. Garcia did a great job of maintaining it from 1946 until he passed in the early 90's.  I got it after it sat for 10 years.  So, I don't want to offend his attention to detail by being a dip.

Hmmmmm.... how to protect the ways?  

I took a paper sack, like civilized people used in the pre-enlightened age.  You remember that time right?  Back when trash could actually decompose over time? Or you needed to start a fire in the fireplace or wood stove?  Or you needed to protect a borrowed book? I used some old hard drive magnets to hold it down, then hit it with a light spray of oil (WD40 works) to latch onto the dust.

Multiple historical artifacts pictured above

Not borrowed, but I still want to keep it protected!!

It worked well, and I still wiped and lubed the snot out of the ways.  Oh, about the book.  I'm a "nuts and bolts" guy.  I like to know how things work, like, how EVERYTHING works.  I can't help it.

This is an old school steady.  It has rubbers not rollers.  That may need to be rectified/retrofitted at some point in the future.  But this worked well for me on this job.

Thanks for stopping by the shop.

Clarity...

This won't be about machining.  This is more personal.  If you don't want to read it, that is fine.  I'll be back to machining soon.

 

Pintrest

 

I have begun to crave clarity.   I know I've mentioned it before.  Seeing clearly is such a gift.  As I've aged, my eyes have started to do what all old eyes do.  One eye has gotten better at distance, while losing near vision, and the other has done  just the opposite.  Vision changes as we get older...

Did you ever think that vision could be painful?  I had a close call last year with a detachment of the vitreous in my eye.  A big purple streak in one eye, like an arc flash, on a cloudy day while I was driving.  No reason to have that, and it lasted for well over 90 minutes.  I had two laser treatments since, as I have a family history of detachments of the retina.  Both eyes are doing well.  But those treatments were very nearly torture.  The bright flashes of a green laser and pressure on my eyeball were tough to endure.  But I still have good vision.  Clarity cost me a bit of pain.

Clarity of position this year has been quite painful too.  Seeing family members suffer without any ability to mitigate it put me in my place in January / February.  God is the only One who can mitigate that type of suffering.  Slamming headlong into my own physical weakness through the head injury was sobering.  Having family abandon me in the midst of being unable to care for myself showed me their priorities.  It also showed me that I could manage just enough to keep body and soul together, God gave me strength to do that.  I didn't have it in me to.  Having a coworker submarine me was harsh, but I needed to negotiate for myself. And I was successful, but only with God's intervention.  Watching the .gov abandon all pretense of integrity has clearly shown me that God is the only one that cares for the people under His authority.

I follow scripture as best I can understand it: "a man shall leave his father and mother, cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh."  I started a family, and they are all adults now.  I've had setbacks, but they have brought clarity.  Knowing where you stand is priceless.  It's painful too, but I'm not focusing on the pain.  I'm focusing on the clarity.

So, here I present something I have shamelessly borrowed.  I found my path coming close to this already.  It was oddly prescient.  Prescient: adjective, having or showing knowledge of events before they take place.

Manifesto

1. As I am a Christian and as such will continue in my Christian beliefs and expect myself to live in the confines of orthodox Biblical Christianity, seeking like minded believers.  I must never be complacent in study and reading of the Bible as it is the revealed Word of God, Himself.*
   

2. As I am an adult responsible for providing for myself, I will live, invest, and save in the expectation that no-one can or should support me.

3. As the power to tax is the power to destroy, I will do everything in my power to legally minimize the amount of taxes that I have to pay.

4. As the growth of government is the growth of the ability to control the individual and impede freedom, I will do all I legally can to slow or deny this growth.

5. As physical fitness enables all other aspects of life, I will do all in my power to maintain my body in as healthy and strong a state as I can.

6. As privacy is the ability to live one’s life free from interference and oversight, I will do all in my power to eschew public and social media attention.

7. As money is the ability to act in an economic world, I will buy only that which is needed and planned for, buy used before new where sensible and possible, and seek to use, reuse, and extend the life of all items I own as long as possible.

8. As independence from the cash and debt based economic system is the ability to act freely, I will seek minimize my needs and to provide as much of them as is possible.

9. As we have become a society which values number of contacts over the depth of those contacts and has given those contacts the right to judge the individual, I will seek to narrow my relationships to like minded individuals with whom I share an active, ongoing involvement instead those based on a distant, social media relationship or those who feel even a vague acquaintance gives them the right to judge my fitness to participate in society.

10. As as student of Holy Writ, I will seek to continue to train my body and my mind to live in harmony with the precepts of it, seeking the enlightenment that comes from truly understanding the Author of it, as He reveals Himself through the Word, in me, to affect my sphere of influence.*

     *edited

     You are reading his blog every day, right?  

     Feel free to ask how the progress is progressing.  I welcome accountability.

    To those of you who commented last year, the encouragement you gave was needed and appreciated.  I can't even tell you how much.  I'd punch you in the arm if you were standing next to me.
    

    Okay, back to normal, scheduled programming.

    

    borrowed image