Your machinist personality

Here's mine and I'm doing this exercise as it helps me refocus my efforts as I only have about 1200 good weekends left to finish everything on my list.

Perfectionist - without the skill to always deliver, so buy good tools so they are not the problem.

Untrusting - I don't usually trust trades people to fix stuff properly, so learn to do everything myself and buy good tools to do the work.

Financially Successful - so I can always afford to buy quality. (tools and equipment)

Frugal - so I always look for value and good deals when buying equipment, never pay retail.

Lazy - I always look for an easier way, or a more efficient way to do something.

Risk Taker - willing to take a risk, I'll try almost anything as long as it doesn't endanger my life or well being.

Pack Rat - I'm an organized messy pack rat, some of my stuff is all organized, but I have areas that are just never going to get sorted, it frustrates me at times. I love reading Garage Organization threads and envision all those new cabinets and shelving systems to have the perfectly organized shop, but then the frugal guy pipes up, "Hey wait a sec"!

Procrastinator - great at starting projects, not always good at finishing them, not sure if that's the lazy part or the frugal part of me that causes the delays.
Maybe I'm waiting for a good deal on something or the perfectionist shows up and demands things be done differently, so I stop and regroup until I find a way forward that pleases the perfectionist and the lazy guy as well.

That's about all I got for now.

David
 
Kiwi Canuck said:
Here's mine and I'm doing this exercise as it helps me refocus my efforts as I only have about 1200 good weekends left to finish everything on my list.

Perfectionist - without the skill to always deliver, so buy good tools so they are not the problem.

Untrusting - I don't usually trust trades people to fix stuff properly, so learn to do everything myself and buy good tools to do the work.

Financially Successful - so I can always afford to buy quality. (tools and equipment)

Frugal - so I always look for value and good deals when buying equipment, never pay retail.

Lazy - I always look for an easier way, or a more efficient way to do something.

Risk Taker - willing to take a risk, I'll try almost anything as long as it doesn't endanger my life or well being.

Pack Rat - I'm an organized messy pack rat, some of my stuff is all organized, but I have areas that are just never going to get sorted, it frustrates me at times. I love reading Garage Organization threads and envision all those new cabinets and shelving systems to have the perfectly organized shop, but then the frugal guy pipes up, "Hey wait a sec"!

Procrastinator - great at starting projects, not always good at finishing them, not sure if that's the lazy part or the frugal part of me that causes the delays.
Maybe I'm waiting for a good deal on something or the perfectionist shows up and demands things be done differently, so I stop and regroup until I find a way forward that pleases the perfectionist and the lazy guy as well.

That's about all I got for now.

David
Click to expand...
You just described me... to a 'T'... lol

Bear
 
I always invested a portion of my income as an industrial mechanic in tools (9%). Some of the side work I took on paid mostly for tools. Those were my poor days & I was counting pennies as I was just starting out with a wife & daughter. So, I get exactly what Chris.Trotter is saying. Now-a-days, collecting machine equipment is not really any different. Although kids are grown & raising their own children, I find myself still justifying each purchase. There is always a current goal that requires something I don't have. Back to planning. I once described it to a friend that machine work requires making a tool to make a tool to make the tool you needed in the 1st place. LOL But, this is great for organizing thoughts & planning! I love it.
 
I want larger equipment and tooling like I used in the shops I worked at. But I bought a mini mill and moderate size lathe because on my limited space (realistic) I'm constantly wishing more room (frustrated). But eventually having two of each machine is always a good thing (spoiled).

I'm a dreamer, designer and tenacious perfectionist. That's what my wife calls me. My boss at the racing shop called me a Machine because I made him a lot of money , $1 to 2 K per day.
 
Today my good lady came out to the shop and asked what I was doing, I replied making a tool, she replied a tool for what, I said a tool that will help me make a tool so that I can make the thing or parts I want. She said why don't you just buy the thing you want, I replied where's the fun in that. She shook her head and said you guys say we women are weird, and she left the shop and left me in piece to continue having fun.

She doesn't understand, but she does try to be undertsanding about it. Now that she is also retired, ive told her she needs to get a hobby, but she doesn't get it, perhaps in time she will.
 
Apparently I am a borderline skinflint but prefer thinking of myself as frugal. There is just something
gratifying to go to a store and look at something and then going home and making it. I even peruse
E-bay for ideas at times...... I have used my caliper in conjuction with my computer screen to
get the scale of parts at times. Also I realize there is no such thing as perfection since in physics,
a straight line really isn't straight. That way one can concentrate on form and functionality instead
of concentrating on perfection that does not exist. My shop is cluttered but my machines are clean
and well oiled and are much better machines now than when I got them.

My psychological category?:grin: :dancing banana::dancing banana::dancing banana: :dancing banana:
 
cathead said:
My psychological category?:grin:
Click to expand...
LOL! Category: I Am A Dancing Banana

Well done, sir, bravo.

Love where you guys took this, haha, good stuff. Kinda made apparent that the real starting point is 'who are you'. Seems like some possible answers (in this context) are: (with YouTube celebrity exemplar!)
- professional machinist/tool-die who also has a home machine shop (Stefan Gotteswinter, Robrenz, Abom79, Oxtools, etc etc etc)
- engineering/manufacturing trade, and has a home machine shop as primary hobby (ThisOldTony)
- professional fabricator, with a machine shop (i.e. welding, woodworking, metalworking, etc - not just machine work) (Jimmy DiResta)
- white collar job (i.e. no involvement with machining/fabrication as a vocation), but only (or, primary, by time/money) hobby is machining (uh...?)
- white collar job, machining is one of many hobbies (can't think of example, but this is where I sit)

(personal side note: I find it amusing how easily I could populate the first category's examples, but struggled afterward - i.e. my YouTube palate is heavily weighted towards professional machinists - lol)

How you fit in to that spectrum would give you a starting point for the exercise, and really if you're not in the last 2-3 categories, this exercise has perhaps less value, well, at least from the perspective of 'building a home machine shop'. If you get into 'life balance', those kinds of exercises benefit everyone. :)
 
Cathead, you are in your own world, you are priceless. LOL

"Billy G"


PS---I don't have one. LOL
 
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I think I'll join in with this...

240v single-phase, all you get in the UK in "domestic" settings unless you're unlucky enough to have electric heating in a home built in the 50s when nuclear power was going to be "too cheap to meter".

7.5 HP / 5KW rotary convertor (almost finished!) for the New Old Mill (2 tons of it)
Hacked 415v 5HP VFD run from 240v to power 2 tons of 50's toolroom lathe with a 3-speed 3HP motor
 
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