# Newbie Intro....



## SonofHarold - Metal Carver (Apr 19, 2018)

Figure since I have much to learn this would be the best spot to introduce myself. I have been getting just a little experience here and there, on and off for about 10 years. Mostly off tho as it seems there was alway something else demanding my time and I have been unable to spend any consistent time learning. I find something strangely satisfying that I like about just turning down a piece of metal, and making chips. Hence the "Metal Carver" part of my screen name ( maybe should have been whittler ) The Son of Harold is homage to by Dad who was a machinist and tool maker in the aerospace industry. ( he went by RAY btw, I ve never known anyone with the name Harold who used it as there common first name) When he passed almost 15 years ago I inherited most of his tools and a very nice Gerstner that I think is nearly as old as I am. 
Now I am retired and should have time and I have decided to make home machining one of my main hobbies. After making the move from Colorado to Western PA I am now in the process of setting up my shop. Just sold my HF 7x10 and am looking at maybe a G4000 ( tho everywhere I look they are backordered and not expected for months) or maybe a G0768. (which fits my space a little better actually) 
Looked at the website for Precision Mathews the other day and learned he is just a few miles from my house and while most of his stuff would seriouly break my budget for now, I might have to visit one day. ( and drool)
For now I'll be lurking and reading a lot, but certain I'll have questions and the need for help as time goes on. This seems to be a good form and I'll offer my thanks and appreciation to all those who make it possible, I've already got a lot of good info here before deciding to join just today.


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## markba633csi (Apr 19, 2018)

Hi Mr. Newb! 
our site will be down tonight but not for long we hope
Mark


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## cg285 (Apr 19, 2018)

SonofHarold - Metal Carver said:


> ( he went by RAY btw, I ve never known anyone with the name Harold who used it as there common first name)



my grandpap had a machine shop/auto repair business from the "teens" til 1986 when he died. he went by smitty but his name was ray (raymon)
he had an employee named harold who worked for him 40 odd years - his first and only job. this was in millvale (pittsburgh)
Park Auto and Machine Shop. did general machine, auto machine and auto /truck repair. small shop by my standards. there is a transmission shop there now.
i have his boring bar, valve/seat machines. his lathe is still in the basement of his house - which was next door to the shop
it looked much bigger when i was young    he did amazing stuff - made most all his tools inc a dividing head and a tool i have never heard of today which attached to the bridgeport and cut internal splines. i saw fixtures where he would get undersize crank bearings and bore to size, tools to cut the deck for o-rings ....


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## vtcnc (Apr 19, 2018)

Welcome to Hobby Machinist!


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## MonkMan (Apr 19, 2018)

Hello and Welcome


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## Martin W (Apr 19, 2018)

Welcome, to the site
Cheers
Martin


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## SonofHarold - Metal Carver (Apr 19, 2018)

Kind of know where millvale is... at least heard of it... having a heck of a time learning my way around the burgh, GPS is my new best driving buddy!


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## royesses (Apr 19, 2018)

Welcome. You will find that this is the best forum on the planet for learning and asking questions. Great bunch of guys and gals with a wealth of knowledge.

Roy


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## Z2V (Apr 20, 2018)

Hello and welcome to this great forum.


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## BROCKWOOD (Apr 20, 2018)

Hello & Welcome! I still consider myself a newb. With your background, you should be a natural at this! On the other sites I found it easy to get a 100 negatives to a post. Here, 10 positives is about the norm.


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## Downunder Bob (Apr 20, 2018)

Welcome to the best forum for Hobby Machinists, You'l find friendship and help from good honest folk here. As someone else said "The only dumb question is the one you didn't ask".


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## benmychree (May 15, 2018)

cg285 said:


> my grandpap had a machine shop/auto repair business from the "teens" til 1986 when he died. he went by smitty but his name was ray (raymon)
> he had an employee named harold who worked for him 40 odd years - his first and only job. this was in millvale (pittsburgh)
> Park Auto and Machine Shop. did general machine, auto machine and auto /truck repair. small shop by my standards. there is a transmission shop there now.
> i have his boring bar, valve/seat machines. his lathe is still in the basement of his house - which was next door to the shop
> it looked much bigger when i was young    he did amazing stuff - made most all his tools inc a dividing head and a tool i have never heard of today which attached to the bridgeport and cut internal splines. i saw fixtures where he would get undersize crank bearings and bore to size, tools to cut the deck for o-rings ....


I'd have to guess that all those Harolds out there did not want to be teased about being "Hairy". That Bridgeport attachment would be called a slotting attachment or shaping attachment; I have one for my #2 Brown & Sharpe mill and also have a 6" Pratt & Whitney vertical shaper (slotter), and they are quite handy for splines, keyways, square and rectangular holes, most any shape that might be needed as an internal feature, combined with a rotary table, segments of circles may be shaped.


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## cg285 (May 15, 2018)

benmychree said:


> I'd have to guess that all those Harolds out there did not want to be teased about being "Hairy". That Bridgeport attachment would be called a slotting attachment or shaping attachment; I have one for my #2 Brown & Sharpe mill and also have a 6" Pratt & Whitney vertical shaper (slotter), and they are quite handy for splines, keyways, square and rectangular holes, most any shape that might be needed as an internal feature, combined with a rotary table, segments of circles may be shaped.



this "attachment" was attached to the quill and made a 90 degree turn. the cutter was vertical


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## benmychree (May 15, 2018)

cg285 said:


> this "attachment" was attached to the quill and made a 90 degree turn. the cutter was vertical


When you said that it was used to make internal splines I thought it must be the shaping attachment; it would take a pretty big hole to accommodate the 90 degree attachment.


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## bfd (May 15, 2018)

welcome ask any questions somebody will answer bill


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## cg285 (May 16, 2018)

benmychree said:


> When you said that it was used to make internal splines I thought it must be the shaping attachment; it would take a pretty big hole to accommodate the 90 degree attachment.



i would agree. no idea what it was used for


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## BROCKWOOD (May 16, 2018)

Anyone else think it's time for a few pics?


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## cg285 (May 16, 2018)

BROCKWOOD said:


> Anyone else think it's time for a few pics?



i didn't think to take pictures 50 years ago


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## BROCKWOOD (May 16, 2018)

cg285 said:


> i didn't think to take pictures 50 years ago


We're all guity of that. Was hoping to see the here n now is all.


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## cg285 (May 16, 2018)

30 years ago i asked for and got some pieces of equipment. that one never crossed my mind at the time as i was more interested in auto machine tools


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## Silverbullet (May 17, 2018)

May I add my welcome to the site. No wrong questions can be asked here . We will try to help .


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## SonofHarold - Metal Carver (Jul 25, 2018)

Well I finally did it. 
After dragging my feet and bouncing around between about 4 different lathes 2 from Grizzly a typical 9x19 I located on ebay and Weiss lathes from DROPROs I pulled the trigger on a new lathe and it should be getting to me in the next few weeks. After really liking what I saw at Precision Mathews, but they being out of stock on what I was looking and the fact that anything else that comes in is going to have the tarifs added to bump up the price by as much as $400...  I got the 10x22 Weiss ( I believe these are the same lathes sold by PM?) from DROPROS. Ended up spending more than I orginally planned and went all out and got the dro, the QCTP, and added the four jaw chuck etc. Figured I might as well dive all the way in and get all the goodies I kept thinking "I'll add that later". 
The bench is ready, the power in and some new LED lighting are completed and now the wait begins, hoping for about mid August. I am sure I'll have questions. Any tips for getting the lathe setup and ready out of the crate?
Thanks


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## BROCKWOOD (Jul 25, 2018)

Congrats! Machining is the last trade on my hobby list, so my lessons learned may be of use to you. I thought at 600 pounds I could just level my lathe out on my bench & be fine. Not so. Got it mounted with 5/8 bolts through a 3/4 thick full length plate with boxed 2" angle plate under the table. Much more stable. It was much harder to figure & drill for the mounting after having had the lathe in service. Looking forward to your updates.


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## Creativechipper (Jul 25, 2018)

Welcome, I recently joined the party and picked up a weiss 250 lathe 10x30".

 Still gathering measuring devices and tooling for my 1st cuts to see if its level enough.

 Lots of fun reading up on whats needed for the projects you intend to make. So much info here from good tools to projects, very helpful bunch!!


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## SonofHarold - Metal Carver (Aug 6, 2018)

Well it's here! Got the crate open just to look at it all and am now getting ready to get it up on the bench in the next couple of days. Think I'll need to rent an engine hoist tho. Thought with help from my step son and a cousin we could get lift it up, but now think it's going to be hard to get three people gathered round it all get our hands on the lathe to lift it. Got some other things like mowing and stuff to do tomorrow so hoping forWednesday or Thursday. Think I'll still enlist some helpt too. Just fighting a little, getting too anxious and getting in a hurry. just ordered some Vectra #2 way oil, Anyone tell me why it's so expensive to ship? Cost more to ship a quart or a gallon the stuff costs to buy! 
 Soon enough I'll be making swarf


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## SonofHarold - Metal Carver (Oct 4, 2018)

Well it is all finally coming together and beginning to take shape. Been juggling a number of other things and SLOWLY getting things set up. First I had to better reinforce the bench, turned out I got a larger heavier lathe than I was originally looking at... the Weiss 10x30 is nice and I am very happy with it thus far. I added 2 stringers of 1" angle under the bench to stifen it all along the length of the lathe. Then used MDF to top the bench and set the lathe on. That made it easy to just reliefe the MDF where the bold heads were located for the angle. Getting things organized and put away has been the challenge since getting the lathe in place on the bench. The space is one side of a two car garage and there is a support wall between the stalls. while its rather narrow it is about 8-9 foot deeper than a typical garage.




One of the trickier tasks was getting it lifted high enough as ceiling height is only about 7.5 ft. The garage is under the house.
Also wanted to be able to heat the garage but being beneath living space and with no windows other than the end with the doors it is beneath grade so easy to heat but wanted to avoid any gas type of heat. It never droped much below the 60 degree mark even in the coldest weather of last winter. So ended up opting for an A/C - heat pump that will both heat and cool, and provide some de-humidification also. ( being from Colorado the humidity here in western PA just kills me...) Just got that set up by cutting and installing a vent through the lower panel of the garage door. Left it easy to disconnetct the portable A/C unit and still open the door when needed.
Getting anxious to start making things and have a couple of simple things in mind. Thought I had a lot of tooling, HA! am now finding out just how much tooling I don't have so am shopping to get tooled up. In the mean time I have only made a few cuts with the lathe just to check it out and get used to the DRO. My questions will soon be coming...


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## ttabbal (Oct 4, 2018)

I added an A/C heat pump to the shop as well, made a huge difference in comfort for hot or humid days. Seeing how much water comes from the drain makes me think that it was a good idea for the machines as well.


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## jdedmon91 (Oct 4, 2018)

Since my shop is small a window unit has performed well this summer. I used a electric ceramic heater and a propane heater over the winter last year and am satisfied 


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