Pakistani machine shop videos... thoughts?

[markba633csi]

It's amazing what the people of India do.
Just watched a cool film called "My name is salt" about families who travel to the western desert each year and set up camp.
They dig up their Lister-type engine each season out of the ground having buried it the year before, then get it running and
use it to pump saline into large hand made pans. They spend 8 months living out there, make 1500 tons of salt, sell it, then bury the
equipment and go back to the village till next year. Highly recommended- I've seen it 3 times
-Mark

 

[MrWhoopee]

It's amazing what the people of India do.
Just watched a cool film called "My name is salt" about families who travel to the western desert each year and set up camp.
They dig up their Lister-type diesel engine each season out of the ground having buried it the year before, then get it running and
use it to pump saline into large hand made pans. Fascinating- they spend 8 months living out there, make the salt, sell it, then bury the
equipment and go back to the village till next year. Highly recommended- I've seen it 3 times
-Mark

Funny, I was just reading up on LIster engines this evening. I'd never heard of them before.
"Some CS engines ran practically continuously for decades in agricultural, industrial and electrical applications."

 

[markba633csi]

I didn't know about them either- they have a special cold start feature that requires no glow plug or "hot bulb" ignition

 

[Batmanacw]

Gentlemen, the takeaway from these video is multifaceted.

Yes they do a lot with next to nothing.

Yes they are quite skilled with next to nothing.

The most important takeaway from these videos is what they are repairing..... They fix things we throw away.

As our country is being purposely starved of oil to transition us to "clean energy" we will find making, buying, and transporting spare parts to be much, much harder in the near future. It's already happening now. There will come a time when we are doing similar repairs in small shops all across the country. Things we deem disposable now.

This is exactly why I built my hobby shop when i did. It's fun now but i can make and repair stuff and I've got enough basic supplies to do it for a long time. The only questionable issue is electricity and how bad the rolling black outs will get.

We have the advantage of much better quality equipment in the hands of regular people. My measuring tools, if cared for, will last several generations. My machine tools will run for decades longer than I will live. We start from a position of much higher skill level. My buddy has 3 cnc mills in his garage.

 

[Larry$]

We start from a position of much higher skill level.

I think many of the people in those videos are highly skilled & problem solvers. Not just in metal working either. I watched a kid sitting in the dirt, riffling AK barrels with a twisted strap of metal repeatedly pulled through a wooden guide. The entire village was devoted to making AK riffles with only the crudest of worn out tools.

Trucks, busses, mopeds, trains so overloaded that they must surely require lots of repairs. Luckily there are craftsmen that can. Some of those places have huge import taxes that make it even more difficult to get new equipment and factory parts. Old worn out engines puffing smoke, smog so thick you can't see across the street. Feel lucky to live in the western countries!

 

[taiwanluthiers]

Gentlemen, the takeaway from these video is multifaceted.

Yes they do a lot with next to nothing.

Yes they are quite skilled with next to nothing.

The most important takeaway from these videos is what they are repairing..... They fix things we throw away.

As our country is being purposely starved of oil to transition us to "clean energy" we will find making, buying, and transporting spare parts to be much, much harder in the near future. It's already happening now. There will come a time when we are doing similar repairs in small shops all across the country. Things we deem disposable now.

This is exactly why I built my hobby shop when i did. It's fun now but i can make and repair stuff and I've got enough basic supplies to do it for a long time. The only questionable issue is electricity and how bad the rolling black outs will get.

We have the advantage of much better quality equipment in the hands of regular people. My measuring tools, if cared for, will last several generations. My machine tools will run for decades longer than I will live. We start from a position of much higher skill level. My buddy has 3 cnc mills in his garage.

But we have the choice to not wear loose traditional clothing while working around dangerous machines, whereas maybe in Pakistan they have no choice, either the boss required it, or the country requires it (Islamic countries are not known for personal freedom). We have the choice to use the right kind of materials for its application, for example not use cast iron to make crankshafts.

Edit: Towards the end of the gear video there's a guy sitting on the gear chatting with the shaper operator which is completely unnecessary and dangerous.

 

[Firstram]

Edit: Towards the end of the gear video there's a guy sitting on the gear chatting with the shaper operator which is completely unnecessary and dangerous.

He’s learning how to use the shaper!

 

[Batmanacw]

But we have the choice to not wear loose traditional clothing while working around dangerous machines, whereas maybe in Pakistan they have no choice, either the boss required it, or the country requires it (Islamic countries are not known for personal freedom). We have the choice to use the right kind of materials for its application, for example not use cast iron to make crankshafts.

Edit: Towards the end of the gear video there's a guy sitting on the gear chatting with the shaper operator which is completely unnecessary and dangerous.

My point sailed right over your head.

 

[Firstram]

It's amazing what the people of India do.
Just watched a cool film called "My name is salt" about families who travel to the western desert each year and set up camp.
They dig up their Lister-type engine each season out of the ground having buried it the year before, then get it running and
use it to pump saline into large hand made pans. They spend 8 months living out there, make 1500 tons of salt, sell it, then bury the
equipment and go back to the village till next year. Highly recommended- I've seen it 3 times
-Mark

Awesome film. I can’t imagine leaving such an important piece of equipment buried in salt water!

 

[Ischgl99]

They make serviceable parts, maybe not to our standards, but their entire country is based on getting the job done. I don’t fault them for doing what it takes to keep their country running, I would rather have a part today that will keep me running for the next year over waiting a month or more to get one that will last 5 years. I do cringe seeing the loose clothing they wear, but it wasn’t that long ago that German factories had beer vending machines and sold beer in their cafeterias to workers on their breaks. I personally worked in several breweries in Germany during my training where the plant workers brought us a pitcher of beer during breaks while we were working on their machines, so are we really that much better than them?

We have the choice to use the right kind of materials for its application, for example not use cast iron to make crankshafts.

The ship crankshaft they used for the donor material is highly unlikely to be cast iron, most engines that size use forged steel that would be ideal for the compressor crank they made.