Ancient History but I was a punch press operator. Grunt. Piece work. When walking through the LR Shop at work, I still love the smell of that place. Real work by real people with real results.
I was also an operator before moving into the set up and machine shop. operators make the least amount of money. a thankless job that carries heavy responsibility. definitely mind numbing.Ancient History but I was a punch press operator. Grunt. Piece work. When walking through the LR Shop at work, I still love the smell of that place. Real work by real people with real results.
Probably a G4003? That's what I have... 12x36 with the gap removed it has a 17" throw.... But I've never removed the gap since I don't have a need for anything that big....
I bought mine second hand from a guy who barely used it... He let his son in law wire it & a couple wires got crossed which melted a contactor.... I got it not working for $500... Spent about three hours diagnosing it & the fix was a new contactor that I had in stock...
Got the three & four jaw chucks, the steady rest, the follower rest, an AXA tool post & 7 tool holders.... Plus a few dozen high speed steel tools...
I think that is exactly the machine that I have, and I "wish" I only had $500 in it . . . the G I thought it was a gunsmithing lathe . . . WRONG ! !
- one of the seals leaked, totally rebuilt the machine, new seals, new bearings, got it dialed in really well . . . the seals still leak . . .
- the 3 jaw chuck that they had with it was junk . . . could not get it to repeat - ever - had to buy a Bison Chuck ( that thing is the BOMB ! )
- still need to do some tuning, the gap bed was removed and I still can't get it smooth across the joint . . . but I'm trying and I'm learning . . .
- welded up one heck of a table stand for the lathe . . . will never have to worry about it again ( unless I need to move the thing )
The first set of pics are prototype components we’re developing for Dentists. The dual barrel syringe is our .5mm with a mixing head/tip. Kinda like the epoxy delivery syringe you buy at Home Depot just smaller. The others are some micro tips for ortho dentists.What are all these things pictured?
The second set of pics are the tooling for the support clips that our b body steering columns use.
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I started wearing 125 readers around 45 and now am using the same to drive with lol. Could still read the mics at 55 fairly easily without readers but had to squint a bit. Got bi-focals before retiring but they were useless for most of what I was machining. Tilt your head back to look inside of something chucked up in the lathe? Right. Asked for progressives but the 'company' eye doctor said I didn't need those. Moron, you don't know what it's like to do that kind of work to say that.I am in awe of machinists. Very hard on the eyes though, most of them wear glasses from age 40+
Worked at s company in Houston called CAMCO for a short time before hiring in at Exxon. CAMCO stood for Computer Aided Machining Co. It was a pretty large shop but it wasn't as large as yours. Back in 79, they had just got rid of the tape drives and went to a tape programmed memory bank. Run the tape through and you could take the tape out and even make a new one at the machine if needed. Our programmer sucked so it was common to have to run a new tape after correcting the first prove out and you had better watch the machine make a dry run before loading anything in it. The shop closed down not too many years after the first oil crunch in the early 80's along with so many other shops. Houston was heavy into oil related tooling.....We have over 50 CNC machines. 15 manual Bridgeports, 12 manual lathes, cam grinders, crank grinders full engine machine shop and many more. Been here 26 years and still impressed with some of the stuff we machine daily around here.
What lube do you refer to? cutting oils/coolants?I'd heard taking the gap out is a problem.. & yeah I heard the Bison is a significant upgrade.... I'm not doing anything to precise but it's very useful.... In the future I may do more with it but since I've had two cars with finished body work in primer stored in my shop I haven't wanted to do much in the way of making chips... Really the lube has been my biggest concern...
I wonder if drilling & pinning the gap before removing it would make it drop right back where it belongs...
What lube do you refer to? cutting oils/coolants?
that is totally badass and state of the art. we are still working with 30 year old lathes that work, but are still completely mechanical[/QUOTE]We had a few very large lathes that still had the Nave data plates still on them![QUOTE="MrJLR, post: 911398157, member: 24090"
Due to my allergies, I did some research and talked to a pretty knowledgeable cutting tool tech and learned how to cut without using coolants. I will use some light oils for drilling/milling stuff though. Cutting oils don't bother me nearly as bad as lathe coolant does. Grinding coolant is another one that kills me. We had this one surface grinder that you could put a small car on the table that put up a pretty good mist in the air and well, that thing would put me down after 2 days of using it.Exactly... When you start using oil & cutting metal it burns off a little bit.. That winds up settling on nearby surfaces... In my case that would be two cars in primer waiting for paint....