Empty Space in the Garage
July 13th, 2009It Haunts Me
Guess what I still don’t have?
A MILLING MACHINE.
I’m starting to wonder if it really exists. Maybe I imagined it.
I have a powerful suspicion that the mill will be easier to use than my lathe, which means I might actually be able to make something useful with it. I would really like to put this hunch to the test. But I haven’t heard anything from the seller or riggers or importer since last week.
The positive side of all this is that I haven’t had any metal splinters in several days.
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but every time I use the lathe, I have to spend five minutes over a magnifying lamp, trying to find tiny yet extremely painful splinters that have lodged in my hands. These things are so small, sometimes they’re nearly microscopic. Yet somehow, they’re big enough to hurt. You find them when you move your hand past something, and the splinters catch on it. Like using a towel, or putting your hand in your pocket.
I’ve figured one thing out. If you have to have metal splinters, you want steel. Because it will eventually rust and disappear. Aluminum and stainless are forever, unless you find them. I think.
I have just about everything I need to start milling. The cutters are here. The oil. The vise. The 1-2-3 blocks. Parallels. A VFD. I even have a huge chunk of steel. I may still have to cut into one of my 220 circuits, depending on how short I want the power cord to be. Other than that, I think I’m ready.
I have no PROJECTS, of course. Let’s not talk crazy.
I hope this thing arrives this week. There is nothing like the satisfaction of realizing a dream, even if, like mine, it’s a silly dream.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:19 PM
“riggers” How rude. it’s “Regroes”
July 13th, 2009 at 4:39 PM
Plus, if you use steel, you can use a magnet to find the splinters.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:49 PM
I have used a safety razor to catch and pull the little bits of metal. It may hurt a little but its better than two or two or three days of aggravation.
July 13th, 2009 at 8:58 PM
Today you sort of find yourself in the same position as the industrialists in Ayn Rand’s book “Atlas Shrugged”…having the funds to pay for and a desire and a need for the means of production, but not being able to find the equipment to do so.
(Read that book [again if you have before]–I bought a 1957 edition recently–and it will scare the crap out of you looking at the world today…)
July 13th, 2009 at 9:49 PM
Can’t Maynard pull out the splinters?
July 13th, 2009 at 10:23 PM
I have just about everything I need to start milling. The cutters are here. The oil. The vise. The 1-2-3 blocks. Parallels. A VFD. I even have a huge chunk of steel.
.
You left out a Rotary Table…
.
Welp, my enabling here is almost done. Time to go figure out what EWYWADLAM recipe to make on the upcoming camping trip 🙂
July 14th, 2009 at 8:50 AM
Enabling? Done? Nobody’s mentioned a Bobcat in a while.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:21 AM
I hate to tell you but steel does not rust and disappear. I have one chunk that has been in my hand for 12 years. It does nt really bother me but if it did it would have to be cut out now.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:35 AM
The little ones seem to go away.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Is the wiring done for the mill?
July 14th, 2009 at 12:23 PM
You could have just driven to Harbor Freight and bought a little combo machine, you know…
As an appetizer, to tide you over.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:53 PM
I think Steve’s mill is something like Schrodinger’s cat. It only “potentially” exists until the truck actually pulls up out front and the door opens. At that time it will either exist or not exist depending upon the quantum state it’s in.