{"id":2583,"date":"2009-01-20T11:56:24","date_gmt":"2009-01-20T16:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/?p=2583"},"modified":"2009-02-05T10:44:22","modified_gmt":"2009-02-05T15:44:22","slug":"tiny-teutonic-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/?p=2583","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Teutonic Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wabeco?<\/em><\/p>\n

I am sitting here listening to CLE and resisting the urge to suck on a pistol with my head in the oven and chewing cyanide. Hopefully I will have the strength to get this done today.<\/p>\n

While I listen, I can’t keep myself from Googling machine tools.<\/p>\n

People keep telling me small machines are stupid, and I suppose that is true, for a person who has space. Space will eventually be a problem for me. A real milling machine takes up something like 4′ by 6′ of floor space, and you have to pay someone to bring it to you, because it will weigh a ton or so. And a mill isn’t a lathe. So even after you stuff your garage with a mill, you have to look for a lathe which takes up nearly as much room.<\/p>\n

Cost is another issue. I keep reading about “cheap” used full-size machines, but it appears that “cheap” means two grand for a mill and fifteen hundred for a lathe. Before tooling. Ouch.<\/p>\n

I have also read that combination machines are bad news, because they don’t do anything well.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, my interest has been captured by a small combination machine. Some guy is selling a Wabeco 7.5″ by 16″ lathe with a milling attachment. Wabeco is supposed to be just about the best small machine tool manufacturer in the universe. They’re Germans, so they’re insane about quality. Supposedly their machines are more precise than the ones made by Sherline and Taig, and they’re somewhat bigger and more versatile. And you can put one on a card table.<\/p>\n

Okay, a really sturdy card table. Made by Germans. Or, of course, a Workmate. The universal machining platform for all purposes.<\/p>\n

This thing retails for…wow…about seven grand. Dude wants fifteen hundred. Hard to see myself losing money on that buy, unless he has replaced the inner workings with oatmeal.<\/p>\n

Might be fun. I don’t see myself living in Miami forever; sooner or later I’ll have a workshop where I can park a mill, a lathe, and an Abrams tank if I want. But while I’m here, maybe I could learn a little machining on an item like this, without ruining the garage.<\/p>\n

More<\/strong><\/p>\n

The more I think about it, the more I think this is a good idea. I’ve read that many people like to have small machine tools in addition to their big ones, for little jobs. So presumably, if I outgrow this, it will still be a good thing to have around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wabeco? I am sitting here listening to CLE and resisting the urge to suck on a pistol with my head in the oven and chewing cyanide. Hopefully I will have the strength to get this done today. While I listen, I can’t keep myself from Googling machine tools. People keep telling me small machines are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}