Here's another perspective that can be appreciated by REAL tool nuts:
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Manifesto:
1. The main reason to have tools is in order to build other tools.
2. A secondary reason is to repair tools that you have collected.
3. A tertiary reason is to improve tools that you have collected.
4. A fourth reason is to restore tools to their previous condition after
your improvements did not work.
5. A fifth reason is to create anew missing parts of collected tools
that are made out of unobtainium.
6. In collecting and restoring tools it is essential to obtain only
original manufactured parts even if these are much more expensive
and there are perfectly serviceable equivalent, after-market parts at
a fraction of the cost. If the tool is to be used for any of the above
5
reasons, then it is okay to use the un-official after-market part in a
pinch -- but it is always preferable to find and restore the official
one
when you can -- even if it come to cutting 3/4 x 8.1 acme thread
lead screws for you old Logan lathe.
7. It is theoretically possible to use tools for non-tool building and
restoring purposes, but this is largely speculative and hotly debated.
8. When tools are used for purposes such as 7 above, the more and
heavier the tools used to accomplish that purpose, the more glory
there is in it .
For
example. This afternoon, the elastic on my wife's favorite pair of
jeans broke. Because of the way it was manufactured, it was
impossible to thread a new elastic into the waistband. The obvious
solution was to install a dozen brass eyelets around the waistband
and to provide a tie made out of a pair of old shoelaces. I had the
eyelets, but because of the huge number of drawers
full of tools, I could not find the eyelet tool or the proper hole
punch. I made a new hole punch, using both lathes and a tool-post
grinder. Then I had to make a die for the punch. Having no stock of
the proper diameter, I mounted a square piece of stock on my
rotary table and used the mill to cut it to an approximate round
shape. More work on the lathe to cut the die and on
the other lathe, to cut the punch. I had to use the taper attachment
both times.
Of course, there was heavy-duty work on the bench grinder to make
all the form tools that were obviously needed for this task. I admit
that because I did not have a heat-treating oven, it was not possible
for me to properly heat-treat and harden the punch, the die, or the
hole cutter. I did an admitedly half-assed job using a big torch. It
is
obvious that I am missing (1) a heat-treating oven, (2) a centerless
grinder, (3) a precision tool grinder. When I finished the job, I put
the new tools away in the proper drawer and found the existing hole
punch, die, and grommet punch.
However, my labors were totally vindicated because the hole punch
was at least 1/64 oversized and the die for the grommet as well as
the corresponding grommet punch were about the same amount
under. The proper solution, had I been able to truly and fully
practice the religion would have been to make my own
grommets that would properly fit the existing hole punch, die, and
grommet punch. For this I would have made the appropriate four
punch die -- It is clear that I also needed, therefore, a 10 ton punch
press. No doubt the shim stock that I would have used would have
been wrong, mandating a small rolling mill suitable for brass -- and
an anealing oven since one should have separate heat-treating and
anealing ovens. All these deficiencies and problems
notwithstanding, I did the best I could. I mounted the jean's
waistband on a piece of heavy steel stock - 2 x 1 x 26 (she is a
small person) and clamped the waistband to the stock using
every single small machinist's clamp that I had. First however, I had
attached (after careful milling and scraping) a right angle block at
both ends so that the jig could be placed either upright or lying
down. Then, carefully applying dykem blue on the backside of the
jig, I let that dry and took the lot over to the surface plate where I
marked a horizontal line at the proper distance, and then standing
the jig on end -- first one side and then the other, I carefully market
the spacing for the grommets and then center punched all the holes -
- obviously, the fact that my height gauge is only 18" is a
serious deficiency, and I really need a 36" height gauge for this job -
-I did briefly consider making one but rejected that as being
excessively punctilious. Having marked the hole locations, I took
them over to the drill press and drilled small pilot holes (1/8) through
the steel and into the cloth. I had to move the job several times --
the fact that I did not have that essential 24" throat radial drill
press
really bothered me -- another item for the shopping list. I suppose I
could have done it on a Bridgeport in a pinch -- but my mill table has
only 15" of travel so that was obviously inadequate. I won't go into
the jig I used to allign the hold punch and grommet punch with the
pilot holes because that is obvious and elementary. The final
tool was a 28" steel corkscrew with forged eyelet. That was formed
on a die of the right pitch -- which was a job because neither of
my lathes will cut screw threads of that pitch -- I obviously was
missing a gunsmith's rifling set-up which with suitable adaptation
would have made making that forming die for the corkscrew a trivial
task: But I fixed that by hobbing a pair of special change gears for
the small SB lathe. It took several tries to get the pitch just right
(2.5403") so that it was possible to thread the corkscrew through all
the grommets, then snag the shoelace in the forged eyelets and
withdraw the lot to accomplish a perfectly threaded shoelace-
beltMission accomplished.
What I don't understand is why she complained about the
cutting oil that inevitably got on the jeans -- and after all my work
she
threw the damned things into the garbage can -- there is no
explanation of such things to people who do not understand the
purpose of tools.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<<Jim>>
--
<<http://www.oldengine.org/members/jdunmyer>>
<<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
<<lower SE Michigan, USA>>
<<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
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