Hello from Tucson Arizona

[SlowDave]

Hello to all. I have a small shop here in Tucson where I do machining, blacksmithing and some woodwork. I do a lot of work on older machines, usually buying basket cases and getting them back in operation. I love the simple elegance of older machines that were not designed by accountants trying to make a price point. Besides, they were made to last several lifetimes rather than be consumables.

In the machining portion of the shop I have a Millrite vertical mill, an Atlas 7B shaper, a Deckel knockoff D bit grinder, a Burke No 3 horizontal mill, a RF30 mill drill, a Sajo UF 52 horizontal mill and a South Bend 9 lathe. In the blacksmithing area I have a 300 lbs Hay Budden anvil, a Norton 6 ton fly press, a 50 lbs power hammer, gas and coal forges, a large fab table, various grinders, TIG, MIG and stick welders. For cutting I have oxyacetylene, plasma cutter, a marvel 612 horizontal band saw, a Jet 4x6 horizontal band saw, a power hacksaw, a very heavy hand shear, a beverly shear knock off, an evolution saw and an abrasive cut off saw.

Besides working on machines I do a fair amount of architectural stuff because I am always fixing up buildings. When I get more free time I would like to do some engines from casting kits, etc.

Dave

 

[nautilus29]

Welcome! Sounds like you have a quite the shop!

 

[SlowDave]

Thanks. It is, as always, a work in progress. Never enough room. Most of the smaller stuff is on wheels so I can adapt to the job at hand.

 

[RichardFisher]

Welcome aboard!!

 

[awake]

Welcome! I am sorry to hear that you have so few tools to work with, but we can surely help you think of some to add to the shop.

 

[William May]

Hello to all. I have a small shop here in Tucson where I do machining, blacksmithing and some woodwork. I do a lot of work on older machines, usually buying basket cases and getting them back in operation. I love the simple elegance of older machines that were not designed by accountants trying to make a price point. Besides, they were made to last several lifetimes rather than be consumables.

In the machining portion of the shop I have a Millrite vertical mill, an Atlas 7B shaper, a Deckel knockoff D bit grinder, a Burke No 3 horizontal mill, a RF30 mill drill, a Sajo UF 52 horizontal mill and a South Bend 9 lathe. In the blacksmithing area I have a 300 lbs Hay Budden anvil, a Norton 6 ton fly press, a 50 lbs power hammer, gas and coal forges, a large fab table, various grinders, TIG, MIG and stick welders. For cutting I have oxyacetylene, plasma cutter, a marvel 612 horizontal band saw, a Jet 4x6 horizontal band saw, a power hacksaw, a very heavy hand shear, a beverly shear knock off, an evolution saw and an abrasive cut off saw.

Besides working on machines I do a fair amount of architectural stuff because I am always fixing up buildings. When I get more free time I would like to do some engines from casting kits, etc.

Dave

Hey, Dave!
Sounds like you should join the "Southern Arizona Model Engineers". It was founded in 1989 (I am one of the founding members) and peaked at over 100 members. The club has a meeting once a month, and in August we usually meet at a local library that has a film room, and show interesting films. We also do field trips to local businesses. One was to the Kitt Peak Telescope optical shop, to watch telescope lenses being ground. Another was to a local business where the guy was intent on perpetual motion machines. We also visited the concrete railroad tie plant in mid-Tucson, the Vroom Engineering plant in Tucson, (where they do mining machining on mills that have beds that are 100' long.) the shops of T.A. Caid, who were building armored bulldozers for use in Iraq when we toured them, and we visited another large shop that had a lathe with a 120 foot capacity. When we were there, they were looking at building some engines for a car ferry in Finland. Our members are interested in nearly EVERY technical skill, from papermaking to musical instruments, astronomy (Roy and Claude Tombaugh, (Clyde discovered the planet Pluto.) were both members) bicycle frame making, (One of our members is an internationally renowned bicycle frame maker and has written books on the subject) , live steam and gasoline and diesel locomotives, architecture and marine engineering (Including steam boat owners) antique automobiles, aircraft construction, machine shop tools and accessories, and perpetual motion. No matter what your interest is, you would be welcome in our group.

 

[SlowDave]

Yes, I need to thin down the herd a bit. The problem is every time I sell something a job comes up that the sold tool would have been perfect for. That said I am a bit redundant in mills right now and the same for cutting equipment.

I looked online for the Southern Arizona Model Engineers and I could not find the group's web page. It sounds very interesting.

Dave

 

[awake]

Thin down the herd - what kind of crazy talk is this? Whatever you do, don't let my wife hear you say such an awful thing!

 

[RichardFisher]

Sounds like the lyrics of the song ! : D

 

[SlowDave]

I understand completely. My wife rarely comes in the shop but when she does, "Is that new?" Me, "Why no dear, it is a hundred years old"... It works for me but I am also careful to never disparage all the shoe box sized packages that arrive.

The purpose of thinning down the herd in my case is to create more space for other machines to expand my capabilities in other directions like a turret lathe and surface grinder.

Dave