Hi from South Carolina

[eightball]

Hi everyone, I have never built a model engine b4 but it seems facinating. I have been doing maual machinist work for a living for 27 years now. I work in the paper industry and not only have I ran all the shop equipment, Lathes Mills,Horizontal boring mills. radial arm drills, heck years ago we still had a shaper, but i also ground rolls for 10 years. We have a huge roll balancer that i operate and also we do all the dynamic balancing in the mill, fans etc.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Welcome to the forum sorry for the late response.
tin

 

[gus]

Hi Eightball,

Warm welcome to friendly/helpful HMEM forum.
You are my hero.After trade school,I went to Technical College and ended up with a desk job. Had a hard time reviving my machining skill.Can't saw straight/file square/turn O.D. accurately/bad rough finish/break taps & dies.

Gus,from faraway Singapore.

 

[gabby]

Hi there Eight ball, I have a friend here in Auckland New Zealand who has the same sort of back ground as you and he is slowly getting into the hobby to as he has been restoring motor bikes for a hobby.
It seems his good lady has said enough bikes already, so he is looking at making models now.
Welcome to this wonderful world of knowledge and friends.
Graham

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Eightball --Welcome. You're right--It is fascinating. If you're not careful it will eat up every minute of your spare time, and a lot of time that is not "spare".--Brian

 

[cobweb81]

Welcome eightball. Lots of good advice to be had here.

 

[gus]

Eightball --Welcome. You're right--It is fascinating. If you're not careful it will eat up every minute of your spare time, and a lot of time that is not "spare".--Brian

Hi Brian,

You are correct.Lots of time not really "spare time". Found myself taking machining/design problems to bed and getting up at 6 am and at 8am I am on the lathe till 12 noon and 4---6 pm Monday to Friday. Is this a hobby or obsession??:hDe::hDe:

After total completion and 100% satifaction,the project sits on my printer and admired for next 2---months. My darling boss thinks I am still a crazy kid!!!

 

[eightball]

Thanks all! I am just kind of lurking here a bit. I never thought i would want to do machine work when i retire. The closer i get to retirement age, I really dont know what i would do without access to a lathe and mill. I am starting to look around for a lathe and a mill to get my home shop started. Trying to talk them into a new lathe at work so i can bid on our old monarch cw. I cut my teeth on that old lathe years ago and it needs a little work but all in all a great lathe. It is a 16 x 54 but it will actually swing 18 1/2 over the ways. As far as a mill ill probably try to find a bridgeport series 2 with variable speed and a dro. Kind of a wish list i know. I have 7 years b4 i retire and i need all this up and running well b4 then. As far as the motorcycles go, i too catch a lot of grief about all mine. I have 3 harleys and have started building a fourth one. This latest one is kind of an inspiration from all the old david mann illustrations i loved as a kid. I have a pacho wishbone frame, A mid 80,s harley narrow springer front end complete with brakes risers mini apes and all, a bates solo seat, and i am looking for a shovelhead doner bike And btw i got hung with "eightball" when i joined the MC club years ago. I do still love to shoot pool and just last week won an 8 ball tourney. As far as machine work goes, i know nothing about CNC, its always been manual machine work for me.