Wizard,
I’ve got quite a bit of peripheral knowledge and experience, but limited machining experience. It may be more than you wanted to know, but here goes...
I “owned” a bike shop from the ages of 9 to 18 (took over my parent’s garage)—buying junk bikes, stripping them down, repainting them with rattle cans, putting them back together and selling them. I also repaired bikes. When I was 15 I built a frame from Reynolds 531 tubing. I taught myself to file lugs, notch tubing, and silver braze. A neighbor across the street was a tool maker for GM which is where I was introduced to heli-arc welding for aluminum. He had a complete shop in a garage behind his house, but I was only able to glimpse in there a couple times. Another neighbor owned a tool and die shop that I visited a few times. I remember being fascinated thinking about tools that make measurement tools to make tools (kinda like standing between two mirrors and seein multiple shrinking perspectives).
I got a degree in materials science, but focused on semiconductor processing rather than “heat it and beat it” metallurgy (but had all the basic coursework). One of my professors specialized in tribology—I didn’t take any classes on the subject, but went to a couple seminars and was intrigued with what happened between two metals—cutting, welding, rubbing—and how lubricants work at a molecular level. I never acted on the intrigue, just filed it away for later.
Fast forward to present day, and I have the space and means to have a shop. I first outfitted it with woodworking tools, as for many years I was frustrated to not have the space or money to have equipment to do precise machining of wood, instead teaching myself to use hand tools to build and create wood furniture.
I pulled the trigger on a bucket list item—building an ERA 427 AC Cobra. While that’s in progress, I bought a used Superformance to relearn how to work on cars. I started adding to my tool collection as I figured out how to repair things that vibrated off or broke. I realized that while I’d read a lot of Hot Rod magazines when I was a kid, I didn’t know much about working on high performance cars and didn’t have the right tools. I also realized that it would be nice to know how to machine stuff for the cars—an excuse to get more into machining.
I’d always wanted to learn more about metalworking, however, but don’t have the time to take classes. I went back to my roots and just dove in, picking up a 10x31 Logan lathe, a 4x6 HF bandsaw, a Miller MIG welder, and a collection of layout and measuring tools. I want a mill, but haven’t decided what’s best for my needs.
That’s pretty much my background and where I’m going. I do want to make a few tools—lathe cutter height gauge, die holder, convex/concave cutting tool, etc., but I thought an executive toy might be a good learning exercise as well.
AC
