Sawmills and mechanical skills

[Magicman]

Also the front of the blade guide should be angled toward the incoming blade.  Then if the blade is deflected rearward and contacts the blade guide flange, the blade will be drawn into tighter contact with the blade guide rather than being pushed away. 

[jpassardi]

When I started it was busting tires.  Then I was allowed to start doing shocks and exhaust.  I borrowed some money from my dad and went and got a small craftsman box and the basic tools, all craftsman.  Boy did I hate making payments to dad.  "

I also started doing tires 2 days after I got my license for a couple years then got promoted to mechanic side of shop. I worked there through Tech school and College and stayed on Saturdays when I started working as an Engineer until I started to build our house. I worked there for 10 years total.

I have very few Snap-On, mostly SK and Craftsman.

[moodnacreek]

The best mechanics need the least amount of tools...

That one hits close to home for me. I'll agree that there's truth to that statement, as long as you don't assume 'need' is synonymous with 'has'. Not that having loads of fancy tools makes you a good mechanic (often the opposite). But you need to have the proper/best tools for the job.

I say it hits close to home, because it hearkens back to when I was a kid and Dad would tell me to do something like shrink fit a flywheel ring gear with a handheld propane torch, or pull off a timing gear with a set of cabinet screwdrivers instead of a proper puller, or take apart a massive, seized ball joint on a tractor with nothing but a claw hammer. (Why Dad was asking a 9 year old kid to jack up and tear down a tractor axle with no supervision or work with a red-hot ring gear is perhaps another question...).

I used to get so frustrated at him for being so cheap to only have basic tools. His argument was always, "A good craftsman never blames his tools". It took me a few years until I realized the correct reply was, "That's because a good craftsman has the right tools for the job". He doesn't use that line anymore.

I remember when I was about 16 or so - old enough to start accumulating my own tools: The first time I worked on a transmission with a full set of pullers, slide hammers, and an oxy-acetylene torch for heating and cutting: It all went so quickly and smoothly. I remember being equal parts elated and furious: Elated because everything worked so well and went so fast. Furious because I had done that type of work for so many years with only basic tools. I disassembled the countershafts and had all the bearings swapped out and preloaded in about two hours. That would have taken me about two days with Dad's methods.

If one learns how to get it apart with a hammer, chisel and water pump pliers he will do wonders with an impact wrench and gear puller. Starting out with only the best is not the best way to learn.

[Old Greenhorn]

My Pop used to say a good machinist could make a Swiss watch with a hacksaw and a file. But when my Pop was an apprentice he had to learn how to hold flatness and size with a file as part of his training. He moved onto to being a machinist's mate in the Coast Guard in WW2 and got pretty good at scrounging and making important stuff out of unimportant stuff. Later when he was a CPO and running a subchaser in the Philippines, he and his crew got REALLY good at scrounging to keep their boat in service. My Dad walked the hillsides looking for native 'machine shops' in huts and he was amazed that those folks could make anything out of nothing. He became friends with a lot of them and they were a big part of keeping our boats in action. The only thing he had to 'skillfully acquire' was a spare prop, Their boat had left and right screws. They had whacked 'something' with the right prop and used the spare they were issued. No amount of paperwork would get them a new one. So one night they went on 'maneuvers' and procured one from a shot up boat they were trying to repair. Apparently it take a team of 6 men to drag a large bronze prop working like a tag team, across a canal bottom and raise it up on the dock in 3 hours. 

 So yeah, my Dad was resourceful and taught me to be frugal, but also taught me that the 'proper' tool for a job was the right and safest way to go, if you could get it.

[Sod saw]

.


Most of my friends are retired now.

But,

A couple of years a go I went "all out" and split up my socket sets into two tool boxes.  I have one for my metric sockets, open end and handles etc. and I have another for my American set of sockets, open ends and handles etc.

Yup, instead of having them all mixed up in one drywall bucket, I splurged and got a second drywall bucket .  Boy it sure is nice to have the proper wrench size handy when the excavator is stuck in the woods or the saw needs messing with.


.

[Magicman]

I splurged and got a second drywall bucket .  Boy it sure is nice to have the proper wrench size handy......

Also handy to have the proper tool boxes.    

[Peter Drouin]

When you work for yourself. You have to be smart and tuff, or you won't make it.

[Stephen1]

When you work for yourself. You have to be smart and tuff, or you won't make it.

And as an old Scottish friend of mine used say "a little bit crooked to make a living"

[YellowHammer]

For the last couple weeks, we were working dawn to dusk, even in the rain, using every piece of rolling stock I owned, finishing my kid's new home and preparing it for final inspection, doing a wide variety of stuff.  My old Dewalt Sawzzall finally died right in the middle of the whole ordeal.  The old yellow plastic housing had age brittled and split open to the core, all the motorized guts spilling out like a roadkill possum, and once again I was reminded of this topic where I previously mentioned "an engineered and planned migration of plasticizer to make things age and cause embrittlement failure," before their time.  Anyway, as I tossed the useless tool into the garbage bin with force and disgust, I said "This is going to make this next week a lot harder." The next morning, my Son in Law showed up about daylight with a brand new M18 Milwaukee Sazwall with a new box of "Wrecking Blades."  Hoo Boy! This thing had some get up and go!  So over the next few days, we used it for everything, to cutting waterlines in the muddy ditch, cutting 4x4 posts and 2x4's, trimming metal brackets for the plumbing, cut 1/2" galvanized bolts off the deck, cut PVC electrical conduit, and even used it to cut main feeder cables as we were wiring the main power pole disconnects and power panel inside.  Wood, copper, aluminum, steel, pvc, and even a little concrete all fell victim to the beast as the "kids" learned the other side of "mechanical skills" which is "get it done, we are on a real deadline."  When we finished a couple days ago and were pulling all the tools out of the truck beds and tool boxes and wiping them down, the Sawzall looked like it had been owned for years, had mud all over it, and I remarked that now it looks like a "real tool."

[moodnacreek]

A friend has a hot rod and a 39 dodge truck almost restored in his shop. I have a ford 350 torn apart outside and the new motor for it in the shop. We are both in are mid '70's and have gotten slow. Last summer I asked him why we still start these projects and he said 'because we didn't have all these tools when we where young'.

[richhiway]

I worked on my neighbors garbage trucks from a round 12 years old.  By the time I was 15 I was a decent mechanic. In 1977 I was driving and rebuilding a 65 Chevy pickup. Rebuilt the engine in the basement with parts from the Sears catalog. Washed the parts in my mom's kitchen sink. 

I did odd jobs for an old lady for a number of years, she was a widow and her husband's 3 draw Craftsman tool box was in the garage. I was going to tech school in the fall of 78 and needed a toolbox for class so I asked her if she would sell it to me. She said she would think about it but she was sentimental about it. So I forgot about it,

One day she called and asked if I could come by and help her lift something heavy. So I drove over and she said she had something she could not lift from her trunk. She had a old Cadillac in the garage so we went in and she popped the trunk and there was the exact brand new Craftsman box as her late husband's. 

She said "put that in your truck,I have no use for it."

For some reason people have always been nice to me. So I try to return the favor.

As far as tools I have a lot, paid the tool trucks back in the day. I like buying good used things.  Just like doing things yourself, A dollar saved is the same as a dollar earned. 

Quality does pay, I just had a Snap On half inch ratchet repaired for free. It is forty + yrs old. A new one cost 200 bucks today. 

[Hilltop366]

My Pop used to say a good machinist could make a Swiss watch with a hacksaw and a file. But when my Pop was an apprentice he had to learn how to hold flatness and size with a file as part of his training.

Have ever watched any Allen Millyard youtube videos?

This guy makes and modifies motorcycle engines adding extra cylinders and the likes. He has a milling machine now but his early ones were a hacksaw and file, not a Swiss watch but I found it entertaining.

[mike_belben]

Thats a beautiful story rich. 

[richhiway]

Thats a beautiful story rich. 

Thanks.

[Ianab]

This guy makes and modifies motorcycle engines adding extra cylinders and the likes. He has a milling machine now but his early ones were a hacksaw and file, not a Swiss watch but I found it entertaining.

You would like a movie called "The Worlds Fastest Indian". It's about an old guy that lived down South in NZ, and he "tinkered" with old bikes. His ambition was to travel to Bonneville so he could see how fast his bike (a 1920's Indian) ) could actually go. Official speed was 183 mph, which is a record that still stands for under 1,000 cc bikes, but one run was clocked at 205. He was 68 at the time. 

Another one is John Britten. He basically scratch built a superbike, as in hand casting the engine, and making most of the other structure  out of carbon fibre. Only about 10 bikes were made, but they were amazing, and a museum pieces now. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Britten

[barbender]

That was a great movie, Ian  I always enjoy Anthony Hopkin's acting, and that story also reminded me of an older friend who used to have an Indian motorcycle that he restored. He also made parts for sale for those old bikes.

[Ianab]

That was a great movie, Ian

"Don't forget to pee on the lemon tree" 

Hopkin's accent isn't quite right. but close enough to be believable. 

[Hilltop366]

Thanks, I've seen the movie but never heard of Britten, quite an accomplishment to make a bike like that.