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Tools you waited too long to acquire
- Thread starter slow-poke
- Start date
historicalarms
Ultra Member
Man, I love my 4 x 6, it was a freebee givren to me by a shop foreman that said "it was wore out but still usable" and they replaced it with the same one you did but holy man I've cut hundreds of inches of steel & bone with that saw in the last 20 yrs and only changed the blades. I do kink the odd blade when trying to cut something oddball that doesnt fit in the vise square or properly but if it grips solid in the vise, those 1/2" blades will last for feet of cutting.
Brian H
Super User
There are some really good lists here. i think every time I get a newer/better tool I say that. I think I could probably list all the tools I have. However, if I had to pick the top 5,
1-lathe
2-mill
3-cordless tools (quality 18v stuff, not the first generation stuff)
4- 2 x 72 belt grinder I built
5-air over hydraulic press
1-lathe
2-mill
3-cordless tools (quality 18v stuff, not the first generation stuff)
4- 2 x 72 belt grinder I built
5-air over hydraulic press
slow-poke
Ultra Member
3D printer
I was soooo late with this one. What was I thinking?
Picked up a used Prusa i3 for $100 on marketplace, two actually, one works and one needs to be fixed still, need to figure out what's wrong with one of them.
Much easier to print a model and
test fit to make sure you have it right before milling away for hours and hours
I was soooo late with this one. What was I thinking?
Picked up a used Prusa i3 for $100 on marketplace, two actually, one works and one needs to be fixed still, need to figure out what's wrong with one of them.
Much easier to print a model and
Doggggboy
Ultra Member
Cheaper too.
I have an unused ticket for that sailing too.
I keep procrastinating because I don't want the learning curve and there are other things I want for that kind of money.
But then I think about all the lost opportunities.....
I could already have a working indicator holder for my lathe....
Just now I did the rough math for a 5C and an R8 collet holder block made of wood. Be much nicer 3D printed.
And so the list grows.....
Yes, I am absolutely certain that this will someday top my list of tools I wish I bought sooner.
I'm about to take the plunge on a furnace from Vevor.
DPittman
Ultra Member
Like one of those diesel heaters?
DPittman
Ultra Member
Oh @Susquatch post above clued me in on my question about a furnace, I guess I was thinking heating because I just purchased a new shop furnace.
Tom O
Ultra Member
I’d never melt pop cans I have two garbage cans both full one aluminum and one brass. I never used my propane furnace this year and even though I could melt a crucible full in the kiln if necessary doing that for the smaller castings would be overkill I also have a centrifical spin caster for jewelry and other items.
No a furnace to melt aluminum, copper and brass.
Dan Dubeau
Ultra Member
That's the same foundry I have. It works well. I've also used my resin printer (original elegoo mars) to print casting patterns with great success. Welcome to the party.
I haven't used my resin printer in a while, but am hoping to fire it up this weekend for a little job. We'll see if I remember what I'm doing, or if any of my resin is still good. I really hope so.....
I haven't used my resin printer in a while, but am hoping to fire it up this weekend for a little job. We'll see if I remember what I'm doing, or if any of my resin is still good. I really hope so.....
slow-poke
Ultra Member
FWIW, I would describe my situation was just as you described, I will try to convince you to make the leap. My experience........
I'm trying to squeeze in the largest ballscrews into my new mill. It basically comes down to either 20mm or 16mm. The 20's are tight on the X axis. So tight that I can't tell if they will fit, 1mm this way yes, 1mm the other way no. I don't want to order the 20's to find out they won't fit. So I sketched up the mounting block to replace the nut. The thought of machining this and tweaking in an iterative process feels pretty painful. So I thought this is a perfect situation for a printed mounting block with hole to match the ballscrew mounting, if it's not quite right, tweak it and reprint, when its just right make it.
I noticed 3D printers on Marketplace for as low as $100 supposedly in working order with lots of filament included so what do I have to lose?
Guy has three more or less the same Prusa i3, he says pick one, so I look and I pick. Bring it home refuses to calibrate, I try for about 4 hours and no success so I call the seller and he tells me I'm leaving another one on the step for you, just take it.
Second time a charm after maybe 30 minutes of tweaking it calibrates and I print my first part. I have printed about 5 parts since then and the quality is excellent.
I want to fix the first one, but no luck getting help on every 3D forums I tried, I suspect it's the PINDA sensor but not sure yet.
One of my concerns was generating the required code for the printer. Prusa comes with a slicer program that basically takes your 3D image and slices it up vertically to about a gazilion lines of gcode one for each pass of the extruder. The slicer program is beyond intuitive it will take you about 1-2 minutes first time to generate the gcode for the printer they did a bang up job.
I generated the 3D model in my PCB program (Altium) because I'm very familiar with it. There is one big drawback to that approach and that is I cant easily make holes, I sort of can but the holes get obliterated by the other aspects of the 3D portions that I add to the model. I called my son (architect), with the details of the holes and it took him about a minute to add them as requested. I will need to learn some sort of real CAD program for generating the models, but for now I'm up and running
Am I happy I dropped the $100 bucks? Beyond ecstatic!
One limitation (that I'm aware) for this entry level model is the single extruder instead of a dual extruder. I thought this was for multicolor parts but it has a much more important function, imagine your printing something that part way up juts out, well the printer can't print on air, with a dual extruder it prints a base (with some sort of water dissolvable material) under where the projection is, so when done put it in water and the support just disappears. I don't have this luxury so the slicer program detects this and prints a breakaway base.
If anyone has any experience fixing a Prusa I would love to hear from you.
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I think my biggest barrier probably isn't the printer itself. It's learning Fusion so I can make models to print...... LOL!
slow-poke
Ultra Member
I asked my son about a brain dead easy CAD program for this kind of stuff and he mentioned one, I can't recall the name but will be looking into it when I have time, so many things to do. I think I found an affordable ac servo, tuning should be interesting always something new.
Oh all the silly things - buddy and I bought those blue machinist lab coats. I love mine to pieces. It's a filthy mess and my clothes aren't.
Nicest thing about camo is how well it hides the grease and dirt.
I’ve never seen such lab coats.