Here is a list of all the postings jaCK Hobson has made in our forums. Click on a thread name to jump to the thread.
Thread: First workshop |
17/05/2023 13:59:11 |
I really like my current storage solution G-rack metal racking with extra shelving on machine mart mobile bases with lots of Gratnells Plastic Shallow Tray, 75h x 312w x 427d mm, which I use like draws both on rack and elsewhere (under workbench etc). I can move everything around to optimise layout. Really handy to be able to putl out a whole tray onto the workbench with content that is relevant to the job at hand. You can get lids for the trays (easy to dust). Most things go on a try rathe than direct on shelf. |
Thread: What kind of steel is this? |
17/05/2023 13:49:39 |
Yes. Do not put hundreds or even tens of hours into anything you make this this stuff. Always start valuable projects with known materials. |
17/05/2023 11:18:54 |
Spangly sparks suggest med/high carbon, low alloy... but could be wrong. Can't tell if it oil or water hardening. Welding will work but will be weak. Doesn't look like stainless. |
Thread: First workshop |
17/05/2023 11:10:27 |
The smaller the shop, the less versatile it is likely to be. Focus your hobby. Ideally define the range of stuff you want it to do well, then be ruthless about equipping it for that and ban equipment that isn't needed for that objective. Getting rid of stuff is difficult - better not to get lumbered with it in the first place. I threw stuff out of my workshop - radial arm saw, bobbin sander, extra benches... and it is much better for it. Try and avoid creating nasty dust - do all sanding and grinding somewhere else (even a small bench grinder can make nasty dust if you use it often).- Avoiding dusty operations is much easier to do than implementing good dust extraction. But... make it easy to dust/vacuum - put things away in cupboards or boxes. Concentrate on it being a nice place to 'be'. Somewhere you can just go with a cup of tea to sit down for a while. Make it warm. Fresh air. Good light. Nice surroundings. Edited By jaCK Hobson on 17/05/2023 11:13:08 |
Thread: Convince me I don't want a Warco surface grinder |
16/05/2023 08:35:16 |
I don't 'need' one. It's a hobby... just playing. |
16/05/2023 08:04:20 |
or spin indexer on a sine plate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Y2BeoKC60&list=PLO5YWJq2LzNtu50i9FPfRV2iPau5sFerQ&index=15 |
15/05/2023 17:25:41 |
I wish I had one of those small Warco surface grinders. They now cost over £3000. Usually they are out of stock so are not a real temptation but now Warco says 'almost sold out'. Why do I want one: Small morse taper fittings for a cowells. Make 8mm collets. (I have made some without a grinder) Make thin taper ground sheet for small handsaws. (I don't think taper ground makes much difference in reality) Sharpen end mills. Make parts for folding knives. (I have made some without a grinder) It might fit in the spare space in my workshop. I get to learn about surface grinding (this probably the only real reason). Why Warco New - so should work out the box. I imagine a knackerd grinder is more frustrating than a knackered lather. Small - it fits. Easy delivery - I don't like hassle. There is no competition. ---------------- You never seem them second hand. I guess they might have quite good resale value (in terms of %, not total amount lost).
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Thread: Cutting teeth in handsaws |
18/04/2023 13:50:46 |
Posted by Nigel Graham 2 on 18/04/2023 13:45:12:
If you can tilt the head . Not on an SX3.5 |
18/04/2023 13:24:44 |
So no die to support the backing edge... interesting. Much more simple, ...Another look and I see it is supported at the back. Edited By jaCK Hobson on 18/04/2023 13:30:02 |
18/04/2023 12:52:36 |
Yes, I followed Paul Sellers - it wasn't my idea! Thanks |
18/04/2023 12:16:58 |
To cut teeth on a blank handsaw I am currently marking out TPI on a short length, cutting slots using a piercing saw, transfering these slots onto blade, filing each tooth by hand using saw file. My process is slow, and, combined with my skill level, the results are not very uniform. How can I improve the process? I have lots of tools including lathe(s), vertical mill, no5 fly press etc. The 'vertical' nature of the mill seems to limit its use in this application. I would expect the best solution would be to make a triangular punch and die set for cutting on the fly press. The punch should be easy but the matching die ... I don't really know how to make it. I assume the cutting surfaces of punch and die have to be quite precise. Anyone got tips on making cutting tooling for fly press? Maybe using a very hard saw as a template would help also - even a cheap 'hard point' saw may be a good template to start from. That might help as a file template to make uniform results.
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Thread: ChatGPT incoming |
18/04/2023 12:00:39 |
Photographic evidence... a thing of the past? |
Thread: Getting started with 3d printers |
17/04/2023 13:06:09 |
Some more recent printers and faster and easier to use. What is the budget? How much do you value plugnplay over tinkering? Right now, I might consider going from my upgraded Ender 3 to Pruas mk 4 (expensive) or bambu lab. But maybe you should consider resin - what you want to print? |
Thread: Help choosing a milling machine |
16/04/2023 11:59:01 |
I also struggled to find good sources that directly compared different mills within a similar price or size band. Reviews tend to be of a single machine. My feeling is that when people invest a lot of money after making a decision it is common (and good for mental health) to reinforce the decision points and adopt cognitive dissonance, and it is rare for people to advertise they made a bad decision. The bad stories are usually about events associated with the individual purchase - "there was rust", "paint flaked off", "the seller was not very nice to me". So individual reviews do not seem to be a perfect source of info. The 'specification' information that is published by suppliers does not seem to cover stiffness, accuracy, or precision. These are all very important to me. It is a real shame this info isn't available. It seems like there could be criteria and measurments defined that could be applied to allow comparison... either by biased owners making measurments and publishing on a community website, or by someone like Project Farm investing tens of thousands of pounds (but he will get as many views reviewing tools with a $100 investment). I think most machines within a size/cost bracket are very similar in many ways. I managed to find a small number of criteria that seemed important to me and showed a difference in the different machines. For me, an important one was speed range, particularly high speed for small cutters. This helps define the decision in your own mind and makes it easy to remind yourself why you bought what you did, and to stop kicking yourself for not buying the other thing. It is also good to remember why you bought WHEN you did... so that when prices are dropped the next week you can try and console yourself. I have SX 3.5. It comes with power cross feed and power Z. Maybe those motors could be useful in CNC? I don't think it would be easier so I'd suggest if CNC expect to throw them away - in which case, what was the point? Power feed is flipping amazing. That and DRO are essential now for me. I move Z a lot (both frequently, and in big increments). Ease of dong this would be an important criterial for me and power Z is great. The SX3 has its Z handle down low, easy to access. Reaching up to top of column for Z seems like it could be a bother. I don't think it is 'stiff'. As Jason says, small, highspeed cutters on aly would be great. But stiffness does seem to be a limitation. I recently used a very battered/knackerted Beaver (similar to bridgeport), and milling is a completely different experience on that. Stiffness was not a primary limitation! It is very easy to work on. I've had it in many bits. So I suggest it could be easy to CNC. Adding DRO was simple. I didn't find anyone else who has CNC'd it at the time. SX3 and WM18 are more common. I have not needed the very long table and it gets in the way. I feel that the more recently popular machine for conversion to CNC might be WM18. But I think SX3 used to be more popular. You can buy a kit for the WM18 type: https://www.cnc4you.co.uk/Machines/CNC-Mill. 3.5 does not have a tilting head! I didn't even realise this when I made the decision. Now I realise it, I seem to wish for it all the time. Usually some work holding method negates the need, but there is one project that I'm still working out how to do. You will not want it for CNC! which leads me on to: Avoid features you don't need. Extra features usually have down sides as well as advantages. But you often get the downsides even if you don't use the feature to get the advantage.
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Thread: ChatGPT incoming |
15/04/2023 10:39:23 |
I think GPT4 is much better than chatGPT although I suspect chatGPT is a moving target - when I attempt to sing up for 4 and there are words that imply chatGPT may sometimes use 4 if resources are available. I had developed the impression that Turing had actually proposed some sample questions for 'the turing test' but I can't find them. This paper is one of his seminal on the topic https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/activities/ieg/e-library/sources/t_article.pdf In my experience, even chatGPT tend to 'smash' sample questions that were proposed before it's availability. e.g in my opinion it seems to answers these with at least equivalent intelligence as I see the average displayed on Facebook : https://daley-paley.medium.com/10-cunning-questions-i-would-ask-in-a-turing-test-21dfa6108646 Where it fails to convince me is it is too nice. This seems a good a summary as any on main-stream media that is easily accessible and entertaining:**LINK** This bloke gives a good job of summarising interesting parts of papers describing GPT4. For instance this one suggests GOT4 seems to show some features of AGI, theory of mind and other components of conciousness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqg3aTGNxZ0 or last minute of this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MGCQOAxgv4 I used ChatGPT a lot recently and conclude it is not a replacement for Google. It is currently a creative tool and great at making stuff up based on facts but not sticking to them. It can interlace convincing but bogus academic references with genuine references with no way to tell the difference without looking each up. A brilliant tool for the flat earth type extremeists to help them write convincing posts on Facebook. So the creativity of it seems its current strength to me. Writing software is probably a perfect application for the technology... which is my area of employment but hopefully I'll be able to retire soon. The video from OpenAI of the announcement of 4 is mindblowing for people in software - exciting and scary: Mind blown shortly after 17:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=outcGtbnMuQ |
Thread: Blueing |
28/03/2023 13:35:07 |
If you can get hold of low temp heat treating salts then the process is much easier to get repeatable. I had to buy 20kg bag, with a minimum £50 pallet delivery... I haven't used em much but I hoard them.
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Thread: Headband magnifier - blessed relief! |
20/03/2023 09:08:32 |
Posted by Robin Graham on 19/03/2023 23:54:27:
Are the lenses supplied with the clones physically compatible with the Optivisor headset jaCK? I bought the x2.5 Optivisor, which is good for what I'm doing, but if I want other magnifications it would make sense to buy a clone with all the lenses provided that they are optically equivalent and physically compatible. Edited By Robin Graham on 19/03/2023 23:58:34 Physically seem near enough. Holes on same distance apart. The optics are not as good - mainly the angle of the lens. Optivisors are angled appropriatley for the focus distance; not so noticeable on the cheapos and takes a moment to adjust. I use them in harsher conditions e.g. workshop for saw sharpening. They do seem to be glass. The come with 4 extra plastic studs... but I prefer bolts. try this - simple torch upgrade! https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08345PTNL?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Edited By jaCK Hobson on 20/03/2023 09:09:32 |
Thread: Quiz show question re alloys |
12/03/2023 09:05:29 |
I think saying Iron 'is not really a metal' doesn't really help the world. If Iron isn't a metal, then most people in the world would be confused. Confusion is bad for the world. Personally, I present Iron as the perfect metal - right on the centre line of the periodic table. What makes a metal? I should look it up but I suspect it is the ability for metallic bonding in all directions / homogenous structure (this qualifier added to exclude the likes of carbon). |
Thread: damaged allen screws removal |
26/02/2023 11:25:15 |
I like the idea of using a 6mm bolt with pilot hole in it to centre the drill if drilling out. Use the best drill bit you can find - I have not found better than Dormer... get a new one just for this. |
Thread: Lathe and mill covers |
17/02/2023 10:03:00 |
I now use a picknick blanket - waterproof membrane one side and wool-like on the other. |
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