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Introduction for Beginners and New Visitors |
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What Am I Going to Do With a Home Machine Shop?!?? |
My wife and friends ask this question every time I bring up machine tools. What they mean is the broader question, "Why am I even interested in machining?"
First, please understand, one of my great pleasures in life is to learn something new. Being a hobbyist machinist is only one of many other interests I pursue off and on.
Second, machining has been with me for a long time. As an engineer, I'm a builder and creator of new things: my house, my custom computers, hot rods, and many similar things. My first machining project was done in the third grade, and involved building a custom equatorial telescope mount. I remember my father and I persuaded a professional machinist to turn a shaft for me so it would fit some pillow block bearings I'd bought from a plumbing company. The guy's name was Charlie Brown, and I still remember watching his big engine lathe automatically turning the shaft down while bathing it in the coolant. There is something vaguely robotic about machine tools that really appeals ot me.
So there is no special rhyme or reason, I just like to work with my hands to create things, and with my mind to learn new things! Plus a lot of my hobbies benefit from having machinery available.
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Climbing the Learning Curve |
Understand, I'm starting out as a raw beginner. I did not have machine shop in school. I do plan to check the local community colleges to see what they offer, and have already signed up for the introduction to TiG welding at our local Cabrillo College. Aside from that, I am following my normal methods of researching a new area of interest. Basically, I relentlylessly cruise the web, buy every book and magazine I can find, and completely immerse myself in the material.
I discovered that after a period of a month or two, things suddenly started making sense. With the basic theory in mind, I started reading projects, usually in the home machinist magazines. It's a good thing to follow someone's step-by-step instructions and try to think about the following:
- Why did they take that approach?
- Is there another way to do it?
- What way would I have chosen and why?
When you find yourself really understanding, and perhaps even having thoughts of embellishing, you're at the point of being dangerous. Having reached that stage, you now have to buy some machines and see if you can convert that theory into practice. You can check my Home Machine Workshop page to see which machines I've acquired so far, and what my current acquisition plans are.
I kept a set of notebooks here online to help me keep up with everything I was learning. Often I would find good Internet threads about something before I was ready to use that information. Go back to the Home page and take a look at "Tips & Techniques" to find these online notebooks.
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Who is Afraid of Asian Tools? |
Read my essay, "Who is Afraid of Asian Tools?" to understand why I've chosen to buy new Asian instead of used Western (no Bridgeport mills here!).
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Web Resources |
By now I've assembled a large collection of web links that have helped me come up to speed and will serve as references going forward when I need help or need to acquire things.
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Book Reviews |
Book reviews from my home library of machinist books.
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Other Home Shops |
These are my picks for awesome Home Machinists based on my web travels.