BorisRoberts
New member
The garage is getting restocked again. I say again, because in 2014, I was diagnosed with Esophagael Cancer. If you know anything about it, you know that the statistics are pretty grim, when I looked it up, the first stat said 5% make it 5 years. So.......95% don't. I sold my Cincinnati ToolMaster Milling Machine, my Sharp 15 X 40 lathe, and a Lincoln 250/250 TIG Welder. And a 1971 CT70, and a 1975 XR75, some cool Classic Honda MiniBikes, because if I went **** up, I didn't want some lowlife trying to scam this stuff from my wife .
But I got better. The Doc said everything looked good after chemo, radiation and surgical removal of most of my esophagus and part of my stomach, all localized and no spread. So it's been right about 4 years, she told me at the next CTScan, when it comes up clear (not if, but when), we'll call it finished and gone. Dodged a bullet.
So, I've come up with another lathe, a 14 X 40 Enco, not the highest quality piece out there, but quite a bit newer than my old Sharp and in better shape. I have also scared up a Lincoln 180 220 Volt MIG welder (traded a dirt bike for it!). Hopefully, next up will be a milling machine, I've got a line on a two headed Bridgeport Tracer mill, for nothing, or nearly nothing. But........it has no lead screws or handles, it has a hydraulic tracer unit, it's all there, but it won't feed in one direction only, it has a stylus that traces a pattern, and moves in X and Y directions simultaneously, can't just move it a straight line either way. I'd have to fabricate a bracket for the nuts and come up with a couple of ball screws for the X and Y axis. I've been told it's more trouble than it was worth, but you never know, if I can get some stuff cheap, it might be worthwhile.
The garage is getting crowded. A neighbor gave me a table saw from about the 40s, it's cast iron, and weighs a couple hundred pounds. Also a double bevel 10 inch mitering saw mounted on a Craftsman toolbox bottom, and they're in the way, I guess they need to go in the shed. I'm building a welding table out of a drafting table that work gave me, because I kept catching the wooden bench on fire when welding. The top is going to be 3 pieces of 1 inch by 12 inch by 48 inch pieces of hot rolled plate, because it's free. Each piece weighs 169 lbs according to the steel weight calculator, so 507 lbs total. I'm adding a bunch of gussets, the drafting table was fairly lightweight, and some unistrut to add strength. It's coming together (the garage is) but I might have to move the washer and dryer to the back yard (ya, right).....
But I got better. The Doc said everything looked good after chemo, radiation and surgical removal of most of my esophagus and part of my stomach, all localized and no spread. So it's been right about 4 years, she told me at the next CTScan, when it comes up clear (not if, but when), we'll call it finished and gone. Dodged a bullet.
So, I've come up with another lathe, a 14 X 40 Enco, not the highest quality piece out there, but quite a bit newer than my old Sharp and in better shape. I have also scared up a Lincoln 180 220 Volt MIG welder (traded a dirt bike for it!). Hopefully, next up will be a milling machine, I've got a line on a two headed Bridgeport Tracer mill, for nothing, or nearly nothing. But........it has no lead screws or handles, it has a hydraulic tracer unit, it's all there, but it won't feed in one direction only, it has a stylus that traces a pattern, and moves in X and Y directions simultaneously, can't just move it a straight line either way. I'd have to fabricate a bracket for the nuts and come up with a couple of ball screws for the X and Y axis. I've been told it's more trouble than it was worth, but you never know, if I can get some stuff cheap, it might be worthwhile.
The garage is getting crowded. A neighbor gave me a table saw from about the 40s, it's cast iron, and weighs a couple hundred pounds. Also a double bevel 10 inch mitering saw mounted on a Craftsman toolbox bottom, and they're in the way, I guess they need to go in the shed. I'm building a welding table out of a drafting table that work gave me, because I kept catching the wooden bench on fire when welding. The top is going to be 3 pieces of 1 inch by 12 inch by 48 inch pieces of hot rolled plate, because it's free. Each piece weighs 169 lbs according to the steel weight calculator, so 507 lbs total. I'm adding a bunch of gussets, the drafting table was fairly lightweight, and some unistrut to add strength. It's coming together (the garage is) but I might have to move the washer and dryer to the back yard (ya, right).....
