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Recently joined from Charlotte, NC

Vladymere

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2013
Messages
19
Location
Charlotte, NC
Short time lurker, recent joiner.

Can't claim to be a gearhead or motorhead though I did start my working career as an auto mechanic. Graduated high school in 73 and then went to the General Motors Training Center in Fairfax, Va. where I was trained as a Buick/Opel service tech. Spent about four years at a couple of Chevy dealerships and then developed rheumatoid arthritis. The arthritis got bad enough that I had to quit the automotive field, working in cold garages in winter, leaning over engine compartments, twisting up under dashboards just hurt to much.

From auto mechanics I then worked two years in a scuba diving shop doing the maintenance on tank regulators and valves, buoyancy compensating devices and set up a certified hydrostatic testing station to certify diving tanks.

From there, for the last 34 years, I went to turning wrenches (small wrenches) on cash registers, computers, remittance processing terminals, high speed check sorters for banks to currently high speed mail inserting and sorting equipment.

I have built a 30' x 30' pole barn shop behind my house to pursue my hobbies. It is not quite complete but mostly so. I have a full bath with shower and a 9' x 9' office/clean room in it. There is a 10' x 10' overhead door centrally located in one wall so I can drive into the structure. The building is insulated and I lined the interior walls between each of the 6" x 6" posts with 12' tall drywall. The ceilings of the bath and office where built with 2" x 6" lumber so I can deck the top surface and use it for storage. I haven't done much of the wiring in the building yet, just the office and bath but I put in a 200 amp service on a separate meter from the house. I will need to build an RPC so I will have three phase power for some of my tools.
Currently I am working on cleaning up and overhauling a twin post auto lift. That is the primary reason I joined this forum to hopefully garner some information on it. I have yet to find any info on this lift on the internet. That will be another post though.

Besides having the lift in the shop I plan on doing some wood working and some machining and gunsmithing. I don't have a table saw yet but plan to. Perhaps a nice old heavy cast iron Rockwell/Delta Unisaw with three horse three phase motor. I do have a band saw and radial arm saw plus a variety of woodworking hand tools.

For machining I have an old, as old as I am, Rockwell/Delta drill press and 3/4 horse 8" grinder, a 1943 South Bend heavy 10 lathe, a 1978 Bridgeport vertical mill, a combination 10" disc/4" belt sanding unit, large horizontal power hacksaw, an old 7" shaper and a decent sized sand blasting cabinet.
The lathe and mill will require three phase power also. I plan to put in a three phase breaker panel that will be run off of the RPC. I picked up a five horse motor for the RPC. I think that will handle my needs.

I almost forgot that I have an 80 gallon, 125 psi compressor also. This should handle my requirements for my blasting cabinet and my air tools.

For the amateur gunsmithing I plan to try building sporting rifles in the style of the late 1800/early 1900 German and Austrian style. Little slim, light weight things. I would ultimately like to build a multiple barreled rifle. One receiver and three barrels to switch out on it in a cased set. A heavy gauge barrel, maybe 9.5 mm, a medium/light cartridge, maybe 7x57 mm and a 22 long rifle barrel. each barrel with it's own sights and detachable scope that is sighted to that barrel. The .22 caliber barrel would also require a different bolt since it would be a rim fire as opposed to the others being a center fire.

Once, just once, my wife told me I deserved my shop. Even though it is not finished I love working in my shop.

I imagine I will be doing more lurking on this site, with occasional questions, rather than offering any information of value.

Gentlemen, I hope my long winded introduction and shop/tool bragging have not offended any of you.

Thank you for allowing me to join your community,

Eric aka Vlad
 
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AV tinker er

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 28, 2012
Messages
851
Location
SoCal
Welcome, I was once a North Carolinian and in the past was in needed of a Scuba tech.

Glad you joined.
 
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