Results 1 to 12 of 12
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2021
    Location
    Finland
    Age
    66
    Posts
    85

    Cool Hello, my name is Esko and I am a hobby machinist

    Here at the nordics the summer is already a distant memory. It is dark, wet and cold as it is always in October.
    Despite the bad climate I feel fuzzy and warm and very optimistic. After all, winter lasts only 8 months, rest of the year it is tolerable or even nice.

    So I have been breast feed with wet snow, what else have I been eating?

    Most of my life I have been working for IT industry as a data warehouse consultant. However, there has been a side note playing all that time with focus on working with my hands. It has been electronics, wood- and metalworking and diverse activities with food. Lately I have started to make videos on my ramblings.

    After retiring from my daily job I have had the time and resources to do whatever I want to do. I have a small workshop with capable machinery looking from hobbyists perspective. The machines are old, my milling machine is actually older than me as it left the factory in Switzerland 1955. I was a teenager when my lathe was produced in Germany and not much older when the drill press saw the daylight in Sweden. Despite their age or origin, they are in perfect working condition.

    All my machines are manually operated. This is exactly how I want it to be. I don't have any DRO:s or any digital calipers or micrometers. All that is mechanical. They seldomly run out of batteries

    Latest "job" is to make a geared rim on a flywheel for electric stater. The flywheel is for my neigbours outboard motor. The task will have really interesting workholding problems. I need to make a tapered mandrel for the flywheel to hold it correctly. Luckily that flywheel is only 200 millimetres in diameter so it fits comfortably into my machines.


    IMG_4117.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Mackay North Qld
    Posts
    6,446

    Default

    Hi FinnoUgric,
    Welcome to the MetalWorking Forum.
    You will find that there are plenty of members here, who have your same interests.

    We have great bunch here very helpful and supportive of one another. You will find many like minded folk here with same interests as you.

    If you explore our pages you will find bits and pieces of interesting things all over the place.

    Go to the FORUM box at top LH corner and click on it.

    A drop down menu appears and you can select Forum Home at the top of the drop down menu list. Scan down through the pages to look at what we have.

    Please make sure read the Terms of Use -our Rules - at the top of the scroll down page- pretty standard for many forums these days.By joining the forum its automatic that they apply to you as a member.

    Sometimes the soft ware works so you can't post pics or links until 10 posts are made ( or such links and pics are cleared by a mod)

    Its anti spam thing.

    There's a number of sub forums forum that might be parallel with your interests, found as described above.

    If any questions contact me via PM and I'll try to help you.

    Grahame

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Location
    Revesby - Sydney Australia
    Age
    56
    Posts
    1,183

    Default

    Welcome Esko!

    That is a nice workshop.

    Interesting that you list electronics as a hobby, but have no automation or DROs on your manual machines?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2021
    Location
    Finland
    Age
    66
    Posts
    85

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by nigelpearson View Post
    Welcome Esko!
    Interesting that you list electronics as a hobby, but have no automation or DROs on your manual machines?
    Believe me, after working 40 years in IT industry all automation and programming starts to taste like chicken.

    Yes, I would not have any difficulties installing digital equipment into my machines but after that I would loose the "feeling" which I have developed under all these years.
    Well, actually the lathe has a microcontroller inside there. This microcontroller (AtMega32) is programmed to fluctuate the VFD control voltage cyclically (frequency and depth are adjustable). This would be used to eliminate chatter in some rare cases. In fact the cases are so rare that I have never needed the functionality.

    And yes, there are electronics inside those old ladies. The Schaublin has not one but three VFDs in there. One for spindle, one for feed and the last one for coolant. Those are not used for speed control but merely to allow soft start and fast stop. That Schaublin has stepless variators for both spindle and feeds.
    The lathe has one VFD which I use frequently to fine tune the speed.

    The fifth VFD is in the drill press.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Geelong, Australia
    Age
    57
    Posts
    2,651

    Default

    Welcome aboard!

    Steve

  6. #6
    BobL is online now Member: Blue and white apron brigade
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Perth
    Posts
    7,182

    Default

    Sounds like the opening lines of a "Hobby Machinists Anonymous" confession

    Nice shop. Something to do on cold winters days. Is it in a basement?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Location
    Revesby - Sydney Australia
    Age
    56
    Posts
    1,183

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by FinnoUgric View Post
    Believe me, after working 40 years in IT industry all automation and programming starts to taste like chicken.



    I was a computer scientist for 30 years. Ended up hating IT and business politics (especially Agile), but I think I still like programming (though not many programming languages). I still see automation and scripting as a tool.




    All my workshop machines are currently manual, and I would always want a simple manual lathe and drill press, but I can see the benefit of some automation. Especially if the user interface is good.


    No DROs, however?
    They are just better measurement. In the same way a micrometer is a better way to size something than a vernier, and that is better than a ruler!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Tennant Creek, Aust
    Age
    61
    Posts
    596

    Default

    G'Day Esko,

    Welcome to the forum from the centre of Australia.
    Where the cool weather is just a memory, only about 11 month of hot weather to go.

    Ratty 05/2004 -05/07/2010 COOPER 01/08/1998-31/01/2012

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2021
    Location
    Finland
    Age
    66
    Posts
    85

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BobL View Post
    Is it in a basement?
    Nope, it is at the same level as the rest of our house. Only one floor. There is a reason for this. The house is sitting on top of bedrock. It is hard granite. Makes an excellent basement for machines.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Mornington Peninsular
    Posts
    23

    Default

    That’s a lotta VFDs! Cheaper by the dozen? Was that to convert them to single phase operation or for some other reason? I have a baby Schaublin mill and small Weiler lathe and when I moved from a three phase workshop to my present single phase one, I considered converting them to VFDs but went with a rotary phase converter. It was quite expensive and I wonder if it would have been better just to buy a crate of VFDs instead.

    Leigh


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  11. #11
    Join Date
    May 2013
    Location
    Rockhampton, QLD
    Age
    68
    Posts
    454

    Default

    Welcome to the forum.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    melbourne australia
    Posts
    3,228

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by FinnoUgric View Post
    It has been electronics, wood- and metalworking and diverse activities with food.
    That's me too. Welcome.
    Chris

Similar Threads

  1. Does your hobby turn a profit?
    By Commander_Keen in forum METALWORK GENERAL
    Replies: 17
    Last Post: 26th May 2023, 08:42 AM
  2. Hobby machining course at midland WA
    By CC555 in forum METALWORK GENERAL
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 13th Aug 2015, 03:55 PM
  3. Hobby Metal lathe
    By bosco555 in forum METALWORK GENERAL
    Replies: 24
    Last Post: 14th Mar 2014, 09:45 AM
  4. Hobby Metal Supplies
    By bigphill in forum METALWORK GENERAL
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 21st Sep 2013, 08:04 PM
  5. hobby machinist / engineer contact
    By sprightlyone in forum METALWORK GENERAL
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 30th Apr 2008, 01:20 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •