Making things

[Bernd]

I've started this thread so that the "What is your location" thread doesn't go  .

Alphawolf 45 said:

.I check in here periodically hoping to see somebody build fullscale gas engine.... When weather cools soon I will be casting parts to build  a 2hp water cooled single cylinder 2 stroke outboard boat engine,, fullsized copy of one of the 1939 Muncies that I have. I might use an original iron cylinder so maybe I wont be building every single part myself...Several of the parts are very challenging parts to make anyway...Most of the pieces will be bronze castings....Its very cool having all the machines and the skills to build virtually anything .Its a very special hobby....unfortunate that I know nobody local that shares my interests .

Bernd wrote:

Ya, it's a bummer when there's nobody around close that shares your interest. One thing you need to rememeber too is that many people have no idea were the products orginate from. All they know is that you buy it at the store.

"What, make it myself"   

Alphawolf 45 said:

True enough that 'many' people have no idea how anything is manufactured..And its not too satisfying to show'em something you built or repaired because they have no idea , and no interest in how you did it..For that reason the internet helps a lot, can finally carry on a conversation with folks with same interests.....

Darren wrote:

Very nicely put..... 

I agree with Darren to. It sure helps to talk to like minded folks.

Another misconception by those that don't know is the length of time it takes to make something and how much it would cost them to make it. They figure it should be done in a few hours and cost pennies.
When I get asked to make something I usally ask if they can afford it. I guess you can't hope everybody has the same knowledge where and how things are made.

Bernd

[dsquire]

Bernd

Great Idea starting a new topic for "Making Thngs" 

Cheers

Don

[Alphawolf45]

I've started this thread so that the "What is your location" thread doesn't go  .

"What, make it myself"   

[

Ohh....I had read all the posts in "whats your location" and about half the fellows gave their location and additionally commented on temperature or some nearby geographical feature and so I thought it was friendly thread and bit of chit chat was welcomed..No huh..? Hmmmmm Okay fine..I'll keep rigidly on topic from now on..But I have to say I feel like I should have been advised of my unwelcome deviation from topic in a personal message rather than making a new post about the whole thing and quoting my post as example to everybody else....

[cedge]

Alpha...
Calm down. Bernd is not one for putting anyone up for display as an example. It's simply an administrative thing that sometimes has to be done. We don't make any huge deal of it, even as we try to avoid it. Now you've got a nice clean slate to continue on with and no one's thread gets diluted. Bear with us... we're only trying to keep the board running smoothly as possible.

Steve

[rleete]

Not just making things, but fixing things.  As the neighborhood kids were all out playing a while ago, one of them lost the chain on his bike.  Did he go to dad, standing at the end of the driveway, 20 feet away?  Heck, no.  He walked it 50 yards down the street to me, because at 10 years old, he already knows who can fix stuff.  Had it re-adjusted, lubed and back in the fray in no time.


Alphawolf45, no harm, no foul.  A bit off topic is okay, but when the subject veers too off course, it's better to start a new thread.  Bernd was just being proactive.  You'll get used to us soon enough.

[PTsideshow]

To much linear thinking ya  know the type "A before B and C etc." if we had a real problem you would have found out fast.

Besides with the subject lines it keeps it's simple for all us retired simple minds. No more heavy thinking!
glen

[Weston Bye]

When I started writing I thought that it might serve as a subject of conversation at parties and such.  Wrong.  To the normal or average person, the concept of making anything (words included) is an incomprehencible concept.

At the NAMES expos I have heard spectators ask "where do you buy the parts to make these things?"  -not understanding that the exhibitors actually make the parts.

Where I work, where we manufacture stuff, even the engineers just barely understand making things.  Need a prorotype? 
Have a meeting. Get the CAD designer to draw a picture.
Have another meeting to review the pictures.
Have the CAD designer make drawings.
Have the purchashing agent send the drawings out for quotes.
Have a meeting to review the quotes.
Order the parts from the machine shop.
Recieve the parts.
Have the metrology dept. measure the parts.
Have an intern assemble the parts.
Etc...

Harrumph!  After the first meeting, I just go sketch the part and make it - sometimes the same day, ususally within 2-3 days.

[Darren]

I once had the need for a quantity of 25mm od dia bushes 30mm long with a 22m x 1mm internal thread.

Simple enough I thought 

Nope, the machine shop insisted on me providing CAD drawings.....



Another example, I was showing my "few" crank bits for Bogs engine to a relative that has been a machinist all his life. Whilst showing him the crankwebs going round and round he stated that he had no idea how an engine worked.....

He just made parts to drawings......

I didn't think it was possible to me a fully fledged machinist and not know how an engined works....but it seems it is.....

[PTsideshow]

Another example, I was showing my "few" crank bits for Bogs engine to a relative that has been a machinist all his life. Whilst showing him the crankwebs going round and round he stated that he had no idea how an engine worked.....

He just made parts to drawings......

I didn't think it was possible to me a fully fledged machinist and not know how an engined works....but it seems it is.....

Quite common that people are only aware of their own area of work. One of the electrical engineers that worked with the wife and designed the light system for my truck. Couldn't tell me what was causing the system to operate incorrectly.
And was amazed that I fixed it in only a day and half of troubleshooting. With out any training  ( a life time of study and working on things electrical didn't count)   

Like I use to tell my kids when they were small, " There are only 3 things I can't do! Raise the Dead! Walk on water! Fix a broken heart! and I'm working on the first two!

I think I found a new sig line 
glen

[Bernd]

Ohh....I had read all the posts in "whats your location" and about half the fellows gave their location and additionally commented on temperature or some nearby geographical feature and so I thought it was friendly thread and bit of chit chat was welcomed..No huh..? Hmmmmm Okay fine..I'll keep rigidly on topic from now on..But I have to say I feel like I should have been advised of my unwelcome deviation from topic in a personal message rather than making a new post about the whole thing and quoting my post as example to everybody else....

Alphawolf45,

That was not meant to say you were doing wrong. I just wanted to start an new thread because I saw this as an opportunity to keep a subject going without having to search through the different posts to see were guys lived. I also saw that this subject might get a life of it's own.

I apologize if you took it as a slap in your face. It wasn't meant to be.

Bernd

[John Hill]

Some several years ago I worked in the department that does air traffic control and such like and we needed a new device to go on our 3270 bisync data network.  I was chief of operations so it was really "my" requirement.  I had an idea of how such a thing might be made so I asked one of the network maintenance people what he thought of the concept,  two days later he was in my office with hand wired prototype!   Yes, it worked perfectly.

So I went to the engineering department to get a project started to build this thing in quantity.  The first thing they told me was that in their opinion it could not work the way I had conceived it and they could not be persuaded by the evidence of the perfectly functional hand made protype.  So they 'engineered' it, first convincing themselves that DOS was inadequate as an operating system so they set out to write their own multi tasking OS.  Then they added doodads to the design................  to cut a long story short, they never finished it.

[sbwhart]

The first thing they told me was that in their opinion it could not work the way I had conceived it and they could not be persuaded by the evidence of the perfectly functional hand made protype.  So they 'engineered' it, first convincing themselves that DOS was inadequate as an operating system so they set out to write their own multi tasking OS.  Then they added doodads to the design................  to cut a long story short, they never finished it.

John

I thought the UK was the only place that had engineers who thought bull **** was more important than functionality, they never seem to get anything finished and working either.

I've come across quite a few like that.

Stew

[John Hill]

Stew, in 1989 our little company answered a tender for a project for a subcontract to write software and we included in it something that was widely recognised as 'impossible', fortunately not so widely recognised that we did not in our ignorance attempt to do it.  The conventional way was too complex for me to understand and instead I had included a rather simple alternative which worked.

The prime contractor was suitably advised by his software engineers but just to be sure he phoned us. Of course all we could do was assure him that not only did we have the plan but the relevant software was already running and under test.  Our pirce was so attractive that he flew across the blue Pacific and stood in my garage watching the flashing lights and the data analysers etc and we got the job.

We still sell that product and I think we just made another sale to an airline in China today.

For those of a particular bent it was to do with handling of interrupts on the Intel 80XX chips and is still relevant today.

[bogstandard]

Can someone explain what this post is about, preferably in easy to understand language.

I would love to join in, but I seem to have lost the plot somewhere.

I am not complaining or joking, I truly don't know what it is about.


John

[Stilldrillin]

John,

I thought it was only me.......... 

David D

[John Hill]

Can someone explain what this post is about, preferably in easy to understand language.

I would love to join in, but I seem to have lost the plot somewhere.

I am not complaining or joking, I truly don't know what it is about.


John

John, it is about people who know how to have an idea and to turn it into reality by their own efforts and skills. 

[Weston Bye]

John, it is about people who know how to have an idea and to turn it into reality by their own efforts and skills.  

Outstanding Quote!!!  I've written that down.  I might like to use the quote (with attribution) in a future column.  May I?

[John Hill]

But of course! 

[Baldrocker]

it is about people who know how to have an idea and to turn it into reality by their own efforts and skills

John
Does that mean
People who see a need, conceptualize a solution,and by application of acquired skills manufacture the solution?
or
Those who say "bugger it Ican make/fix that and do it"?
BR.

[Bernd]

BR,

A while back I was asked if I could make an engine plate for V8 drag cars. This plate fits between the transmission and the engine to keep the engine from twisting out of the motor mounts. A couple of know it alls said I couldn't do it. That you need a CNC machine to do the job. I showed them it could be done by laying out the holes and using a tree pan tool to cut the large center hole, all on a drill press.

When you don't understand the mechanics of how parts are made I guess you then go out and buy the part.

Bernd

[John Hill]

Has anyone noticed that in recent years, especially in Internet circles, whenever anyone describes an idea on how to do something their is frequently someone else proclaiming 'Oh dont describe that on here,  you should get a patent first!'

It seems very counter productive to me.

[usn ret]

What do you call a 1000 attorneys buried in the desert?????
A GOOD START!!
Cliff

[shred]

Has anyone noticed that in recent years, especially in Internet circles, whenever anyone describes an idea on how to do something their is frequently someone else proclaiming 'Oh dont describe that on here,  you should get a patent first!'

It seems very counter productive to me.

I think it's funny how everybody that hasn't got one thinks patents are the end-all-be-all.  Not to mention 90% of the things people think are new and should be patented aren't even patentable to begin with.

Very few patents are valuable and if they're not protecting a million dollars in revenue, it's hardly worth the effort to get a $25K plaque for your wall....

Got a dozen of 'em myself ;)  Lucky for me the company paid for them.

[Darren]

Patents ain't worth diddly....unless you got big balls.....

[bogstandard]

And loadsa money!

[Darren]

Same thing init?