Quick Change Toolpost for Storebro

[starlight_tools]

(01-06-2014, 07:27 PM)wrustle Wrote: It never ceases to amaze me the great lengths some people will go through to make their own tooling!

I certainly do not mean that in a bad way either......I quite honestly find this fascinating!! Great job!

Best Regards,
Russ

Russ

Does not matter what it is, but somebody, somewhere made it in the first place, and if they managed to make it, why can't we?

Many of us have shops that are better equipped than many of the early pioneers that first made these items, so why can't we make them?

In a lot of cases it is a matter of reverse engeneering the parts, and the possible learning curves required to make them. Take casting for instance. It takes a few duds, to finally realize just how much oversized, the right amount of draft to allow and proper temperatures etc which are required to get a consistent pour and a sound finished product. Not beyond home hobby shop though as many have accomplished it with minimal equipment, just as in the "olden" days.

Some of us, it is time. Life, families and other commitments can leave us with very little time left to "play" So rather than try to build it ourselves we take the easy route and let somebody else build it for us.

Then again there is the economy of scale. To make one item, often the raw material costs can be higher than it is to go and buy the item from XYZ widget factory that turns out thousands of an item per minute and gets their raw materials for a fraction of what we as a hobbyist can get them. This does not say that we can not make the item, just that somebody else with a more automated system can make them cheaper.

Then there is the environment side of things, many of the processes used can be very toxic, with chemicals like Arsenic, or radioactive components which we as a society have now learned are best only used in the hands of somebody that has the "proper" equipment to handly them, whereas yester-years lead, mercury, and arsenic were household items that did not command the respect they do these days.

Put in proper perspective all these can be overcome and like Hawkeye, we too can produce wonderful and useful works of art.

Walter