October 25, 2005

Light posting today

I posted earlier (here and here) about a new toy coming to our household. This:
milling-machine-G3103.jpg
I picked it up today and in a three-hour channeling of Newton and Archimedes managed to get it off the trailer, into the shop and off its pallet. 960 pounds so I took things nice and slow. Cleaned it up (it was covered in grease to prevent rust) and ran a test doing a 1/2" slot into some 1" black iron pipe. As smooth as you could ever wish for. I grew up around machine tools (my Dad was a physicist and I would come in with him on Saturdays -- he would work and I would play in the student shop) but I wound up doing more and more woodworking and outfitting a fairly decent wood-shop. Lately though, I have been finding that wood doesn't inspire me much as a medium (I sill work with it though and am planning several projects over the winter). Metal on the other hand is opening up all sorts of possibilities and I really like working it. Blacksmithing, welding and now the milling machine. (I already have a nice 6" South Bend lathe with lots of goodies). Posted by DaveH at October 25, 2005 6:36 PM