Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

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JBodenmann
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by JBodenmann »

Hello My Friends
Greg touched on an important point. It's a pleasure to walk into the shop in the morning, turn on the lights and have a clean shop ready to go. I had an old friend named Willy. He was absolutely brilliant and a problem solver. He often got difficult jobs no one else would touch. He bought some property and built a beautiful shop. Cinderblock, air conditioning, the works. He never swept or cleaned the entire time I knew him. The chip pan of his lathe was full and he just kept pushing the swarf back out of the way. It went up the wall about four feet! The first time I met him there was an antique motorcycle engine in pieces on the floor. Twenty years later it was still there, with a black widow spider living in it. But he did good work. The bottom line is wether you keep neat shop or not, what's important is the you make stuff.
Jack
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Jack's story reminds me of a time many years ago when I had a Model A Ford. I had pulled the head and a stud broke off even with the block. It was rusted in and there was no way I could get it out. I asked around and was told to take it to Big Floyd. After finding out how to find Big Floyd, I towed the car out to the edge of town to discover a dilapidated barn littered with old cars and broken farm machinery. All I could see inside the dark barn was a clutter of junk. Big Floyd had heard me coming and wandered out, his beer belly straining the bib overalls to their maximum circumference. He took a look at the problem, grunted, and as I was having second thoughts about this, staggered somewhat unevenly back into the dark recess of the barn. He pulled out an oxy/acetylene rig, attached a cutting head, and as he was lighting the torch I saw that he had a rather significant tremor in his hands. Now I was seriously worried about my engine block. He lit the torch, bent over as far as his belly would allow, and moved toward the broken stud. As he closed in on the target his hands became rock steady; he set the torch right over the problem and hit the oxy lever. The torch flame blew down upon the stud and incandescent bits of metal blew up and out of the now cleared hole. Big Floyd backed off and grunted, "Done." It didn't take much more than three or four seconds to incinerate that stud. I asked, "How much." "Ten bucks." I handed him the ten-spot, he waddled back into the debris of the barn and I was on my way. And the new stud just threaded right in.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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Steggy
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by Steggy »

I try to clean as I go. Cleaning up several small messes is almost always less work than cleaning up one big mess.

BTW, be careful about using a shop vacuum to clean up your machine. You may find out that the coolant mixture is a good conductor of electricity when it finds its way into the vacuum's motor. Don't ask me how I know this... :D
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Steggy
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by Steggy »

Greg_Lewis wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 12:09 pmJack's story reminds me of a time many years ago when I had a Model A Ford...
That works because the cast iron block can't be cut by the torch, but the busted-off steel stud can.

I've been told that having a beer gut can be useful when bending over a piece of machinery. It gives you a cushion on which to rest as you work. :D
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Music isn’t at all difficult.  All you gotta do is play the right notes at the right time!  :D
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by Greg_Lewis »

gwrdriver wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 10:15 am I come in, change to my "house" shoes, and plop down in the big chair with a cuppa' tea and a cookie.
BigDumbDinosaur wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:47 pm I've been told that having a beer gut can be useful when bending over a piece of machinery. It gives you a cushion on which to rest as you work. :D

So which comes first, the tea and cookie or the beer?
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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Brunswick Carshops
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by Brunswick Carshops »

I clean as I go. I find it easier to clean up a bunch of small messes than one big one.

My father was an auto mechanic for many years. He taught me a lot and enough to know I didn't want to be a wrench because of the business. He told me " The tools that aren't in your box at the end of the day don't belong to you no more" That one stuck.
~ John Sommer ~


Whats' the fastest way to make a million dollars in racing? Start with two!- Frank Rio
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tornitore45
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by tornitore45 »

Aluminum long strings I collect and crumple by hand never got cut.
Steel long string rake out of the chip pan with a hook collect by hand gingerly because thy are razor sharp, never got cut.
What is left are chips the vacuum can digest.
I am OCD so I clean more often than a normal person.
I use compressed air with abandon despite the advise of all the purist. Blow out the hairs, sleeves and pants. The dog knows that the air shower, turning down all the machines lights, power switches and the hand washing means quitting time and gets all excited.
Mauro Gaetano
in Austin TX
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gwrdriver
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by gwrdriver »

In all the time I knew Bill Connor, whose Connor Grasshoppers are so well known, he NEVER cleaned his workshop of swarf. What was brushed off his machines became deep snowdrifts of oily chips lining the walls. I was astonished, primarily because of the fire hazard, but that was his way. He couldn't be bothered by what didn't contribute to production.
GWRdriver
Nashville TN
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tornitore45
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by tornitore45 »

That works because the cast iron block can't be cut by the torch, but the busted-off steel stud can.
Did not know that. Why cast iron does not "burn"?
Mauro Gaetano
in Austin TX
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Bill Shields
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Re: Curious what everyone else does after a swarf filled day

Post by Bill Shields »

BigDumbDinosaur wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:43 pm I try to clean as I go. Cleaning up several small messes is almost always less work than cleaning up one big mess.

BTW, be careful about using a shop vacuum to clean up your machine. You may find out that the coolant mixture is a good conductor of electricity when it finds its way into the vacuum's motor. Don't ask me how I know this... :D
You also need to be careful about sucking up a cigarette butt in to a shop vac filled with sawdust.

It was the last time my mother came into the shop...it was her cigarette butt ..
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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