Something we never talk about - how to work.

[SHIPCHIEF]

Another thing, alittle different.
I took some Allen Bradley PLC training. Troubleshooting these units can sometimes be done in a matter of seconds. The person that called you in to fix his control system is not going to be happy when he sees the bill, unless he sees you digging around in the wires, panels, modules etc for at least some amount of time. In these cases the trainer reccomends that you take the additional time required to make the man happy. Just use it to learn how the control system is used for this client, and look for any potential problems. I guess you could say that part of any job is education.
The customer always pays for that as well. You just need to be careful to make it look acceptable.
Scott E

[hotater]

I think all the agonizing ya'll do over planning a job just illustrates the difference between a "mechanic" ,  a "craftsman" and an "artist".

In forty-four years of building guns I've made EXACTLY ONE drawing of what I planned to do.....and the FIRST cut I made on a thousand hour project was different from the drawing because it 'looked better' that way.  The drawing is now part of the American Custom Gunmaker's archives, but the gun is TOTALLY different.  I never looked at the drawing after first change...it was wasted time and effort for me.

I "draw" engraving patterns but NEVER follow the lines because I can't draw as well as I can engrave.

  I   PLAN on working anytime I can...  I work on what I feel like.  Projects come out better that way for me.  I never clean a shop up, but keep equipment clean.  Sometimes I "plan" something for many, many years.... I just finished a handgun I'd been 'working' on since 1969.   And now it's worth ten times as much because I finally developed the skills and aquired the nessesary tools to do the job right.

Belk's First Law of Gunshop Geometry---  Any flat surface soon becomes a pyramid.

[solarguy]

The flip side of this coin is the danger of the DARK SIDE.  By that I mean the temptation to do the quick and dirty fix, the unplanned project.

Beware going to the dark side Luke!

An illustration:

I recently broke my metal cutting band saw.  I was so happy I could do a dance. 

The reason I was happy is that 20 years ago, I needed a band saw.  I had the money to buy a cheapo low-end chinese unit, but I could have limped along without a saw until I saved up enough for a better (more expensive unit).  I gave in to the dark side and bought the cheap unit because it seemed fast and easy at the time.  It even worked after a fashion.

But it never really wanted to cut straight, the motor crapped out a couple years later, etc etc etc.  I cursed that thing a hundred times.  But I was unwilling to junk it and buy a good one if it still worked, mostly to teach myself a lesson about doing it the right way the first time.

I can't tell you how many times I have resorted to the quick and dirty fix, only to have it dog me for years afterward. 

So if I have any choice, I try really really hard to do it the right way, the planned way, the permanent way.

I'm sure you all have a bodge story that came back to haunt you.

Finest regards,

troy

[mobile_bob]

"So if I have any choice, I try really really hard to do it the right way, the planned way, the permanent way."

aint that the truth?


i guess my take on this subject comes from 30 plus years of fixing, repairing, rebuilding all sorts of mechanical stuff for a living.

given the choice always try to plan it and do it right the first time, or, you will get the opportunity to revisit the same problem and correct the err of you ways.

this is not to be mistaken with being faced with a situation where fixing or building it right the first time is not possible, this is where forethought and planning are of paramount importance.

i personally have made things work that should never have worked, but those that were successful required more thought and planning to be successful.

case in point, a fiat piston, oversize and not available outside of a set, a poor guy and a piston with two holes poked thru the top. Sure i could have jumped in and did one of two things, turned him away or fired up the tig and welded it without giving it the required thought and preparation.

with careful prep, preheat, correct filler i first mig welded and then tig welded the piston, followed by another reheat and controlled cooling. Surfaced, polished and presented to a very happy albeit poor fiat owner, who reinstalled it and ran the car at least 4 years before i moved from the area.

Without thought, planning and preparation the outcome probably would not have been anywhere near as successful.

using the same processes i have successfully repaired gear cases, gear teeth, winch cases (with worm gears shot out) and
successfully repaired all sorts of things other folks have taken short cuts with, or didnt think it thru, or didnt plan the sequence of events, or whatever.

i get calls from all over to repair things that seemingly cannot be repaired, am i smarter than the rest? no.  am i blessed? no.
am i a magician? no.

do i think first? yes. do i plan my work? yes

i am no better than any other mechanic or techician or DIY

i still say, "plan your work, then work your plan"

bob g

[hotater]

It tell my gun customers the only thing that *might* be impossible is paying the bill.

The difficult is done immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.

I once traded for  a Franz Sodia .410 O/U shotgun for about half it's then worth....I had $1200 in it.  The lower automatic ejector was mis-timed, which means a broken part in that gun and I figured I could fix it for a hundred bucks and make a tidy profit on a 4 1/2 pound quail gun.

The lower hammer had shattered at one time or other and had been SOFT soldered back together.  It was a typical 'fold around' hammer made from a small forging and hand fitted to the gun.  It took a week to make another one and agonize over heat-treat, since the original broke.  I sold the gun to a skeet shooter for a QUAIL gun, but many years later he told me he put tens of thousands of rounds through it on the skeet field with no problems at all.

  One of the main reasons I quite general gunsmithing is because the SAME parts kept breaking in just about every gun on the market....and then the companies would introduce a new model with the same part made worse!

I started making my own.....with a good guarantee----    If there's  problem that I caused it'll be repaired at no cost as long as I'm alive.

[GuyFawkes]

  One of the main reasons I quite general gunsmithing is because the SAME parts kept breaking in just about every gun on the market....and then the companies would introduce a new model with the same part made worse!

I started making my own.....with a good guarantee----    If there's  problem that I caused it'll be repaired at no cost as long as I'm alive.

if it's not a secret, how do you bore your barrels, custom rig or commercial kit?

(somewhere I read online about an old guy who made a really cheap but really good long barrel boring tool from about 100 bucks worth of parts, can't remember any details now)

[hotater]

Guy---

"Barrell making" is a separate art.   I use both button and cut-rifled bores and have used some hammer-forged barrels as well.  Douglas, Shilen, Kreiger, Walthar~Lothar, Atkinson, Broughton, and Hart have all supplied barrels for my projects.

There is no secrets to barrel making at ALL.  Some of the best custom makers in the business will send you a video tape of their processes.  As in any other machining process the 'secret' is in taking the TIME to let the tools do the OPTIMUM job and each step is fully FINISHED before the next step is undertaken.
     Look at the top of the lands of ANY barrel and you can see how much time was put into it.  If there are radial tool marks it means the hole was not lapped before rifling.  That saves a LOT of time,  AND it saves some scrap.  When you lap a hole you can see how crooked it is.
 Factory barrels usually cost less than $30 to make.  I pay upwards of $200 and then charge the customer the same to fit it to his action...but all the action trueing work has to be done first, otherwise I'd be "mounting unbalanced tires" and all the custom barrel in the world won't shoot as it should.
  There are no 'commercial'  rifle actions made as well as they *can* be.....and VERY few ever have been.

The real difference in rifle accuracy and engine horsepower is the ease of testing them.  Horsepower is mostly subjective 'seat of the pant' feel.   Rifles put holes in targets.  The closer the holes are together, the more accurate the rifle.

....but, in my world, they have to LOOK GOOD, too.

[mobile_bob]

what you don't use bondo to slick up your barrels?

hehehe

bob g

[Andre Blanchard]

The real difference in rifle accuracy and engine horsepower is the ease of testing them.  Horsepower is mostly subjective 'seat of the pant' feel.   Rifles put holes in targets.  The closer the holes are together, the more accurate the rifle.

You are kind of comparing apples and oranges.  A rifle on a bench at a target range to an engine in a truck on the road.

A rifle at a target range should be compared to dynoing engine on a test stand.  Nothing subjective about ether one, HP numbers on a printout or holes in a target.

An engine in a truck chould be compared to a rifle in the hands of a hunter in the field.  The rifle may be the most accurate thing you have ever seen on a bench but if does not fit the hunter comfortably or deal well with the conditions in the field, wind, rain, brush, expected ranges etc. chances are it is not going to perform well.

[hotater]

Andre'---

The point was 'ease of testing'.  I've never had the engine out of my truck for a dyno test, but I can shoot across the hood of it to make sure my bedding hasn't gone sour between seasons.
 
"Benchrest shooting" is the measure of the accuracy of a rifle and is somewhat analogous to drag racing autos, in that it has different "classes" of competition and is a measure of power to the ground, but it takes SKILL to do it.
     The accuracy principals that BR shooting established (since about 99% of the competitors were also rifle builders in the early years) are used today in everything from the "Beanfield" rifles used to shoot deer at long range from a stand, to the classic 7 1/2 pound, woodstocked and rust blued with engraving custom rifles that come out of my shop.

  The VERY odd part of it is, to me, that the factories for the most part will totally ignore the most *basic* of tried and proven principals in their search for economy.