ADA: Ask Doc Anything!

[DocsMachine]

[Anthony Bourdain once said "There's a guy in my head, and all he wants to do is lay in bed all day long, smoke pot, and watch old movies and cartoons. My life is a series of stratagems, to avoid, and outwit that guy". Who is "that guy" for you, and what do you do to avoid him?

-Oooh, good quote and better question.

I don't have time to read that thread, but yeah, I think most of us have a version of 'that guy' somewhere in our heads.

My biggest drive is simply that I want to see this stuff done. Finishing a project- virtually any project- and especially finishing it successfully, is a great... I don't know if "endorphin rush" is the right term, but there's definitely a very strong satisfaction of both completing a job and completing it well.

Going right along with that is the project itself- I'm looking forward to shooting this marker, I'm looking forward to driving this car, using this milling machine, whatever. I can't wait to see what these parts look like when they get back from the anodizer. I can't wait to hear what this engine sounds like when it's done and fired up.

And yes, there's also "I can't wat to see what the guys on MCB [or whereever] have to say about this."

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Do you consider a hotdog, a sandwich or a taco?

-Technically a hotdog is a subclassification of a sandwich, technically a variant of a 'sub', being elongated bread sliced lengthwise with a 'hinge' of sorts. It's as much a "taco" as a Greek gyros is.

Shape, after all, doesn't define similarities. If it did, a skunk would be considered a type of cat, and a pony would be considered a type of large dog.

Doc.

[Siress]

Anthony Bourdain once said "There's a guy in my head, and all he wants to do is lay in bed all day long, smoke pot, and watch old movies and cartoons. My life is a series of stratagems, to avoid, and outwit that guy". Who is "that guy" for you, and what do you do to avoid him?

[Carp]

Do you consider a hotdog, a sandwich or a taco?

[DavidBoren]

-Sure. I have a wide selection of hammers.

Doc.

Cold blooded. Lol.

[DocsMachine]

How often do you trim your toenails?

-Once a year, whether they need it or not.

If I got a Metadyne Thumper, could you make it work?

-I'm not God.

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

-With or without an Estes model rocket engine jammed up it's tailpipe?

Have you ever done any work on/for a ZAP 600E? Want to?

-Sure. I have a wide selection of hammers.

Doc.

[DavidBoren]

How often do you trim your toenails?

If I got a Metadyne Thumper, could you make it work?

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Have you ever done any work on/for a ZAP 600E?

Want to?

[DocsMachine]

BTW, do you machine the swoop drop forwards yourself or farm them to a CNC shop?

-With the exception of a few of my bulk retail products, everything I make is done by me, in my shop.

I designed it, I cut it, I milled it, I polished it, I bagged and boxed it, I labeled it, and I mailed it.

The only thing I didn't do is lick it. As far as you know.

Doc.

[dartamon]

BTW, do you machine the swoop drop forwards yourself or farm them to a CNC shop?

[DocsMachine]

Any thoughts on doing the Air Cure Cerakote at home? Building a cocker and trying to do as much as possible myself.

-Unfortunately can give no data on that, as I've never used it. Only thing close to that is years ago I tried a bake-on "Moly Kote", that worked, but was a significant pain in the sphincter to apply. And needed like 400F to cure, so you couldn't apply it to plastics or soldered parts.

I'm sure there's others here on MCB with more experience who can answer your question.

Doc.

[goofyman23]

Any thoughts on doing the Air Cure Cerakote at home? Building a cocker and trying to do as much as possible myself.

[DocsMachine]

what are some of your guilty pleasure bands/songs? ones that if someone heard them on your playlist, you'd be slightly or very embarrassed?

-Got a bunch of those.

As I noted in another post, I'm not a "music snob". I like my music, you might not like it, that's life. I'm no fan of Aerosmith, but they still sell out whole stadiums.

Now, keeping in mind that none of these are on my current playlist, and haven't been there for years- decades, in some cases- my MP3 drive contains such songs as "Barbie Girl", "Safety Dance", and Weird Al's "Dare to be Stupid".

I actually have a lot of Weird Al, but like a lot of the others, they're very-occasional songs. They're not the kind of thing you'd want to listen to on a regular basis- frankly, once a year is almost too much. (I've ranted about this before, songs like AC/DC's Big Balls, Wynona's Big Brown Beaver, and Jackyls' Lumberjack are all parody songs. They're jokes. And like a joke, if somebody tries to tell you the same joke twice a week, it pretty rapidly goes from funny, to barely humorous, to stupid, to "I'm gonna kill him the next time he tries to tell me that".)

I also have some classical, both original and rock/techno remixes, there's some Nickelback in there, I have some Simon & Garfunkel, old White Zombie, some old KISS (but I repeat myself- all KISS is old! ) and some even older Jimi Hendrix. (Which isn't exactly embarrassing, but hey, the dude's been dead for fifty years. He was a decent guiatrist back during the Gemini missions, but we've recorded new music since then! Play some of THAT. I've already heard "Watchtower" five hundred thousand times. [fleck spittle] )

[Cues up FFDP's, Inside Out to calm down]



Doc.

[DocsMachine]

what would you recommend for a lathe table? ive got a south bend model 9a, 3 1/2' bed that ive been wanting to get up and running. workbench? with butcher block? or ??

-All you really need is "something sturdy". Don't worry too much about making the strongest possible table. The lathe won't care.

Yes, something heavy and well-braced is nice, but really won't help your accuracy or surface finishes much. I know some people have liked maple-topped tool chests from Home Depot and the like, but those are usually mounted to casters, and any mass or stiffness from the top is lost with the casters being a little floppy. They're not cheap, either.

If it were me, I'd consider making a custom table out of simple 2x4s. Splay the end legs like a sawhorse to add a little stability, make the top out of maybe a couple sections of 2x6, or three or four 2x4s, have a shelf at shin height both for bracing and tool/chuck storage, and have a well-attached X-brace at the back to rigidize the whole thing. Half a day's construction, maybe $100 in materials if you don't have any laying about.

You can make it at your personal favorite height, the open base lets you stand close to the machine without stubbing a toe on a cabinet, and if you're tight on space, a narrow base will save space over a large tool chest. (Though you get the storage of the tool chest, so there's a tradeoff.)

Barring that, check your local Craigslist, Salvation Army and/or garage sales for a cabinet, table, old entertainment center, leftover kitchen cabinets, etc. that you can beef up with a few planks and some plywood.

Or if you have the cash to spare, a Husky tool chest from Homey-Dee works a treat. I've seen guys take the casters off and set the cabinet up on blocks of 4x4, but if it were me, I'd make sure they're secured, so the cabinet can't "fall off" of them.

Doc.

[Lazarus78]

what are some of your guilty pleasure bands/songs? ones that if someone heard them on your playlist, you'd be slightly or very embarrassed?

[DocsMachine]

See, you say that, but that brings me back to the vert feed calculations on the old Tinker's Guild FAQ (that I maintained for a year or two):

-Whoa, that takes me back. I'm pretty sure that was probably written around 2000.

Now the last phrase "There will be a quiz in Dr. Nickel's class next Thursday." I thought always alluded to you having written it. Was it Have Blue or someone else?

-It refers to HB, but I seem to recall that Guild regular* Curt was the one that wrote up several math-based posts.

It definitely wasn't me, since my level of math, even today, is a lot closer to 2+2= somewhere around 4 or so.

I should repost that. I know Curt came up with one at some point that did the math to figure out the maximum theoretical ROF. That is, if the paintballs could leave the barrel with just enough separation to keep them from hitting each other, what would the maximum ROF equal. The answer, as I recall, was something like 25,000 BPM.

But the bolt would have to be moving at supersonic speeds, you'd need [some ungodly number] of cubic feet per minute of air, and so on. Oh, and the G-forces subjected on the ball to load, chamber and accelerate, were far and above that which the shell could survive.

I know I have that article somewhere, I saw it on one of my archive drives just a few years back. I should dig those out and repost them.

Doc.