# yallos from victoria



## jaydag71 (Feb 7, 2021)

good morning all, i think yesterday was my very first visit, and Im looking forward to making some contacts and connections with like minded individuals in Canukada...and to see if my hunch is right about all of the machinists in our nation being out east...anyways im new to machining for the most part, and am trying to build up my tooling atm which has been quite expensive and all over the place in terms of results. came here hopeful and looking for a gage block set....figured id introduce myself first though....yullo.


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## David_R8 (Feb 7, 2021)

Hello, welcome to the forum from another Victoria resident. 
What kind of projects are you into?


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## YotaBota (Feb 7, 2021)

And welcome from the land of the Sookabilly


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## DPittman (Feb 7, 2021)

jaydag71 said:


> ...and to see if my hunch is right about all of the machinists in our nation being out east.


If you mean Calgary/Edmonton area by "out east" I think you're right.


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## CalgaryPT (Feb 7, 2021)

Welcome from Calgary.


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## Janger (Feb 7, 2021)

I never thought I'd be East of anything...


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## Swharfin' (Feb 7, 2021)

jaydag71 said:


> good morning all, i think yesterday was my very first visit, and Im looking forward to making some contacts and connections with like minded individuals in Canukada...and to see if my hunch is right about all of the machinists in our nation being out east...anyways im new to machining for the most part, and am trying to build up my tooling atm which has been quite expensive and all over the place in terms of results. came here hopeful and looking for a gage block set....figured id introduce myself first though....yullo.


Welcome From another new guy your in the right place.


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## 6.5 Fan (Feb 7, 2021)

Welcome, and being as SK is east of you it is also a veritable wasteland for good used machines, lots of machinists though.


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## YotaBota (Feb 7, 2021)

jaydag71- what machine(s) are you running? Tooling gets expensive whether your east, west or in between.


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## jaydag71 (Feb 7, 2021)

thanks all for the replies! nice to see a few other locally situated folks. My interests are all over the place for sure, initially came over from the rc hobby but really I'm interested in being able to make whatever I want!

 I'd like to make my own tooling and tools but atm just have to be content with the mostly hands off learning due to my current living situation (apt).

 So Ive got a couple smaller lathes (one, my first, is a pos mix-matched atlas and ?? that somebody local prob shouldn't have sold to me but anyways..., the other is the craftex b1117l) and a mill/drill , its a chinese clone that I cant recall the brand of atm, model is frv-30-200... 

 I've been collecting some tooling and tools as I'm able to and have a few items now that I'd like to try calibrating and have been running into trouble using what I've got, hence part of my interest in a set of decent gage blocks...I believe its something I'll need consistently so rather than buy a new b grade set that came straight from china, I'd take a look around and see what comes up.

 I'm considering a starret rs81 a1 set off duhbay that is missing a few (3) of the smaller blocks. It appears to be well used but not terrible, and is priced reasonably imo at about 300ish cdn delivered. Id drop the link but think its not allowed yet although would be curious to hear a more experienced opinion of the set...anyways. Its only 175usd (~225cdn) but of course the shipping from new york is 75$.

 Yep i have noticed a cluster of machinist activity in Alb, suppose it only makes sense but at the same time i was more referring to farther east like ont and quebec...while searching for equipment last year I seemed to most often find online leads to machines located in quebec,, although there certainly were leads from alb too. Perhaps has more to do with the sites I was traversing? 

 Tooling has been a bit of a bummer I'll say, there seems to be tons of it available out of the states but the price of shipping it up makes these deals less than stellar...of course theres always chinese tooling...the shipping is even free typically.

 Thanks again everyone, glad to hang out. J


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## DPittman (Feb 7, 2021)

Yes the best machinists are always to the east.  But folks from BC can take pride because they are the " FAR east" !


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## Hruul (Feb 8, 2021)

Welcome to the forum.


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## jaydag71 (Feb 8, 2021)

DPittman said:


> Yes the best machinists are always to the east.  But folks from BC can take pride because they are the " FAR east" !


 yes indeed we are, though not all of us are thrilled at tbe prospect.


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## jaydag71 (Feb 8, 2021)

Hruul said:


> Welcome to the forum.


thank you sir!


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## Tom O (Feb 8, 2021)

Have you looked at Amazon for blocks I bought some for my son he already had a sine plate.


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## jaydag71 (Feb 8, 2021)

Tom O said:


> Have you looked at Amazon for blocks I bought some for my son he already had a sine plate.


 no i havent yet....prob wouldnt go that route unless it was really worth while or i was in a pinch- i find amazon to be all over the place with the pricing....id be more apt to try ali express or something...i know they sell all kinds of raw materials and tooling for quite unbeatable prices...if you can handle the bs and often 3 months of waiting for slo mail...plus their ccp subsidized export mail system seems to have been recinded in many sellers cases, so the shipping can be quite tricky these days.... cheers!


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## painly (Feb 18, 2021)

DPittman said:


> If you mean Calgary/Edmonton area by "out east" I think you're right.


I got you beat here in saskatoon. I can almost see Windsor from my window.

From one new member to another; welcome.

ps, 
I used to live in Vic, for about a year - 2005/06. Worked Kabuki cab at night and House of Tools during the day!


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## jaydag71 (Feb 18, 2021)

yeh those kabuki cabs used to clutter up the streets fairly heavily back in those days- i never see those anymore so am thinking they went belly up? always used to think to myself " how the @#$% do they not just keel over peddling plump americans around all summer?"...anyways cheers.


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