# First project - Machinist Hammer



## jmottle (Mar 22, 2018)

Just finished my first lathe project this evening as part of the MACH 213 class at SAIT with Massimo.  Excellent instructor and I had a TON of fun.  Wish I could apprentice under him to learn everything he knows.  Waiting to finalize my tool order with KBC and order my DROs and I can start working on stuff in my own shop.


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## Tom O (Mar 22, 2018)

jmottle said:


> Just finished my first lathe project this evening as part of the MACH 213 class at SAIT with Massimo.  Excellent instructor and I had a TON of fun.  Wish I could apprentice under him to learn everything he knows.  Waiting to finalize my tool order with KBC and order my DROs and I can start working on stuff in my own shop.



Looks good I thought they were getting rid of the manual lathes at SAIT at least that is what my son was saying.


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## kevin.decelles (Mar 22, 2018)

I signed up for that class in April , can't wait 


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## Janger (Mar 22, 2018)

Class... hmmm. Nice hammer Jeff.


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## jmottle (Mar 22, 2018)

Tom O said:


> Looks good I thought they were getting rid of the manual lathes at SAIT at least that is what my son was saying.



Not sure. He did not mention anything about that.  Right now though this class is a pre-requisite for any of the CNC classes.  I was one of the only ones (only 2-3 total) there as a hobbyists and not there for the pre-req. LOL.


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## jmottle (Mar 22, 2018)

kevin.decelles said:


> I signed up for that class in April , can't wait



Was a great class. The first few classes you build a drill gage and then move onto the lathes. If you get Massimo, I think you'll be really happy. He's super knowledgeable and an amazing instructor.


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## PeterT (Mar 22, 2018)

Nice hammer. Eventually I'm going to make a lightweight version with screw-in faces - steel, brass, nylon... There's some nice designs out there.

Some personal trivia. When I was still in high school (full admission, mid-70's) I took a SAIT evening machining class. The project was a brass cannon. Hand filed bar stock rails & notched cross members, maybe 1" dia x 8" long tapered barrel, brass spoked wheels, steel rims, some rudimentary decorative features here & there. Its still at my dad's place, I'll have to polish it up & take a pic one day. I think those were Southbend lathes in the original shops before they tore them down & relocated to new buildings. I remember it was a pretty brisk pace, you didn't want to mess up many parts. You had to grind your own HSS cutters for various profiles & sign out tools from this dude behind a counter using numbered tokens. That course was something like $50 or $75. Makes me laugh even to say that. Pretty sure the brass for the barrel alone would be more than that now. Later on when I tool Mechanical Engineering Technology at SAIT, we also had a basic machining course just so students would understand fabricated parts didn't grow from the dirt LOL. We made a knurled plumb bob from 12L14, Then you were on your own with an O1 tool steel center punch which was measured & graded, which I still have & use today.

It would be a shame if they pulled the manual lathes. Hopefully they mean replace/upgrade them. But it also wouldn't surprise me, programming & button pushing is the only way to be competitive, at least for production.


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## Janger (Mar 22, 2018)

Well...me too! Course starts April 26...


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## jmottle (Mar 22, 2018)

PeterT said:


> Nice hammer.



Thanks!



PeterT said:


> It would be a shame if they pulled the manual lathes. Hopefully they mean replace/upgrade them. But it also wouldn't surprise me, programming & button pushing is the only way to be competitive, at least for production.



All Asian machines now in the classroom we were in.  Around 30-40 lathes, 6-8 drill presses, a few mills and 6-8 Baldor grinders.  All the lathes we used were 500 x 1000 (ish) I can't recall the exact size now.  Actually were pretty nice machines and worked well.


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## Kelly McLaughlin (Mar 27, 2018)

Very nice Job! did you make some replacement tips : )


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## jmottle (Mar 27, 2018)

Kelly McLaughlin said:


> Very nice Job! did you make some replacement tips : )



Thanks!  No additional tips. Just the ones on the hammer right now.


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## Janger (May 2, 2018)

Kevin and I have had a few sessions in our course. We are making a hammer too but a different one. The course is filling in gaps and I’m learning better techniques. Worth the time and money. Here’s a few photos. We are using the blue lathes in the first picture. We got a tour and this is some of the equipment they have.


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## kevin.decelles (May 2, 2018)

The course is great, especially for people new to machining. Learning something new and useful every class -- good value imho




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## jmottle (May 2, 2018)

Looks like you guys must be in a different class than I was. Who is your instructor?  Massimo?   I loved every single class. Wish I could do another one with another project. I'd be in there every week without hesitation.  

I wonder if SAIT would do a custom class if there were enough people.  There was a summer CNC class that was not scheduled yet as there were not enough people, but several in the class wanted to go and managed to get enough to get them to confirm the class.


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## PeterT (May 2, 2018)

_I wonder if SAIT would do a custom class..._

That's kind of what I was hoping for an organized scraping class. But I don't think the planets align for several logistical reasons Dabbler outlined. Even if we had shop access, meaning workbenches, vises, access to granite plate, specialized measuring rig & basic tools... that would probably require some degree of SAIT oversight (meaning a participating instructor even if he is not instructing). I don't think they would just hand over the keys. Then there is timing issue. A 5-dayer would have to be off season either when school is completely out or leveraging on say a statutory long weekend. Evening classes would be out because it would compete for space & now the 'flown in expert' would have to be here for extended period. Plus he still has to clear customs with any remaining tooling & the purpose of visit potentially drawing income Q&A B.S.

But if you have an idea to host a class of a non-curriculum theme, you should reach out to SAIT. They have generalized some courses to 'bring your own project'. Many years ago some guys I knew organized a 'build a steam engine' class. They bought 15 casting sets, fulfilled the class size & used the same instructor many of us had for one of their regular evening classes. I'm sure that was the case for 'bring your project' welding & maybe even a machining / gunsmithing type course. I would suspect it would have to be within the realm of instructor oversight & safety etc. But who knows with liability & bureaucracy these days. I can also foresee a business case to leave the lights on & have the machines sit idle.


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## PeterT (May 2, 2018)

Yup, nice looking (Asian) machines. Did you happen to catch the make?


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## Janger (May 2, 2018)

Yes the blue ones are Taiwanese. 
All the settings are available without any gear swaps.


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## Janger (May 2, 2018)

Janger said:


> Yes the blue ones are Taiwanese.
> All the settings are available without any gear swaps.


Oh and the grey ones are Colchesters. They also have standard moderns made in Canada from way back.


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## jmottle (May 2, 2018)

Janger said:


> Yes the blue ones are Taiwanese.
> All the settings are available without any gear swaps.



These are the machines I used in my class.  I am not looking forward to using my much smaller, cheaper Chinese lathe now. Having worked on these, I think in hindsight I would have purchased a much different machine. Oh well....next one.

Josh, Alex and I had lunch today and we discussed reaching out to SAIT to see if they would still host a class and instructor if we brought the students.  I'll email Massimo and see if that's still possible.  I'd LOVE to take more classes.


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## Janger (May 2, 2018)

Yeah next one. Next one. I keep thinking that too. I’m really grateful for what I have and I want a Cnc lathe. They’re so expensive though I think a conversion from a manual would be the best option.


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## Janger (May 2, 2018)

More classes would be good. Milling maybe. Design of mechanisms... that I would really like.


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## jmottle (May 2, 2018)

My biggest obstacle is the residential staircase to my basement shop.  There is only so much weight one tread can hold once you factor the machine, a dolly, and 2-3 guys huffing it down the steps.  I can't for example see myself hauling a Bridgeport down those steps LOL.  As much as I'd love to.


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## jmottle (May 2, 2018)

Janger said:


> More classes would be good. Milling maybe. Design of mechanisms... that I would really like.



Agree. If they had a handful of manual milling classes I'd be all over that.  They do have a MasterCAM class, but I'm more interested in the machine than how to run a CNC software that I likely would not be using anyway as I'd use Mach3.


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## Janger (May 2, 2018)

jmottle said:


> My biggest obstacle is the residential staircase to my basement shop.  There is only so much weight one tread can hold once you factor the machine, a dolly, and 2-3 guys huffing it down the steps.  I can't for example see myself hauling a Bridgeport down those steps LOL.  As much as I'd love to.



Never say never. Tubalcain on YouTube has an interesting video on how he moved his Bridgeport into the basement you should go watch it.


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## PeterT (May 2, 2018)

I remember about maybe 5-6 years ago, they listed continuing Ed milling courses in the evening, like Level 1& 2. I registered, then a week before they cancelled due to insufficient numbers. Bummer. I seem to recall this repeated for a couple cycles so I gave up. Not sure why the lack of interest exactly. Maybe the trades guys take it during the day & insufficient hobbyists or skill upgraders. Courses are not exactly cheap either. I remember the good old days when they were a couple hundred bucks & fully deductible on your tax return. Now with Justin Silly Socks at the helm, pretty much everything is out of pocket expense with zero deductability. Including my kids college tuition. But I digress... :/


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## jmottle (May 3, 2018)

I got an email back from Massimo and he thinks it's possibly to develop custom classes, but he's sending the request to the head of the department to continue the conversation. Will see what they say.  I can't see them doing these classes for less than what the other classes are, so I would expect anything through SAIT would be in the neighbourhood of $500-600 with 10-15 people minimum.


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## Dabbler (May 3, 2018)

jmottle, my friend has a Bridgeport mill AND a 15 X 60" Leblond lahe in his basement...  The lathe weighs more than the mill.  So all things are possible!

I moved my12X36 lathe out of my basement into my current garage....  That is, by myself. -- It can be done!


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## Janger (May 18, 2018)

Hammer made in class.


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## jmottle (May 18, 2018)

Janger said:


> Hammer made in class.



Nice!  Was it a good class?


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## Janger (May 18, 2018)

Yes and still going! Threading is next.


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## PeterT (May 18, 2018)

Nice hammer.

I have some smallish el-cheapo jewellers hammers, but I really like the feel & balance & suspect it has a lot to do with the lighter density of wood & the oval S-curve shape. But I also want a standard head so I can screw in different tips like steel, brass, nylon etc. I know metal handles make great class projects because of the machining operations. Maybe I'll go wood just for old-tymey sake... but then I'll have to figure out that expansion shim thingy that keeps the head on.

In case you win the big lottery this weekend, check out these babies.
http://www.ottofrei.com/Fretz-New-Jewelers-Hammers-Set


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