Zogby poll: Americans fed up on illegal aliens Majority against Bush plan for workers... 108

On Sun, 15 May 2005 22:53:29 GMT, pyotr filipivich

They can be had cheaply enough if one is a good scrounger. Im sure you have seen the link to my home shop. Shrug..I have very little cash in it. Networking, scrounging, dumpster and junk pile diving.

Im currently in the middle of stripping a very nice old Buffalo Forge Co. #18 drill press. A bench top model. All 350 lbs of it. It has a 3ph 1hp motor on it that is real horsepower..not Sears horse power. Buffalo Forge went out of business in 1952 after a 53 yr life span. The reformed company makes fan and air handling equipement. In fact, Buffalo Forge made the first commercial air conditioners and spawned off Carrier Airconditioning company.

I stripped most of it today, used paint stripper ($3.75 at the hardware store) on most of the parts, sandblasted what the stripper didnt remove, and tommorow it gets primed with a good self leveling primer then painted with Rustolem Machinery Gray. The table has a bunch of holes drilled in it, they will be welded up, then the table reground. I just finished welding up a table for it out of 2" heavy wall square tubing, with sliders under it for drawers, a vise shelf and a coolant pump and tank. In the morning it gets a bracket to hold the 2hp variable speed inverter and then wirewheeled, and painted. Im trying to decide if I want to put wheels under the table, or simply move some Stuff around in the shop to put it. The drill press is so heavy it took 3 men to put it up on one of my work benches, and Ill have to rebuttemble it in place.

Total cost by the time it will be finished will be about $30. Not counting the sweat equity.

Drill press came out of a junk pile. Mag starter was bad. Free Square tubing came out of a scrap pile behind a machine shop..it was rusty. Cost me a 24 pack of Pepsi. $5 Im down to about 300 lbs, so Ill have to go back soon. Krespy Kreme donuts this time.... Rustoleum paint..10 gallons of it came from the Salvation Army thrift The primer Ill have to buy. $5 Variable frequency Inverter was part of a three cornered swap Mig wire and CO2..probably $2 total Drawers out of a steel desk at the landfill, free Wheels if I use them $7 for a set of 4" solid rubber tired casters. New SOW cord. $4 #3 Morse taper drill chuck, out of my Stuff..free Coolant pump and tank $10 from a machine tool dealer..orphans.

4" Starrett drill press vise..came out of a junk pile, a small crack was nickel alloy TIG welded up.

When its done, Ill have a 1hp 3ph variable speed, constant torque drill press I can drill up to about a 1.25" drill bit, forward and reverse for tapping, and a foot pedal to turn it on and off. I rather like foot pedals ond drill presses. Shrug..safer if you hang a drill bit..particularly with a beast. The foot pedal came out of a junk pile, and the replacement switch came out of piece Chip doping equipment that was being scrapped. I estimate it will weigh about 500 lbs. Not something that will move around much when drilling, or something easy to knock over by accident.

A compariable Powermatic or Clausing variable speed drill press in good running order, used..is about $800 and up, and still wont have power reverse for tapping.

Being poor or broke doesnt mean you have to live in a minimalist life style. Sometimes the hunt and the finding is more fun than actually using Stuff.

Gunner

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." - John Stewart Mill