Had a good visit from a fellow member today!

[wierdscience]

Joe Hartson came up for a visit today,heck of a nice guy,showed me some of his spin index tailstock conversions,good machinist too!
Thanks again for lunch,Joe!

[John Stevenson]

Well if I don't get these accounts finished I'll be getting a visit from the tax man.

John S.

[wierdscience]

John,you can hide out at my place anytime

Joe can vouch for the fact that today I was sweeping up the floor,see we could swap,you could give me a few tips on gear cutting and I could show you how to find the floor Bring your own bucket loader

[vinito]

I can give you a tip on gear cutting - stay away from eBay for buying cutters!

I was the second highest bidder on a big stack of gear cutters earlier today, snd there were a bunch of bidders. Almost breaks my heart that if only one less guy saw the listing...

Sure would like to have added those cutters to my collection (of only two pieces so far :P).

Well, OK so that tip isn't worth asking you to help me find my floor, but thanks for letting me vent. I guess it's back to trying to grind a fly cutter if/when I need to cut some gear teeth.

[BillH]

MSC sells gear cutters, for about 25$ a piece I think.

[vinito]

Oh, sure. Go right to the store. Where's the joy and frustration in that? Have you no appreciation for drama?

[WJHartson]

Darin and I had a very nice visit today. It is true that he was cleaning up the shop and working hard. Hands were very dirty. He showed me the shop and the store areas, I enjoyed the visit very much. Wish that I could meet more of the members. I was impressed with what I saw.

Joe

[vinito]

Sorry. I kind of hijacked the thread, didn't I?

I agree that meeting forum members makes for good experiences. It's been a while, but theres a small group of members in my area that have met for breakfast a couple times, and I enjoyed it a lot. They toured my shop and I'm looking forward to taking a gander at theirs sometime.

Another member dropped by and we worked on one of his projects for the better part of a Saturday. Pretty cool.

I can say for sure that the chances are very slim that I would have met any of them otherwise - our lives just follow very different paths, which makes for very interesting conversation.

[John Stevenson]

Having been over to the States a few times and met a couple of people I have met over the Internet I can appreciate the difficulties you guys have, distance being the main one.

For a Brit who hasn't been over I think it's hard to appreciate the problems.
We are a very tiny country in comparison and don't have this problem.

There are not many Brits on this borad but we do meet quite regular as we travel around.
There is also an informal transport system that runs between members.
A classic example is bulky ebay parts.
If you win a part on ebay from another part of the country you just email someone who's close and ask them to collect it and hold onto it.
Someone will be going that way sooner or later and will move it down either to you or someone closer.
At the moment I have a small, manual, truck mounted crane for Tim Leech near Preston and a pallet of victorian railings for a guy in Ireland sat in my yard, neither of which I have collected, I'm just 'postman'

John S.

[wierdscience]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by John Stevenson:


A classic example is bulky ebay parts.
If you win a part on ebay from another part of the country you just email someone who's close and ask them to collect it and hold onto it.
Someone will be going that way sooner or later and will move it down either to you or someone closer.
John S.</font>

Hey John,I just bought a huge boring mill in Scotland,do you think I can send Alistair a plane ticket and maybe he can tuck it in his suitcase on his way over?

[Michael Az]

John, that sounds neat to me that you fellows get to visit often. The last machine I bought was a 6,000 lb mill and it was 1500 miles away. Closest big town is 130 miles away. For 24 years I drove between 400 and 500 miles every day. Oh well, plenty of elbo room.
Michael

[ibewgypsie]

Seems all the guys from this board I have met in person seem to be exactly what they appear to be. Nice guys. I gave a pocket knife to the last one I met, now that is a honor when a "indian" (actually only a part) gives you something to cut with.

I bought a truck from a fellow member, it has been exactly as he described. Problem was, the vacation Carrol and I took to pick it up cost us as much as the truck.

Ahh heck.. it is just money, right? (nobody ever spent/splurged thierself rich) A old man told me once, take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.

And ebay, lay quietly and wait till the price gets right. If you don't do this for a living you can afford to be paitient.

I was counting the KWikSwitch collets that came from ebay just yesterday. They like to get 50-65$ for them. I am too cheap for that.

David