Nice when the basement machines come in handy

[Greg Menke]

At work the mechanical & electrical engineer built a prototype PCI board for our product, but didn't attend closely to the various clearances so the top connector interferes with the computer case and the jackscrew holes on either side of the connectors are too small, so the cables don't fully mate.

So I took home the computer box's back panel, milled out a neat little clearance for the top connector (horizontal mill made it easy-peasy, no weird clamping in the Bridgeport), then hacked up a jig to open up the jackscrew holes by .010 without tearing up the now quite small bit of material left between the jackscrew and connector holes. Came out real nice, and saved us from the cable guy and his dremel tool...

Hope rev 2 of the board has some fixes or I'm going to be busy...

Regards,

Greg

[Weston Bye]

Yep, just yesterday morning I modified 15 coil assemblies for work. Milled a surface down about a hundred thou, then milled new wire passage slots. My shop is a much nicer place than the shop at work and my machines are in better shape. And I don't have to spend a half hour finding tooling.

Little jobs like this keeps everyone happy - the work gets done and I don't get charged personal days when I have to take off a few hours for a doctor's appointment.

[Doc Nickel]

I have often wondered how people that don't have shops, manage to survive.

Office chair broke? TIG it.
Headlight knob cracked off? Turn one out of aluminum.
Lost the pin for your bicycle carrier? Thread up a chunk of stainless and use a wingnut.

Fix it, don't throw it away.

Doc.

[dockrat]

I have often wondered how people that don't have shops, manage to survive.

Office chair broke? TIG it.
Headlight knob cracked off? Turn one out of aluminum.
Lost the pin for your bicycle carrier? Thread up a chunk of stainless and use a wingnut.

Fix it, don't throw it away.

Doc.

bed leg broken out ....cut it back and make a new end outof some brass
SWMBO never hassels me about my tool fetish

[Greg Menke]

I saw first-hand how they got by in a prev project- a powerpc motherboard mounted in a PC case- for the lack of 5 minutes and a drill-press the power-on wire pair was strung through one of the ventilation holes & hanging out the front panel. Operator was supposed to "touch the ends of the two wires" to turn the box on or off...

I've made 5 or 6 things for the house, but the one I get credit for is replacing a broken knob on the clothes dryer. Saved a few hundred $$$ in closet shelving by making extensions for various bits but those are out of sight, out of mind. As long as the machines pay their way with SWMBO its fine by me....

Greg

[Scishopguy]

I have often wondered how people that don't have shops, manage to survive.

Office chair broke? TIG it.
Headlight knob cracked off? Turn one out of aluminum.
Lost the pin for your bicycle carrier? Thread up a chunk of stainless and use a wingnut.

Fix it, don't throw it away.

Doc.

Right on, Brother!!! That is what I have always believed. I don't see how the rest of the folks live. I guess they just buy a new one on their credit card.