At The End Of The Day

It's been one of those days. It's been one of those weeks. Even though it's a new year, it's been one of those months, one of those years. For the sake of OSHA I had to make a change in my personal appearance and people have been cracking jokes about it all day long. Don't get me wrong, I can laugh with everyone else because it is funny, but it does wear you down. By the end of the day I was practically in tears from all the stress. I finally ran from it all and went out to the shop to hide and finish a side project I wasn't really supposed to be spending any time on.

I got to the point where I had to bore a hole 0.502", maybe 0.0005" oversize. No drill or reamer on the planet will do that unless it's custom made. Ideally you'd use a boring bar. But all the boring bars started at 0.750" and went up from there. In desperation I set the part up in the mill (it's a round part) and set up my boring head (the boring head bars don't fit the lathe toolholders.) Again, I was almost in tears.

Then in walked the master machinist I work with. Within a few minutes he'd fished out a smaller boring bar from his stash of tools and had me back up and running on the lathe where the job belonged. I could feel relief wash over me.

On his way out the door he said maybe it was time I stopped using the outside shop and started using the tools in the toolroom. "You've paid your dues," he said.

What better way to end the day?

I bead-blasted the part and gave it a quick Scotchbrite rub under water to knock the high points off. Semi-matte, baby-smooth, and ready to go.

-- Pencil