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What's new

Scraping & Rebuilding Class In Portland in Feb or March

Would any of you have a wood plane that needs the sole scraped? Have a Starrett 198 level?
I can bring a cast-iron bodied wood plane, although none of mine especially need that level of attention. And I have an import level that actually could use evaluation and correction. Let me know if 1) nobody else has a wood plane that actually needs work, and 2) if the import level should come to class.

What are you students plan on bringing for your project?
Richard, I'm planning to bring some non-precision-ground Busch box parallels as a project, and want to focus on getting sides square and parallel. At 4x4x6 or 6x6x4, these won't fit under the usual small comparator stand. What should I plan on bringing in the way of surface gage, height gage with comparator indicator, etc?
 
Richard, I've received your mailing with the DVD and booklet, but did not receive your email. Maybe you used the same distribution list as the previous mass email?
 
I cut and pasted everyone's name in the CC and it was there when I sent it, but when I checked the sent file...only showed 2 names. Golly I hate mass emailing. I need a secretary. LOL I will send it out individually. Rich
 
PORTLAND Class had a Cancellation. Have opening for Jan 26 Class

Hello All,

I thought I would start a new thread for this. I have talked to a company in Portland Oregon who is 90% sure they can host a 3 day Scraping Class after the first part of the year. He mentioned February 2, 2015. They still have to tell me the exact date. They are a company and said they can't have a weekend class because of security reasons. So we are thinking a Monday - Wednesday. They will let me know later this week. They will limit the number of outside people to 8. I will give you more details later. They have to double check with management to be sure, but the shop foreman is pretty confident he can swing it. Seeing it will be a short class and not in my home like the class last weekend, so I may have to up the price a bit. Just giving everyone a heads up. Rich


I had 3 students who work for the US Government cancel. So I have room for 3 students now. The class starts Jan 26 Monday and you can attend 3 to 5 days. Please call PM or Email me ASAP. The class is going to happen as we have 10 others who are coming, but we now ave room for more. Rich
 
Richard,
not to complicate things, but i would be interested in purchasing the booklet and DVD that you mention. Nothing beats hands on, but i'm not in a position to attend a class in the near future, but WOULD like to get more info and instruction. Video is at least a visual tool, albeit not directly hands on. plz let me know if you would be able/willing to just sell the materials and if so, for how much. thx, Tom
 
So far we have 2 substitute students plus the organization where the 4 guys work is going to have me in next June to teach an in-house class for those guys and the rest of the crew. I lucked out. I think were good now. We have 12 . Tom I will PM you. Rich
 
I received a letter from Shane Carr (collector) today and he won't be attending the class. He has some personal business on the 28 TH. I will miss him. We now have 8 attending. If someone wants to sign up, please let me know. Rich
 
I received a letter from Shane Carr (collector) today and he won't be attending the class. He has some personal business on the 28 TH. I will miss him. We now have 8 attending. If someone wants to sign up, please let me know. Rich

I emailed you just now about cost and confirming dates. I don't have anything to practice with at this point. Is there something I can pick up used commonly that would be a good practice piece? 123 blocks? Someone earlier mentioned a starrett level I believe.

EDIT: Also saw the post about the unfinished pieces being sold. Will research that more but input is welcome.
 
A little over a week now. Could everyone attending please shoot me an email and let me know if you have a hand scraper and Biax and are bringing them. It looks like we will have 10 attending. I will be bringing 5 hand scrapers...6 Biax Scrapers and 1 Biax flaker.....so if you own one..please bring it if possible. Also if you do not have a project please email. Rich
 
I'm at the airport and ready to board the plane...I'll be in Portland today. Flying in a Day early to get a early flight. I have 3 bags, 2 1/2 of it is tools and supplies...64,68 and 49 pound's. Luckily I get 3 free bags up to 70 pounds each. I also UPS'ed a 80 pound bag too. I should have enough....:-) I am looking forward to this class as it is inside an amazing shop. I'll be at the shop...at 7 AM Monday morning.....The students can call my cell. I hope the 2 students coming from Boston don't get snowed in. Crazy weather ....must be global warming...LOL Rich
 
Tuesday night and I thought I would add a few pictures. Class is going well. Have 11 students this time and the group is doing well.
I'll write more when I'm not so tired.

Stu shows off his hand scraping- Alex shows off his hand 1/2 mooning (he was shy,so no face shot..lol) Pic of some of the shop...guys at plate...
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Columbia Steel has a wonderful shop. So far, we've only been in building 15, which has about (I didn't go around counting, and haven't even walked both bays of the building) 10 VTLs of various sizes ranging from 6' table "small" ones to at least one 12-14' table monster, 3 or 4 planer mills, and maybe 6 HBMs, plus at least two chunky lathes (guessing 20 or 24" swing, haven't taken a close look.) Bridge cranes and heavy jib cranes almost everywhere, plus aisles large enough for forklifts and work-in-progress. Heavy work tables (many of them round) up to 12' across, with T-slots that would take a 1" or 1-1/4" bolt or recessed shackles for fastening 3/4" or 1" chain.

Guys working there ran down a list of recent projects and most of them were heavy, high impact equipment, like rock crushers, cement mills, parts for drag lines ("steam shovels" bigger than office buildings). Richard mentioned they were building hammer-mill car shredders on his previous visit. A couple of times today, I thought there was a low-flying propeller aircraft buzzing the building. About the third time it happened, I realized that was chatter from a very large part. Whatever it was, was so massive that what would be a high-pitched squeal on a smallish part was a low throbbing vibration on the big part.

There is also a heat treat oven large enough to take a rail car. I think the door is something like 16' x 12'. The tracks for the car are visible over my shoulder in the 1st pic and in the background in another.

That's just one building. They've got a full foundry and pattern shop and a bunch of other buildings I can't even list. We should get at least a brief, partial tour in the next day or two.

Added in edit: They also have what looked a lot like a railroad wheel press.
 
Wednesday: We had a busy day. 3 of the students left as they only could take off 3 days and had to get back to their regular jobs. So we had our 1 hour tour. No pictures were allowed in the chain pouring facility. They were making 4" chain links used in huge shovels (I used to call the steam shovels) The length of one link is approx 24" long. and how they pour a new link inside another to make a continuos chain. Amazing process. We also got a tour of the foundry and as we were walking into the door we heard a siren and our guide said hurry, we got lucky and we walked behind him to a opening and viewed them pouring a 6' diam rock crusher casting. The guide (a Process Engineer) explained how they have recipes and make different steels and when they pour it into the ladle it is 3000 F and by the time it is poured into the green sand mold it was 2780 F I believe he said. I was fun watching Andrew and Mike who are 24 and fresh out on MIT see "This is cool" moment. Eric, another one of young students who is Computer Engineer was up front too.

I have to thank Stu for bringing so much to the class, great questions and supplies. 3 of the students; Alex, Dan and Ron have brought small lathe compound and are now scraping them. The foreman Travis in the machine shop looked at Dan's Pratt & Whitney lathe compound that is maybe 10" laughed when looking at it and said "Tinker Toy" lol....

Also after the tour we demo'd aligning a lathe, doing the 2 collar test, aligning (Test) the 4" tail-stock quil on a Monarch Lathe, testing squareness on a Bridgeport and testing the taper on a gib I had pretty much lost my voice by the end of the day yelling inside the BIG Noisy shop trying toexplain what tests we were doing..

I will try to add a few more pictures tomorrow or Friday. All in all it has been another amazing class with a twist as Columbia Steel and Casting is one hell of a place! Rich

PS: Crashed when I got back to the hotel room at 6 PM and am now awake for a few hours only I hope...lol
 
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After reading what is going on out there in Portland the only word I can think of is "Priceless". Very cool indeed Richard!
 








 
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