[TheForge] Re: Odd size stock

[Mike Spencer]

It ain't just "odd size" stock, it's anything.

Last night I was rigging up a trial gadget [1] and needed a 1/8" shim
on each side.  Whack off a couple of pieces of 1-1/2 x 1/8 and stick
them in.  Sloppy.  Check with a mic.  My 1/8 stock is about 0.095 to
0.100.

Close scrutiny reveals that this isn't 1/8 x 1-1/2 hot rolled, it's
sheet sheared to 1-1/2.  Only that day they didn't have actual 1/8
plate so they used whatever the foreman or attending marketing droid
thought was good enough.  Back to the scrap bin.  A piece of 10 year
old 1/8x2 is clearly hot rolled and is actually 0.125-0.130, +/- some
light rust.  This isn't the first time. 1/8 x 2 is now also sheared
and it isn't quite 2.00" wide.  Whoever managed the rolling mill in
the past got it right.  Whoever is managing the shear-to-size op is a
horse's ass.

So why don't I just {forge,file,grind,laser,roll,etch,gnaw,lick} some
1/4" down to 1/8 to make my shims? You have to be kidding.  That's
what sized stock is *for*. If they stop making sized stock; or stop
making some or many sizes; or get really sloppy with dimension
tolerance; that's a canary in our coal mine.  It means that whatever
was happening, (oh, say, between 1650, when Saugus started producing
sized nail rod and 1880 when Bessemer furnaces started feeding rolling
mills) isn't happening anymore.

Don't get me started.  You think Bill Robertson is stubborn, pigheaded
and cranky?  I can do cranky in comparison with which Bill as cuddly
as a pussycat. [2] And tell you a yarn about the moron that set me
off.


- Mike

[1] Air-powered vise.  To the guy with a new hammer, everything looks
    like a nail.  Pics RSN if it works.

[2] "You may call it 'nonsense' if you like,' she said, "but I've
     heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as
     a dictionary!"  -- Red Queen to Alice, in _Through the Looking Glass_

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^