[TheForge] Old tools/Replacement parts

[Ries Niemi]

We have to realize that the bottom feeders like us, the guys who live 
on the flotsam and jetsam of the industrial revolution, are not 
ANYBODY's target market.
Yep, its a shame when you cant get parts for a 30 year old machine.
And its certainly true that if you have a machine shop, you can make 
parts for a machine made in 1900, but the average home shop cant make 
replacement IC's.

But frankly, nobody in industry cares- not the manufacturers, and not 
the consumers of all this high tech stuff.
As long as the machine is making money, virtually every company is 
willing to live with a 5 year tool life, as long as the numbers pencil 
out.
And in many cases, the added efficiency and cost savings of an 
electronic device far outweighs its obsolescence and scrapping in a few 
years.

And then, if you compare them to consumer electronics, things like 
commercial welders are built for the centuries- most tv's, stereos, and 
phones built today are only made to last 2 or 3 years. 5 at most. 
Nobody wants to pay what it would take to build a really bulletproof 
one- except maybe the military, who actually buy things like EMP proof 
electronics- and those things make $800 toilet seats look very cheap 
indeed.
I am running cnc machines more and more these days, along with highly 
electronic devices like inverter welders. Nope, they arent gonna last 
50 years- but the amount of money I can earn with one in 10 years, as 
opposed to those first 10 years when I stick welded everything with a 
buzzbox- NO COMPARISON.

Modern tools are not made for old putterers like most of us- I happen 
to straddle both worlds, so I can usually find a way to make a job pay 
for a new machine, so I can tell you that they do what they are 
designed to do really well, and their service life is not unreasonable 
when used to their maximum potential.

ries


On Aug 21, 2006, at 1:19 AM, Mike Spencer wrote:

>
>> The main PC card for my Lincoln Idealarc 250/250 is no longer
>> available.
>
> Gak!
>
> I just (4:30 am) finished cleaning, tinkering, futzing and
> reassembling a Wico mag for a DeLaval single-banger engine, including
> building a tool for testing it off engine.  Its been disassembled in a
> basket for over a year. Works great.  Bits of copper, a small bolt,
> solder, assorted wire, tiny spring, electrical tape.  Works fine.  50 
> or
> maybe 75 years old.
>
> All this stuff with solid state electronics will be unrepairable in a
> few years, a decade or two at most.  I'm subject to good natured
> ridicule on the local Linux list because all my computers are ca. 10
> years old but most parts do have to come from junk bins and sometimes
> even there it's non too easy to find what I need.
>
> - Mike
>
> -- 
> Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~.
>                                                            /V\
> mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
> http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^
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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist

http://www.RiesNiemi.com