[TheForge] using tools to build tools

[Bruce Freeman]

The screw-thread is one possible example.  Make a bolt of annealed
carbon steel by hand, cutting a short length of threads by careful
measurement using a calipers as gauge.  Make cuts lengthwise to make a
crude tap from the bolt, then harden and temper.  This tap will not be
perfect.

Use this tap to tap a hole in an annealed carbon steel plate.  Make
radial cuts in the plate to make a die, then harden and temper the
die.  The cutting action of the crude tap cutting threads is such that
the die will no be more consistent in its thread than the tap (because
all the irregularities in the tap are averaged everywhere in the
threads of the die).

Now use the die to make a new tap AND a lead screw.  Use the die to
make a nut.  Combine this with appropriate hand-cut gears (involutes
can be cut by hand, after all) and you have the essentials for a
screw-cutting lath, the most basic of modern machine tools.

So you've advanced from totally hand-cut hardware to a simple machine
tool to manufacture the same hardware.  Not as simple as I make it
sound, but a crew of craftsmen, or a very dedicated sole craftsman,
could do it.  Humanity HAS done it.

On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 9:40 AM, GRAF <adveniam at att.net> wrote:
> Files, scrapers, talent, and time.
>
> Mike Graf
>
> terry l. ridder wrote:
>> hello
>>
>> earlier today ( saturday ) i was having a discussion concerning
>> inexpensive tools. the subject turned toward the age old questions that
>> people have been asking for centuries. how did the first person build a
>> lathe, wood turning lathe or metal turning lathe, without all ready
>> having a lathe to use. my friends all agreed that the craftsman's talent
>> would dictate the accuracy of the tool. they would not agree with me
>> that i should be able to use a homebuilt gingery metal lathe and the
>> other tools in in the gingery series to build large and more accurate
>> tools in a bootstraping manner. they did not see how i could use a metal
>> lathe of questionable accuracy to produce a metal turning lathe of known
>> accuracy. i hsd no examples to show them since my tools are buried in
>> the  garage amongst many layers of materials to remodel the house and
>> such. ( the home remodeling was put on hold because of the
>> head-on-collision back in 2007. i was hoping on finishing the home
>> remodeling this year but it appears that the doctors have other ideas
>> for my freetime. )
>>
>> i was trying to come up with common examples of using tools of
>> questionable accuracy to build tools of high accuracy. for the life of
>> me i could not think of any examples.
>>
>> would anyone on the list have some exampled that i may give to my
>> friends the next time we meet?
>>
>>
>>
>>
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-- 
Bruce
NJ

The total lack of evidence is the surest sign that the conspiracy is working.