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This is insane and very impressive, but I have to ask -- how does he have access to all these tools, and all this expertise? Is this a product of his job as an

by jenius 13y ago

This is insane and very impressive, but I have to ask -- how does he have access to all these tools, and all this expertise? Is this a product of his job as an engineer? These seem like a lot of very expensive and large metalworking tools and some seriously in-depth domain knowledge. Really impressive either way.

nrivadeneira 13y ago
At the bottom he mentions that he'd gotten some help from friends, however a lot of this is knowledge gained over time as an engineer and wisdom passed on from more senior engineers. Some engineers have their own metalworking equipment at home, but it's also possible he did this at his place of employment.
- maxerickson 13y ago
  He also mentions TechShop. Maybe after an edit? They sell access to machine tools and such: http://www.techshop.ws/ http://www.techshop.ws/
HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
A lot of people (self included) find machining to be a fun hobby.
VLM 13y ago
"These seem like a lot of very expensive and large metalworking tools" A lathe like he has cost about what I paid for my wife's ring long ago. In retrospect I should have bought more tools and made her a ring with them. There is a HUGE impedance bump when talking about machinery like this with typical HN participants in that there is no/little evolution (aside from CNC) and depreciation is very slow, near zero. Its not impossible for depreciation rate to drop below inflation rate in some situations... Its not like video cards or CPUs at all. What I'm getting at is probably 95% of the money I've spent in computers since 1981 is in a dumpster right now, but roughly 95% of what I've spent on tools since then is still perfectly usable and in my basement. That, plus extensive trading up, is how old guys end up with amazing gear... no way they could afford to throw it all away and buy new every 5 years like computers, but they don't have to...

by jenius 13y ago

nrivadeneira 13y ago

At the bottom he mentions that he'd gotten some help from friends, however a lot of this is knowledge gained over time as an engineer and wisdom passed on from more senior engineers. Some engineers have their own metalworking equipment at home, but it's also possible he did this at his place of employment.

maxerickson 13y ago
He also mentions TechShop. Maybe after an edit? They sell access to machine tools and such: http://www.techshop.ws/ http://www.techshop.ws/

HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago

A lot of people (self included) find machining to be a fun hobby.

VLM 13y ago

"These seem like a lot of very expensive and large metalworking tools" A lathe like he has cost about what I paid for my wife's ring long ago. In retrospect I should have bought more tools and made her a ring with them. There is a HUGE impedance bump when talking about machinery like this with typical HN participants in that there is no/little evolution (aside from CNC) and depreciation is very slow, near zero. Its not impossible for depreciation rate to drop below inflation rate in some situations... Its not like video cards or CPUs at all. What I'm getting at is probably 95% of the money I've spent in computers since 1981 is in a dumpster right now, but roughly 95% of what I've spent on tools since then is still perfectly usable and in my basement. That, plus extensive trading up, is how old guys end up with amazing gear... no way they could afford to throw it all away and buy new every 5 years like computers, but they don't have to...