☆☆☆Before you make a stupid and disrespectful comment about how I should clean, maybe consider the idea that I am BUSY TRYING TO FIND REPLACEMENT CUSTONERS!☆☆☆
@jeffreylee7184 the fact that people think that they have the right to be so disrespectful is ridiculous. They fixate on one little thing, and refuse to look at the bigger picture. Ugh.
You are a rare commodity in today's work because of your work ethic, people skills and many talents. I hope others recognise it and work starts to come in soon.
This is what makes videos really interesting. Whilst CNC is interesting from a programming viewpoint, it's the original machining ideas which often get the job done.
Fixturing and jig building is an art unto itself. They are simple at times and super-complex other times. Before CAD systems and computer numerical control the fixture builders were highly skilled and well paid. I've learned over the years to keep them simple and robust. Sometimes you've got a 300 pound gorilla on a job that likes to smash the hell out of these things and a small .500" bolt can only take so much torque from a 15 inch adjustable wrench. But that vise is a keeper Josh !! I've needed 1 that size many times in the past. Its just too bad we are so far away from each other. I know my bosses could send you some work but we are in Southern Ontario and the shipping would be prohibitive. Cheers & Happy New Year.
For the price of steel, i'd keep all of those special fixtures with the hope of reworking and repurposing them. They don't appear they'd take up too much space a bottom shelf somewhere. Keep up the struggle Josh!
Some of them have been taking up space for a lot of years. I always just start fresh with fixtures. Customers want invoices for them, so gibe then new.
I have the same sickness , but I'm getting better at letting go . Especially since my first wife left me 34 years ago . She was definitely the wrong fixture . 🤡
Great having a well organized shop. Here at home, I had a temporary shop for nearly 30 years after we moved here and I just got my new shop set up a couple of years ago. It's only 100 square feet, but it's very well organized and I can find almost everything, not like the old shop where I was battling to remember were things were and I had almost no room to move. The layout of my new shop is based on the shop I had in the other state where I used to live. I just wish I could have got this new shop finished years earlier, but it's there now, so that's all that counts.
Thanks for the video. It is always good to see you. I can not tell you how many fixtures that we threw away. Some were for the welding robot and some were 10' long for the press brake. They take up so much space. Some were only used a couple of times. We did a lot to please our customers but for a few cents less per part they would go to someone else. We made parts for other companies. For Case we made replacement parts; a lot of auger tubes. We either had a lot of work or very little work. Stay warm. We had a few warm days for Christmas.
Josh Nice job on the fixtures. It usually seems to me I do best just using what materials I have on hand. Just get the job done. Then I go & get all fancy, spend a ton of time & money to really refine it. 9 times out of 10 it doesn’t work any better than the original Customer loss due to them closing is hard to deal with. Focus on your product Idea 👍
Always interesting to see the creative ways people hold odd shaped parts or parts that are really too large or small for their machines. Thanks for sharing these.
Your jig for, milling four sides at an angle reminds me of a product a retired machinist friend used to make in his shop: four sided blades for commercial wood chippers. Great for the customer to power down, rotate the blades ninety degrees and go right back to work. He was always looking for consumables to make for industrial operations in our area in Michigan.
You could give that shop made vise away as a viewer subscriber prize or something. Someone can use it - it's solid. If you end up wanting to throw it in the trash I'll buy it. I'd rather it be on my welding bench than in the trash - the other fixtures I completely understand, their job is done. All the best.
I've been thinking about getting some Anchor Lube for a while now. I WAS going to order it from one of the other YT Machinists, but when you get it in I'm going to order it from YOU! Isn't much but I hope it helps...
It's amazing how much was built, just to build something. How many machinist have thought "this would be easier if I had a fixture, but I'm only making 3 parts" Hopefully you make the fixture before you get to the 100th run of 3 parts!
Hi Josh, it seems that you are just about the only machining work shop left in your area, if things pick up with the economy you are in the box seat. I hope things go well for you and you can ride out the slow times. All the best. From Mick in Australia.🇦🇺
Hang in there as long as you can Josh. There's a new administration coming that is way more conducive to business (especially manufacturing) so maybe things will turn around. Good luck, wishing you all the best in 2025 and beyond.
It's what I like about this channel, the realness. I still don't understand how ABom79 makes enough money to pay for his shop and vacations. Even with UA-cam, his sponsorships must be off the chart to afford all his equipment with no real work.
Hey Josh just want to say thanks for all the great videos that have taught me a ton! It might be worth making some long press brake tooling on your planer mill and selling it on eBay. Another idea is tracks for the Victor Oxy/Acetylene track torches. You might even have enough reach on here to avoid the eBay fees
Howdy Sir - great channel and great work - a couple business ideas that you've likely had already but I'm trying to help: restoration work - Keith Rucker has a stoker box project for a steam engine that would be perfect on your horizontal boring mill and gets more cane mill jobs than he wants - automotive - I've been waiting months for an output shaft nut for the mercedes 722.6 transmission in early 2000's jeeps - shops are scraping used cars for parts like this - third idea is custom bike, car, and off-wheeling rigs - tons of people in that hobby and less support as older guys retire
Hot rod guys also buy sheet metal tools from Eastwood and harbor freight all the time but they always sell basic rollers for them - you could turn out english wheel and sheet metal roller dies in your sleep
I used drill rod (or silver steel as we call it) for my tool post bolt (Multifix) near perfect fit in the bore, nice ground finish, good quality material. Distinct theme in this vid, going through all the shop made fixtures and scrapping them as the work has gone. Hope things pick up a bit and some new work comes in.
Hopefully the economy will get back on track soon. And you're very talented and experienced. I would like to buy your homemade vice myself. With your pin jaws, I would be using it a lot.
Fixture building is an art all it's own! It's one thing to design a part. Often, its then a bigger challenge to design the fixturing and tooling to make a part. ESPECIALLY when the designer has no concept of how things get made. I've worked with too many engineers who have no clue how to design for manufacturing...and they design a part that's really hard and expensive to make...when with a little more thinking and knowledge of how things got made it could have been made easy to manufacture. On cleanliness...I like to think that cleanliness is a sign of a dirty mind. 😝😝😝 (Side note: No rush on the honey and the mug - whenever is a-okay with me!!!) 🥰
The BIG low profile vise! There's your product right there! With the price of material these days, there's no way I'd throw out that metal. I've re-purposed many fixtures and piece of fixtures in the past. Takes up little room, and ain't eating anything.
@@TopperMachineLLC Any machinist with machinist's common sense will see those fixtures as raw material that can be repurposed. Throwing money away when times are tough isn't common sense. Unsubscribed
@funone8716 you must be a hobby guy. Most customers require new materials when building these fixtures. You can't bill for scraps. If you can't understand simple business, good riddance.
@@TopperMachineLLC 46 years self employed in the business, all the work I care to have. Your comment is confusing. When I build a fixture my customers never see it, it just helps me get the job done. I bill for labor hours and material no matter where the material came from. I'm sure you must know better however.
@funone8716 my fixtures were designed by myself, paid for you the customer. A 5 year guarantee of work, then they could decide to take the tooling themselves or continue to have me use it. When they failed and closed/liquidate the business, i kept the tools as it is still within my contract. There are many ways to run this business, your way was good for I you, mine was good for me.
Sentimental things are very hard to throw away . To give away for someone else to enjoy is much easier . But some things have a new life waiting for them after they get melted down and reborn as something new .
Two other ideas - blacksmiths are always looking for hardy-hole tools monkey tools and such - easy machining work - also recycling and green folks like recycling plastics - ive played around with recycling HDPE and curious how it would machine or hold up as a cheap bushing material
I make some transmission gears for pulling tractors sometimes. One thing I do not have a good way of doing is the internal splines. Is that something you could do on your slotter. I do them sometimes on a small slotter that attaches to my cincinnati toolmaster mill but it takes me a while. The splines on these is 2 3/4-21 8/32 dp involute splines.
I have honestly never cut splines. Something I wanted to learn though. Had a job for the one customer that suddenly closed doing g splines, and didn't get started when they shut down.
Hello Mr. Topper....it is so sad. Highly skilled Operators loosing their jobs or customers... 🙁 Same here in Germany...i bought some Merch from you...i know, its just a little...but thats all i can do for you....i hope you will come trough all of this.....i like your work/channel since the beginning...stay tough!! ✌
History always repeats itself, it wont be long before people realize that modern technology is very vunerable, i hope things pick up. Do you sell welding plates for trainee welders. Have a good day Josh.
Have you ever checked with Lemke Motorsports in Helenville WI. They do a lot of tractor pulling work and they may farm some of it out. I know there is a lot of milling that needs done on the transmission case of some tractors. Probably something you could do on your boring mill.
Great video Josh, hopefully things will pick up its slow here to my shop is very slow mostly hydraulic cylinder repairs, maybe our new president will get things moving..
If you had a mild steel plate 18”x18”x3/4”, what is the best way to drill all the way through the center of the 3/4” face? If going through 18” with only 1/8” clearance on each side is too difficult, what distance would you feel comfortable with?
Greetings Mr. Josh from a chilly oldest town in Texas, Nacogdoches. They are forecasting global warming low temperatures of the mid 20s here for the next few days. Hoping that business picks up for you in 2025. When I need more Anchor Lube, I’ll order a bottle for every machine from you. Keep warm.
Happy New Year Josh to you and your family. It's truly sad to see business drying up like that in your area. I was thinking, instead of tossing those jigs in the scrap bin, could they eventually be repurposed or use the material for something else? But of course you wouldn't when that would happen and then it would be taking up wall space.
Jobs go quicker than they come back and build the infrastrucure of other businesses to support them. Ever considered getting into Mfg? Build and sell your sawmill. There's a small CNC Mfgr in Mpls area (Shop Sabre - Lakeville) he got started as I recall simply home building a small CNC router table for his wife's craft business. Friend saw it, wanted to buy it so he sold it to him and built another for his wife... but sold that too. Building your own line of custom tooling/fixtures seems like agood idea. Sure the shops you'd sell to "Could" make them on their own... but those old smart guys who knew how are fewer and further in between and frankly, most people are lazy. They'll buy before build in many cases. I don't undersand that mindset but I see it all the time. Then again, doing some of those things can then require you to get bigger and have employees. Employees can and are one of the biggest pains in the backside there is. So can appeciate the desire to stay smaller.
What I’ve had happen to me - as soon as I throw something away, I will ending up needing it, a couple of weeks or month later. Maybe not exactly, but would have saved lots of time and labor by modifying it or repurposing.
One last idea - 3D printing is a huge hobby but most printers cheap out on the mechanical parts - most people in the hobby are IT computer types that have no clue about machines or mechanics - a guy like you could make some cool parts to improve printers
This is a good video. I thought it might help to get new work if you could somehow send a short pictorial of some of the stuff you already made to prospective customers. I know that shipping was an issue, but maybe if they see what you can do, it might help.
I have brochures with pictures and descriptions of many of my more intricate work. It was a waste of time and money. It didn't generate a single job. Gave out about a thousand of them.
yep were way south from you South Carolina we have lost a large amount here from bidenomics one plant that made yarn for carpet had been here for well over 60 years another one made c rations for wwll and were making mres for iraq maybe things will get better but im like you and dont think it will get any better here either we had only one machine shop and he is gone me and some friends that have mills and lathes are the closest thing we have to a machine shop any more
Once the infrastructure is gone, there is no coming back. I love my region, but there are no good jobs left. I quit calling it Bidenomics a long time ago. This is Obamanomics, from the Obamanation he created.
I hate getting rid of tooling, especially if I can reuse it for something else, and by re use I mean forge, machine or cut up. I have a hefty scrap pile but its all utterly unusable for anything else... Losing jobs really sucks, but losing an entires areas infrastructure is awful Working out clearance the biggest problem in my forge. I can always see what I need to do to get anvils flypreses etc into the space but then working out just how much room I need around it is really hard. All the channels saying "you can work in a mini shop" definitely haven't spent any real time forging or machining in that tiny space.....you can do it but it really restricts your ability to make anything but miniature projects. So when you look at a shop space always go bigger than you think you need...I am slightly envious of Josh's amount of room, because there is so much scope for doing stuff....very cool Thanks for sharing Josh Here's to 2025 being a better year than last
@@TopperMachineLLC I can completely understand that. I can imagine you're in a difficult place with it all. ...Looking forward, hoping it all improves in your area and for you
Hi ya Josh....good to see you efficiently using down time cleaning up & cleaning out shtuff. Are you sure some of those things can't be saved for scrap material needed for a future job? Then there's the pack-rat hoarder type who won't get rid of anything to accumulate clutter wasting valuable storage space. My wife is like that no logic or reasoning fueled by demonic narcissistic bipolar & personality disorders. I need the Sheriff, Swat, Seal Team 6 and an attorney present to simply throw away a cracked coolwhip container.
How about talking about the size of job you are willing to do, I have a couple motorcycle engine parts I would like to modify. The shops locally have closed or not interested, it's a simple job. I'm tempted to do it myself. But rather not. So if you will take tiny jobs let us know..
Man, it really hurts to throw away fixtures and tooling you made. You cant put everything onto a shelf indefinitely. Floor space isnt free. But man, it hurts.
@erik_dk842 I currently don't ship overseas. I will be looking into that. But to answer your question, yes from me. I am now a dealer. Send an email to anchorlube. They have a dealer in the UK now. Great guy also.
It sure is a shame when a fixture needs to end up in the scrap dumpster. But as you said they made you money and the work is gone. But better they end up recycled than set in your way.
I clicked on the thumbs up LIKE button, but there was a lot to not like in this video. It was sad to see those fixtures become scrap. Also sad to understand why--the loss of the business that you needed them for. What is filling the void created by the business closings? Global market? Amazon? Larger cities? CNC? Or what? I hope you find someone that can use your services and talent. All the best wishes for improvement in 2025.
☆☆☆Before you make a stupid and disrespectful comment about how I should clean, maybe consider the idea that I am BUSY TRYING TO FIND REPLACEMENT CUSTONERS!☆☆☆
If I could I’d unpin/delete this for you Josh. Lol
@jeffreylee7184 the fact that people think that they have the right to be so disrespectful is ridiculous. They fixate on one little thing, and refuse to look at the bigger picture. Ugh.
Right on my Friend…..❤
Best wishes in 2025…..sending good vibes that things will pickup….wish I had some work to send you, now on with the show…cheers from Orlando, Paulie❤
Your big Johnson is showing right now in the beginning
You are a rare commodity in today's work because of your work ethic, people skills and many talents. I hope others recognise it and work starts to come in soon.
This is what makes videos really interesting. Whilst CNC is interesting from a programming viewpoint, it's the original machining ideas which often get the job done.
There is NOTHING ugly or to be ashamed about regarding that vise you made! Actually, I find purpose-made, hand-made stuff like that fantastic.
Fixturing and jig building is an art unto itself. They are simple at times and super-complex other times. Before CAD systems and computer numerical control the fixture builders were highly skilled and well paid. I've learned over the years to keep them simple and robust. Sometimes you've got a 300 pound gorilla on a job that likes to smash the hell out of these things and a small .500" bolt can only take so much torque from a 15 inch adjustable wrench. But that vise is a keeper Josh !!
I've needed 1 that size many times in the past. Its just too bad we are so far away from each other. I know my bosses could send you some work but we are in Southern Ontario and the shipping would be prohibitive.
Cheers & Happy New Year.
So sad about the loss of industry, every day we hear of more business closures. I wish you the best in securing new customers.
As a blacksmith, we make a lot of our tools, thank you, bless you.❤❤
For the price of steel, i'd keep all of those special fixtures with the hope of reworking and repurposing them. They don't appear they'd take up too much space a bottom shelf somewhere. Keep up the struggle Josh!
Some of them have been taking up space for a lot of years. I always just start fresh with fixtures. Customers want invoices for them, so gibe then new.
I wouldn’t have thrown any of that away, I might need it again probably not, but I might. I’m a keeper
Thank you Sir for your video
You can only keep stuff so long before it becomes a problem. Time to go.
I have the same sickness , but I'm getting better at letting go . Especially since my first wife left me 34 years ago . She was definitely the wrong fixture . 🤡
Very cool fixtures. That old vise don't look that ugly and it works. Thanks for sharing.
Some of the homeliest girls can really cook .
Great having a well organized shop. Here at home, I had a temporary shop for nearly 30 years after we moved here and I just got my new shop set up a couple of years ago. It's only 100 square feet, but it's very well organized and I can find almost everything, not like the old shop where I was battling to remember were things were and I had almost no room to move. The layout of my new shop is based on the shop I had in the other state where I used to live. I just wish I could have got this new shop finished years earlier, but it's there now, so that's all that counts.
Wonderful work … working smarter, even for one offs! THANKS FOR SHARING!
Happy days Josh, onwards and upwards buddy 🎉 lots of love to you and yours from merry old England
Thanks for the video. It is always good to see you. I can not tell you how many fixtures that we threw away. Some were for the welding robot and some were 10' long for the press brake. They take up so much space. Some were only used a couple of times. We did a lot to please our customers but for a few cents less per part they would go to someone else. We made parts for other companies. For Case we made replacement parts; a lot of auger tubes. We either had a lot of work or very little work. Stay warm. We had a few warm days for Christmas.
Josh
Nice job on the fixtures. It usually seems to me I do best
just using what materials I have on hand. Just get the job done. Then I go & get all fancy, spend a ton of time & money to really refine it. 9 times out of 10 it doesn’t work any better than the original
Customer loss due to them closing is hard to deal with. Focus on your product Idea 👍
Happy New Year, from East Tennessee! I enjoyed the video. Thanks.
Improved shop layout looks good Josh, always enjoy seeing shop made jigs and tooling, hope you're making more soon.
Heres to a prosperous 2025.
Thanks for the support. I need it.
It's pretty cool going through your tools. I find myself looking through my tools and parts. Decluttering gets your head right.
That it does. Therapeutic
Always interesting to see the creative ways people hold odd shaped parts or parts that are really too large or small for their machines. Thanks for sharing these.
Hi Josh. Always used fixtures and fitting and jigs. I Learnt from my dad. Precise repetition guaranteed when used in mass production. Cheers Tony
Thanks for showing some of your fixtures. Never know when it might help someone else
Happy new year to and your family. Greetings from Germany.
Your jig for, milling four sides at an angle reminds me of a product a retired machinist friend used to make in his shop: four sided blades for commercial wood chippers. Great for the customer to power down, rotate the blades ninety degrees and go right back to work. He was always looking for consumables to make for industrial operations in our area in Michigan.
You could give that shop made vise away as a viewer subscriber prize or something. Someone can use it - it's solid. If you end up wanting to throw it in the trash I'll buy it. I'd rather it be on my welding bench than in the trash - the other fixtures I completely understand, their job is done. All the best.
I've been thinking about getting some Anchor Lube for a while now. I WAS going to order it from one of the other YT Machinists, but when you get it in I'm going to order it from YOU! Isn't much but I hope it helps...
Thanks. It will be in next week.
It's amazing how much was built, just to build something. How many machinist have thought "this would be easier if I had a fixture, but I'm only making 3 parts" Hopefully you make the fixture before you get to the 100th run of 3 parts!
Top, keep doing what you're doing. Enjoy every minute.
I'm trying.
Josh that vice is not ugly it’s functional, just needs a clean and a new owner. Hope everything works out for you in the future.
Hi Josh, it seems that you are just about the only machining work shop left in your area, if things pick up with the economy you are in the box seat. I hope things go well for you and you can ride out the slow times. All the best. From Mick in Australia.🇦🇺
I am the last one, but there is nothing left to support. With all the industry closing, I'm in a bad spot.
Hang in there as long as you can Josh. There's a new administration coming that is way more conducive to business (especially manufacturing) so maybe things will turn around. Good luck, wishing you all the best in 2025 and beyond.
We can only hope, bit with all the infrastructure gone in my region, I don't expect miracles.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤤
Looking forward to a better year for you this year.
Me too. Thanks.
I like your vice. Feels bad your area is suffering so much. Wish you better times in 25. Thank you for the content.
Proper tooling, the key to success in the shop.
Best wishes for better workflow coming to you enterprise.
It's what I like about this channel, the realness. I still don't understand how ABom79 makes enough money to pay for his shop and vacations. Even with UA-cam, his sponsorships must be off the chart to afford all his equipment with no real work.
Hope you find more customers mate love watching your work 🇦🇺👍
YAY.. Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really hope you can find some customers wanting a skilled machinist running work for them. Take care buddy.
You and me both!
Thank you Josh!
Happy New Year Josh. Hoping it will be better for you.
Hang in there.
Purging is good
Be Well
Hey Josh just want to say thanks for all the great videos that have taught me a ton! It might be worth making some long press brake tooling on your planer mill and selling it on eBay. Another idea is tracks for the Victor Oxy/Acetylene track torches. You might even have enough reach on here to avoid the eBay fees
Good video,, hope you have a great year. Thanks for your content... George from Indiana
Howdy Sir - great channel and great work - a couple business ideas that you've likely had already but I'm trying to help: restoration work - Keith Rucker has a stoker box project for a steam engine that would be perfect on your horizontal boring mill and gets more cane mill jobs than he wants - automotive - I've been waiting months for an output shaft nut for the mercedes 722.6 transmission in early 2000's jeeps - shops are scraping used cars for parts like this - third idea is custom bike, car, and off-wheeling rigs - tons of people in that hobby and less support as older guys retire
Another idea too - making fixtures for guys - Keith was dreading making a tool holder for his planer - you made a better looking one for your slotter
Ice tried to get into a lot of that stuff. No real luck. But we will see.
Yes this is a great suggestion. Getting restoration works that others like Keith can't get the time to do. Hopefully the profit is right.
Hot rod guys also buy sheet metal tools from Eastwood and harbor freight all the time but they always sell basic rollers for them - you could turn out english wheel and sheet metal roller dies in your sleep
I used drill rod (or silver steel as we call it) for my tool post bolt (Multifix) near perfect fit in the bore, nice ground finish, good quality material.
Distinct theme in this vid, going through all the shop made fixtures and scrapping them as the work has gone.
Hope things pick up a bit and some new work comes in.
I hope so too, but I really don't forsee it.
Thanks, Josh. I really hope things pick up for you and Wisconsin soon-ish
Hello Josh, Very cool. Love the video, keep up the great work.
Happy days from kiwi land.
That end cap fixture you should advertise in your store skid steer end caps rep . Years ago we were struggling with a similar deal
Hopefully the economy will get back on track soon. And you're very talented and experienced. I would like to buy your homemade vice myself. With your pin jaws, I would be using it a lot.
Fixture building is an art all it's own! It's one thing to design a part. Often, its then a bigger challenge to design the fixturing and tooling to make a part. ESPECIALLY when the designer has no concept of how things get made. I've worked with too many engineers who have no clue how to design for manufacturing...and they design a part that's really hard and expensive to make...when with a little more thinking and knowledge of how things got made it could have been made easy to manufacture. On cleanliness...I like to think that cleanliness is a sign of a dirty mind. 😝😝😝 (Side note: No rush on the honey and the mug - whenever is a-okay with me!!!) 🥰
I am still waiting for the mugs to arrive. They will ship as soon as they come in.
@@TopperMachineLLC Roger that, no worries!
I'll be watching, Josh.
The BIG low profile vise! There's your product right there! With the price of material these days, there's no way I'd throw out that metal. I've re-purposed many fixtures and piece of fixtures in the past. Takes up little room, and ain't eating anything.
Most customs require new materials for fixtures and tooling with certs. Dumpster is the best place for most of these.
@@TopperMachineLLC Any machinist with machinist's common sense will see those fixtures as raw material that can be repurposed. Throwing money away when times are tough isn't common sense. Unsubscribed
@funone8716 you must be a hobby guy. Most customers require new materials when building these fixtures. You can't bill for scraps. If you can't understand simple business, good riddance.
@@TopperMachineLLC 46 years self employed in the business, all the work I care to have. Your comment is confusing. When I build a fixture my customers never see it, it just helps me get the job done. I bill for labor hours and material no matter where the material came from. I'm sure you must know better however.
@funone8716 my fixtures were designed by myself, paid for you the customer. A 5 year guarantee of work, then they could decide to take the tooling themselves or continue to have me use it. When they failed and closed/liquidate the business, i kept the tools as it is still within my contract. There are many ways to run this business, your way was good for I you, mine was good for me.
I've got about a 200# Gem vise on my Cincinnati shaper, love the thing, if anything else just for the size 😊
I remember throwing away my late father’s fixtures which were accumulated over 40 years - was difficult, but they were no use.
Sadly once their purpose is done, they are garbage. I had kept these as reminders after great jobs that no longer exist.
Sentimental things are very hard to throw away . To give away for someone else to enjoy is much easier . But some things have a new life waiting for them after they get melted down and reborn as something new .
Thanks for sharing!
Hope you can hang in there Josh. Seems to be a general decline in the UK as well.
Two other ideas - blacksmiths are always looking for hardy-hole tools monkey tools and such - easy machining work - also recycling and green folks like recycling plastics - ive played around with recycling HDPE and curious how it would machine or hold up as a cheap bushing material
Knowing next to nothing about blacksmithing, I wouldn't know where to start.
You. Scared the crap out of me at first, I thought you got rid of the planer mill! Relieved you didn't!
Lol. Nope I'm keeping that. I have had offers.
I make some transmission gears for pulling tractors sometimes. One thing I do not have a good way of doing is the internal splines. Is that something you could do on your slotter. I do them sometimes on a small slotter that attaches to my cincinnati toolmaster mill but it takes me a while. The splines on these is 2 3/4-21 8/32 dp involute splines.
I have honestly never cut splines. Something I wanted to learn though. Had a job for the one customer that suddenly closed doing g splines, and didn't get started when they shut down.
@@TopperMachineLLC Normally guys use a gear shaper to cut these splines but I dont have one.
Happy New Year Josh! Hope that things pick up for you. Btw, forgot that you had honey on your website.... I have a couple inbound! 🍯
Thank you.
This was a fantastic video Josh…..
22:30 maybe your vise IS “ugly as snot”, but dang it’s practical! That’s the whole idea of shop made tools.
Hello Mr. Topper....it is so sad. Highly skilled Operators loosing their jobs or customers... 🙁 Same here in Germany...i bought some Merch from you...i know, its just a little...but thats all i can do for you....i hope you will come trough all of this.....i like your work/channel since the beginning...stay tough!! ✌
@@gworx-247 thank you.
First in? Yay! (*facepalm*). I was worried at first that the planer mill had actually completely gone - glad it's just moved. That thing is a beast.
Morning fan boy. Lol. No way I'm selling that. I have had offers though.
History always repeats itself, it wont be long before people realize that modern technology is very vunerable, i hope things pick up. Do you sell welding plates for trainee welders. Have a good day Josh.
Things you throw away , i keep and repurpose for other things. Steel is way to expensive now days in my area to just throw away.
Have you ever checked with Lemke Motorsports in Helenville WI. They do a lot of tractor pulling work and they may farm some of it out. I know there is a lot of milling that needs done on the transmission case of some tractors. Probably something you could do on your boring mill.
Never heard of them. Just looked them up. They are about 4 hours south. Guaranteed they would never ship to me.
Man hopefully you start getting more work in i know the industry is slow in eau Claire
Bad everywhere. Thanks Obama
Tell me what Obama did? You keep bringing him up.
@@markz7383 you're on the Internet bud look it up yourself...
I'm 84 , never heard "ugly as snot " ! My mother always said " ugly as homemade sin " !
I’ll check out your website……
Great video Josh, hopefully things will pick up its slow here to my shop is very slow mostly hydraulic cylinder repairs, maybe our new president will get things moving..
Let's hope so.
Keep the vice! Hopefully things will pick up in 2025 . Be Safe!
It's all about part holding.
If you had a mild steel plate 18”x18”x3/4”, what is the best way to drill all the way through the center of the 3/4” face? If going through 18” with only 1/8” clearance on each side is too difficult, what distance would you feel comfortable with?
You should offer those items you consigned to the bin to viewers. You never know, someone might be keen to purchase them.
It's a thought to consider.
Greetings Mr. Josh from a chilly oldest town in Texas, Nacogdoches. They are forecasting global warming low temperatures of the mid 20s here for the next few days. Hoping that business picks up for you in 2025. When I need more Anchor Lube, I’ll order a bottle for every machine from you. Keep warm.
We are -6°F right now. I'd appreciate the orders.
Watch it! The climate alarmists will be on you telling how low temperatures are a sign of warming planet!!
Happy New Year Josh to you and your family. It's truly sad to see business drying up like that in your area. I was thinking, instead of tossing those jigs in the scrap bin, could they eventually be repurposed or use the material for something else? But of course you wouldn't when that would happen and then it would be taking up wall space.
I had considered repurposing them but being so special, it is kind of hard.
Jobs go quicker than they come back and build the infrastrucure of other businesses to support them.
Ever considered getting into Mfg? Build and sell your sawmill. There's a small CNC Mfgr in Mpls area (Shop Sabre - Lakeville) he got started as I recall simply home building a small CNC router table for his wife's craft business. Friend saw it, wanted to buy it so he sold it to him and built another for his wife... but sold that too.
Building your own line of custom tooling/fixtures seems like agood idea. Sure the shops you'd sell to "Could" make them on their own... but those old smart guys who knew how are fewer and further in between and frankly, most people are lazy. They'll buy before build in many cases. I don't undersand that mindset but I see it all the time.
Then again, doing some of those things can then require you to get bigger and have employees. Employees can and are one of the biggest pains in the backside there is. So can appeciate the desire to stay smaller.
The only good product ideas I've had involve larger scale than person. Since I can't grow enough to get a few more people, it will never happen.
👍👍👍👍👍
What I’ve had happen to me - as soon as I throw something away, I will ending up needing it, a couple of weeks or month later. Maybe not exactly, but would have saved lots of time and labor by modifying it or repurposing.
I've hung on to some of these long enough. Starting over is unusually best.
@ I know man, it’s just “Murphy’s law” hit you, almost every time. 😁
One last idea - 3D printing is a huge hobby but most printers cheap out on the mechanical parts - most people in the hobby are IT computer types that have no clue about machines or mechanics - a guy like you could make some cool parts to improve printers
This is a good video. I thought it might help to get new work if you could somehow send a short pictorial of some of the stuff you already made to prospective customers. I know that shipping was an issue, but maybe if they see what you can do, it might help.
I have brochures with pictures and descriptions of many of my more intricate work. It was a waste of time and money. It didn't generate a single job. Gave out about a thousand of them.
@@TopperMachineLLC That's a shame because you do good work.
I want the hex head bolt/cap thingy. How much?
Really? Send me an email. We can talk.
yep were way south from you South Carolina we have lost a large amount here from bidenomics one plant that made yarn for carpet had been here for well over 60 years another one made c rations for wwll and were making mres for iraq maybe things will get better but im like you and dont think it will get any better here either we had only one machine shop and he is gone me and some friends that have mills and lathes are the closest thing we have to a machine shop any more
Once the infrastructure is gone, there is no coming back. I love my region, but there are no good jobs left. I quit calling it Bidenomics a long time ago. This is Obamanomics, from the Obamanation he created.
@@TopperMachineLLC agreed the bidenomic part just finished off the ones that were hanging on by a thread
Regan started this...just wait until 45/47 takes away social security. The fan is gonna be smeared with poo. Peace you all!
Yeah and don't forget his third term we just went through!
@dcraft1234 thank God we didn't get stuck with a 4th. But it's not over yet. I'll be relieved when the inauguration is complete. I don't trust Obama.
@TopperMachineLLC
I have a spindle for my car that spun a bearing and needs repaired.
My insurance doesn't allow automotive work. Sorry. Generally it's cheaper to buy something off the shelf.
@TopperMachineLLC it's a 66 Imperial, looking for a replacement.
@@98grand5point9 send me an email. Something that old should not be a problem. I would have to make you a new one. Never weld up a spindle.
Trun into a museum?
Nobody would come.
What? No Anchorlube available in your store?
It's there. "COMING SOON"
I hate getting rid of tooling, especially if I can reuse it for something else, and by re use I mean forge, machine or cut up. I have a hefty scrap pile but its all utterly unusable for anything else... Losing jobs really sucks, but losing an entires areas infrastructure is awful
Working out clearance the biggest problem in my forge. I can always see what I need to do to get anvils flypreses etc into the space but then working out just how much room I need around it is really hard. All the channels saying "you can work in a mini shop" definitely haven't spent any real time forging or machining in that tiny space.....you can do it but it really restricts your ability to make anything but miniature projects. So when you look at a shop space always go bigger than you think you need...I am slightly envious of Josh's amount of room, because there is so much scope for doing stuff....very cool
Thanks for sharing Josh
Here's to 2025 being a better year than last
I hung on to it all in hopes of reusing is somehow. But at this point, I just want the reminders of our dying region gone.
@@TopperMachineLLC I can completely understand that. I can imagine you're in a difficult place with it all. ...Looking forward, hoping it all improves in your area and for you
JT!
Hey Josh,
So sad to hear about a 150 year company imploding.
Hopefully your local economy will improve enough to keep you going.
Hi ya Josh....good to see you efficiently using down time cleaning up & cleaning out shtuff. Are you sure some of those things can't be saved for scrap material needed for a future job? Then there's the pack-rat hoarder type who won't get rid of anything to accumulate clutter wasting valuable storage space. My wife is like that no logic or reasoning fueled by demonic narcissistic bipolar & personality disorders. I need the Sheriff, Swat, Seal Team 6 and an attorney present to simply throw away a cracked coolwhip container.
Lol. No, I've held on long enough. Fixtures require new materials most of the time.
You should retrieve those job holders out of the dumpster and put them in your store. Someone might be interested in them.
I may do that. Souvenirs if nothing else.
Hoping those customers come in for you in 2025.
It's hurtful to see business close when we have all kinds of abilities here.
How about talking about the size of job you are willing to do, I have a couple motorcycle engine parts I would like to modify. The shops locally have closed or not interested, it's a simple job. I'm tempted to do it myself. But rather not. So if you will take tiny jobs let us know..
Send me an email.
Man, it really hurts to throw away fixtures and tooling you made. You cant put everything onto a shelf indefinitely. Floor space isnt free. But man, it hurts.
Took a long time to do it, but it actually feels good to free myself of the reminders of the lost customers and lost jobs of the region.
Cool youll be selling anchor lube. I've been looking to order some and rather give my $$$ to you instead of Amazon.
I totally agree. I despise scAmazon. Jeff Bozo doesn't need more money.
@@TopperMachineLLC Will it be sent from you, or directly from AnchorLube? Just curious, because I'm in Europe.
@erik_dk842 I currently don't ship overseas. I will be looking into that. But to answer your question, yes from me. I am now a dealer. Send an email to anchorlube. They have a dealer in the UK now. Great guy also.
as soon as you throw something out you need it the next day.
Amen
Most of these will be very unlikely.
It sure is a shame when a fixture needs to end up in the scrap dumpster. But as you said they made you money and the work is gone. But better they end up recycled than set in your way.
I clicked on the thumbs up LIKE button, but there was a lot to not like in this video. It was sad to see those fixtures become scrap. Also sad to understand why--the loss of the business that you needed them for. What is filling the void created by the business closings? Global market? Amazon? Larger cities? CNC? Or what? I hope you find someone that can use your services and talent. All the best wishes for improvement in 2025.
As far as I know nothing is filling the void. I'm guessing economic death of America and nobody wanting US made stuff.
This was the most depressing video I've ever seen.