Thread: Will there be another scraping class?

Trust me ... that ain't Phil!

I'm looking forward to hearing the feedback from the guys who were there and seeing the fruits of their labour. I was so envious I decided to pretend I was there by scraping the bottom of a spin indexer I'm currently tarting up, in this case so the spindle is parallel to the base. Sadly no cheese platters were to be seen ... and definitely no pole dancers who looked like that!!!

I'm trying to get in to the habit of taking photos, as I normally don't. So before and after photos for what it's worth.

Indexer Before Left.jpg Indexer Before Right.jpg

Indexer After Left.jpg Indexer after Right.jpg

Well it was a great course, and I would like to record my appreciation to Phil for offering it and being the perfect course host, as well as freely sharing his skills and experience with us novices in a calm and very effective way. Marco, full of energy, radiated his passion for fine workmanship and brought intense focus to the details of technique.
As we all know, but it deserves repeating, Scotty voluntarily buried himself in a mountain of email to ensure it all came together. Said he never wants to get an email again.

Overall an unforgettable experience and a fortunate opportunity to learn a vanishing skill, as well a rare opportunity to meet a select band of forum members and put the faces to names. Words on the screen are one thing but it all comes together when you meet the person.

So thanks from me.

Cheers,
Bill

Phil and Marco’s scraping class has got to be about the best two day course on anything that I’ve ever attended.

The fact that Phil was prepared to open his workshop to a bunch of strangers, give them free reign to use his fine tools (upon which he relies for his living not just a hobby), freely share his abundant knowledge and feed us like kings is a testament to what a great bloke he is.

Marco, what can I say, you could not met a more passionate, patient and inspiring person. His enthusiasm for fine workmanship is infectious while his patience, candour and utter lack of pretention make him a perfect teacher.

To Scott I offer my heartfelt thanks as without his willingness to step up and deal with the punters, the course would simply not have happened.

To the other blokes who worked in the background to cut out the scraper guides and complete the multitude of other essential background tasks thank you for your efforts.

To the rest of the “grass hoppers” there to learn from the masters, it was great to meet you all and a privilege to work among such a dedicated and enthusiastic group.

Finally to the bloke who machined all the CI blocks, what more can I say other than I reckon you should check this out: http://www.how-to-tram-your-mill.com

Cheers,
Greg.
P.S. A special thank you to eskimo for picking my scraper up off the road and returning it to Phil.

Originally Posted by kwijibo99

Finally to the bloke who machined all the CI blocks, what more can I say other than I reckon you should check this out: http://www.how-to-tram-your-mill.com

Cheers,
Greg.

I believe the mill was trammed in via the rollies dad method.... heh heh heh

Originally Posted by kwijibo99

Finally to the bloke who machined all the CI blocks, what more can I say other than I reckon you should check this out: http://www.how-to-tram-your-mill.com

Here's some leaked video of the blocks being machined.

Couple of random shots of the boys hard at it.
Peter F on left, Gus M on right
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Ewan, side on, Gus again facing front.
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Peter F, Eskimo, Dave H, left to right.
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I reckon this would be Bill, tickling up a little straight edge he brought with him. I bet he is happy I didn't grind it now, after the performance of machining the blocks.
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Greg S with his back to camera.
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Dave H, Bill & Greg D left to right
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Gus and Scott, Marko in the middle.
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My 18 year old daughter knocked these up Saturday night, while I was woofing down dumplings.
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Another Dozen. That's about all I took. Too busy most of the days to get any more.

Ewan on the Right, Keith M in the Middle, and Eskimo in the Red shirt.
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Ewan,Greg D & Russell left to right
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WCD / Bill laying down some power.
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Eskimo ducking for cover from the camera, due to that witness protection / warrant thing.
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Calm before the storm, first up Saturday. Who would have thought those blocks were so far out of Square. (Evil laugh).
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Gus tuning up a sharp edge. Our youngest member
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Peter Fou on the left, our oldest member, we must have had a 50 year time span there.
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Why are all these blokes all just standing around? I must have misplaced my bull whip . Late on Sunday afternoon, I think we were about knocked off.
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Dave H getting the Turcite Close.
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Originally Posted by Machtool

Couple of random shots of the boys hard at it.

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I see Peter eyeing off the TOS, wondering why he swapped his Russian behemoth for a dainty Deckel!!

Thank you for the photos Phil and the names.

Bob.

Well, what a weekend!

Ive gotta shout out to Phil and Marko, they did an excellent job. Someone mentioned a few pages back that it really helped to have the basics shown in person, and they are on the money. I had a few misconceptions that got cleared up straight away and pretty soon I was off with the spotting, scraping and measuring. I was also under the illusion that this whole precision thing would be a task of finesse and the light touch. Marko has soundly informed me that Im far too gentle, I need to "Deeg in, deeg in haaarder!!!" Its a bloody good thing he's excellent at what he does, because if he had to rely on his jokes to get by, he might get hungry a lot! Phil, however, has a second career in the wings as a professional caterer. There's no way anyone would be going hungry with Phil on the job, fantastic food. And as greg said, allowing us all to use his equipment, which is way out of any league I get to work with either at work or home, is very deserving of our thanks.

It was teriffic to finally meet a great bunch of guys as well. The 20 something blokes I had to email made it pretty easy to organise the troops into classes and move the money around. Hell, the first class' organisation went so well that Phil and I were starting to wonder when the disaster was about to strike. Almost everyone got their money in quick and fuss free, which made my job so much easier. Thanks for all the kind words, both on here and in person at the class, I really do appreciate it.

The bug has bitten me well and truly. After Phil cleaned off the last of the cheese of the "cheese board", he mentioned that it would be off to ebay with it on monday. I quickly vetoed that idea, it might be laughably small compared to his slab, but itll do me just fine. For a while at least. That and my newly acquired philvic, ill be making a mess of my little hercus' cross slides in no time.

The only bad mark on the entire weekend was when I got home. The wind is howling here in griffith and when I stopped on the driveway, before Id even switched the bike off, the wind got me off balance and I dropped the bike on its side. F'ing hell. The damage isnt too bad, so I shouldnt be too financially crippled getting it all cleaned up. Amazingly, the brick survived the whole trip and ordeal, unmarked and without rust.

If you blokes reckon your blocks were bad, spare a thought for Peter Fou, he surely had the friday afternoon special. There wasnt a single pair of faces that didnt have some disasterous trench or drop to one edge on it. He did a bang up job to get that one all done and dusted.

That's a real bugger about your bike Scott, but look at the bright side, you've got the perfect excuse to get that big single pipe sorted now.

Well what a weekend! Everything from the company, instructors to the food was fantastic!
A big thanks to Phil and Marko for their teachings. I have to tell ya, without Marko there the weekend would have been a whole lot more dull, what a man! Also a big thanks to Scotty for all his organizing.
However not only does Phil need to tram his mill, he needs to stop it from digging holes! Some of those blocks would not have been scraped square in a week if they had not had a touch up on the grinder (with Marko barking at Phil "not too much, he still needs something to scrape")

We dropped off in Shep on the way back to visit Ray and Josh, thanks to them for the hospitality.

Here is my hard work for the weekend, and the memento we were all sent home with....

I will also add, Sat morning, in walks this tall gangly guy and his brother......i know them. I sold Keith my HM50! Didn't expect that.

What a superb weekend !! Many thanks to Phil Marko and Scott. Phil for opening his workshop to us and providing the necessary equipment, expert instruction, and of course the gourmet tucker. Marko, well what can I say to do justice to the man. And Scott who brought it together with no hitches. Pity about the bike Scott but a few battle scars are neither here nor there, don't ask me how I know ! And of course putting names to faces put the icing on the cake.

As for Phil's TOS, Bob, the Pinnacle I left behind, whilst a good machine was just not in the same class as the TOS. I want one !! And as for the "dainty" Deckel, yes, it is considerably smaller than the Stanko but in conjunction with a TOS I would be back to where I was as far as milling capability goes.

Just to round off the great weekend, the slab is down for my new workshop and the shed builders are starting on the erection tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Ueee

However not only does Phil need to tram his mill, he needs to stop it from digging holes!

Ew, quiet a bit of science, went into making those blocks like that. CNC lifting the Z axis off as soon as it had broached wide dead centre to leave that hole, was genious. Evil genious. The hole was like any scraping task you will ever encounter. The extreme ends of just about any axis, will have next to no wear.

So you have to scrape the ends straight down, to catch up with that wear / (hole).

It's well with in my skill set to have ground them with-in a tenth all over, but that would have had us sitting in the pub by 10am Saturday. You wouldn't scrape anything if it didn't have an error in it. Its a mugs game. It's hard, dirty, blue under your finger nails yakka, then 15 seconds later, its clean, clean, clean metrology. I still wish I'd never been taught it. I find it boring, frustrating and monotonous.

You blokes would have picked this up although you mightent have put a finger on it. My brother Marko and I are polar opposites. He scrapes, because he absolutly (insert swear word here) loves it. I scrape because I was taught it, and its just another skill I have to bring to the job. Thats why he has probably forgotten more than I've learned from the caper.

BUT, and its a big BUT. It like being totally lost in the wilderness. You fight, you work, and finally you pop out at the corner of Burke & Swanston Streets. Its the elation of getting to where you set off too, that counts.

I stand by the machining of those blocks, with the exception of Peter Fou's. Allah must hate me. The oldest, wisest, gentel of a man, ended up with the worst block by a country mile. Gus or Keith should have got that.

Regards Phil.

Originally Posted by Ueee

Here is my hard work for the weekend,

Come on now.... Blue it up, the truth is in the spotting...