There is something there apart from the bike that is important?

Stephen

Well....it's not every day you see a beautiful midget riding a motorsickle backwards......

For those who have not seen it yet, my latest venture is AAMSO (American Association of Machine Shop Owners)

We have a small, but growing, membership and hope to create a nice place for shop owners.

I'm considering putting some of my posts/experiences from here into the site. Like what I shudda done instead of what I did.. And some of my better moves.

What do you think?

I think it is a brilliant idea RJ. Small business needs all the help it can get.

Stephen

Fantastic ... Sounds like a great way to make even more difference than you already have.

So I read this originally, and I just reread it, its a good read, but I got a question after browsing your website, do you still make the indexer?

Dimitri

I can still make them, but since they don't wear out, most of my customers have at least one for their "in-between" angle stuff and now want my new designs. Hermann Schmidt still sells my Newbould Indexers.

Well when I get my hobby shop in order I'll be looking for one. Seems more handy then a spinning fixture if I can only afford one (rather have accurate angles then changing of angle connivance in my opinion).

Dimitri

I have been reading this thread with great interestand pleasure. I just joined up here, and ran into this thread by accident while researching the Boyar Schultz I am working on. I have a happy comment and a question.
The comment: I have read through as far to the pic of your son's skateboarding handstand and I have yet to see one posting from some doofus saying 'you guys are such dummies, you should have done it this way, everybody knows that, yammer, yammer, yammer.' I think you have at least temporarily tamed the internet with your polite and respectful manner.
The question: In posting #365, you described the process of generating an involute. In it you say the post is the diameter of the base circle minus 1/2 of the band thickness. I have also seen this in my study of the gear tooth generating process of gear making. My question is, why is 1/2 of the band thickness added in? Every time I run this process through my head it seems that the band thickness should be irrelevant to the rotation of the base circle. The analogy I come up with is that of a cylinder rolling on the floor. The thickness of the floor is irrelevant to the distance travelled by the cylinder. As the only person I know of currently familiar with this generating process, I hope you can help me. All my other sources of info are 50 to 100 years old and don't list an email address for questions (grin). Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

toolingjim

ps Please keep writing. Intelligent conversation is so hard to find. js

I would buy a copy of your book. Or maybe two, one to loan out and lose...

Thanks for the kind words.

The best analogy I can think of, is to consider the lanes on an oval foot race track. In order to have the runners go the same distance, the outside lanes start ahead of the inside lanes, since going around the corners, the inside has a shorter path to follow.

1/2 of the thickness of the wire/band is an approximation, not an absolute, since it's rather difficult to know how much the inside compresses, and the outside stretches while being wrapped around the post. Much is determined by the amount of tension in the system. A final determination of the post diameter on a fussy size needs to be via trial and error.

Thanks for the prompt reply. I have been tinkering around with the idea of making gears by the shaping generating process for years, but I've never been able to understand this part. I'll have to think it over and see if I can figure out a way to check my results. Of course, it may not be that critical to have a variation of a few thousandths on the base circle of gears for hobby use. I just like to understand the principles behind the practice. Will let you know if I find anything out.

Thanks again.
Jim

SWMBO gives me inspiration...

Here is a sample of how...http://newbould.com/birthday.wmv (5MB VIDEO playable on Windows Media Player)

This was at my 3/4 century birthday party..

Well, this has been a fascinating and exciting look into the history of a talented man. I just started reading this yesterday and plan to re-read this page turner! Thank you for sharing your journey. Please let us know when you start to publish the book.

-Luke

Glad you're enjoying it Luke. I have only just begun to assemble the outline of the book... One of these days.....

Mr. Newbould. I see that you havent posted anything since late november, how are things going with you? Did you have good holidays? I hope all is well. I have read this from the begining twice! what a wonderfull read, I hope you continue and I would be honored to read a book written by you!

Thanks Mike. I'm doing fine.

Just caught up in life with my wife.. (In a good way)

I made a short movie of Slo-Motion, but need to make a better one.. I'll post it soon, I hope.

Had a nice visit with Jim Glass and his charming wife a few days ago. If he comes back again, I'll show him Slo-Motion in real life. He was the first from PM to visit me. We had so many things in the shop to discuss, we never got around to showing Slo-Motion to them.

Meeting RJ Newbold.

I mentioned here last December that I planned to spend the month of January in Florida.
RJ Newbold reading this invited us to stop by his shop and say “Hi”. As it turns out RJ lives in Hernando Fl and I planned on staying for a month at a campground in Homosassa, Fl only twenty miles away. RJ and his wife Purgy and my wife Deanna were able to have dinner together three different times. It did not take very long before we felt like we had known each other forever.

I believe I was as eager to see RJ’s machine shop as RJ was to show it to me. RJ builds and markets precision indexers and air spindles. Knowing this ahead of time, I envisioned RJ’s shop to be more like a laboratory than a machine shop with huge optical comparators for inspecting his work, clean rooms, shining new lathes and milling machines. As it turns out, RJ’s shop looked pretty much like my own or any other shop for that matter. RJ’s shop was still very clean and well organized.

However, the similarities ended when RJ showed us what he actually creates. RJ invented an indexer that can discriminate degrees, minutes and seconds. Do it quickly and positively. One of RJ’s indexers is on display at the Smithsonian Institute. I carefully examined his indexer and spindles for a long time and realized I never made or seen anything similar to what RJ does. One thing in particular, RJ does not buy bearings for his indexer. He actually grinds bearing races into the spindle then installs his own ball bearings. I’m not sure if I could make one of RJ’s indexers or spindles, but I have a general idea what it would take to build one.

RJ Newbold is not as highly educated as one might think. However, he has what I would call
“An extremely fertile mind”. He solves problems by processing information in his head, breaks the problem down into basic parts and derives the solution. I think so many people try to solve problems by making them more complicated. They just do not see the forest for all the dam trees. RJ does it by keeping things simple.

Personally, RJ Newbold is about as down to earth as anyone you could ever meet. He and his wife were right at home having dinner in our 1989 Itasca, motorhome. I guess neither one of us are really into fancy stuff. However, I was surprised to learn RJ is still a licensed pilot. Something I always wanted to get into but never did.

One thing for sure. Next time I’m going to Florida, I’m stopping to pay RJ and Purgy a visit.

Next year, I would like to stop and meet other people on our way to Florida. If you have a place to park our 33’ RV for the night, that would be great. Otherwise, Camp Wal-Mart works just fine. If anyone lives near I-57, I-24 or I-65 and would like us to stop by send me a PM.

Jim

Thanks for the kind words, Jim.

Right on target is that Perje and I don't seek, or require, "fancy". We save a lot of work and money by living simple, and they haven't figured a way to tax free time yet.

My shop is also very basic. I learned machining in the old days where we were not dependent on the high class machines of today. We had to make do with less than perfect machines, and make up for it with ingenuity, a knowledge of basics and lots of patience.

BTW... If anyone wants to see why I want to spend my free time with Perje, you could visit her new website. eperj