Larry:
I used 0.0393" = 1 mm , a conversion that I carry around in my head. 27 mm x 0.0393"/mm = 1.0611" on my TI-36X calculator. OK, now just for fun, I am getting my old (1963) K & E Log-Log Duplex Decitrig slide rule out of the desk, this has 10" long scales. My eyes ain't what they used to be, so am using a jeweler's loupe to make sure I line up the numbers.... I get 1.062" on the old slip stick. That is with a bit of visual interpolation of where the hairline cuts the C scale. It's been ages since I last used the slipstick, thanks for getting me going with it again. I've spent a few hours at my drawing table today, detailing up framing plans for a large deck. Structural jobs come in to me at the rate of about 2-3 a week, requiring my services as a Professional Engineer. Since this covid pandemic hit, we are seeing a huge migration of people from NYC buying up everything and anything in the way of real estate around here, paying stratospheric prices for it, and pouring even more money into developing previously 'undevelopable' land, or decrepit houses with rebuilds, additions, and renovations. Some jobs top 1 million, and one addition to an existing second home is running a bit north of $ 750K. Some jobs are so big and the owners want impossibly wide clear spaces that I am detailing structural steel used in conjunction with engineered lumber or salvaged heavy timber framing.
I am running calculations pretty steadily, so the TI 36X is what I use. My drawing table dates to about 1900, with a new top on it, and has a Vemco drafting machine with Dietzgen scales. I have the old green 'lead pointer' and use the Stadler 'clutch' (collet) type 'lead holders'. It's hand lettering and old style drawing. K & E "paragon" drafting instruments, Dietzgen architect's and engineer's scales... It felt good to unlimber the slip stick after a day of running numbers and drawing. Normally, I work with designers who are unlicensed, and I hand them rough sketches with structural members figured. They, in turn, produce CAD drawings which I review, stamp, and those are used to get the building permits and as working drawings. In this case, a contractor who was not setup for CAD had an ongoing job at a wealthy client's place, kind of a never-ending string of work. He asked me to design and draw up the deck. Ordinarily, for complete house plans and similar, it is neither cost-effective nor would I even have the time to spend drawing up complete sets of plans 'on the board'. About the only times I do any real drafting are when it's a job involving steel fabrication, machinery, piping, or an occasional septic system job (which is also a good exercise for me to take out my Brunson transit and do some field work). Old school, I guess.
I have two planimeters in my office, one came from you, as did my Maihak indicator. My other Maihak indicator came off a Uniflow powered steam vessel, so does not have springs with the right pressure ranges/scales for use on lower pressure steam engines. The Maihak indicator you sold me (ex US Army Engineer Corps) will get used this season at Hanford Mills, as will the planimeter.
While I truly enjoy 'practicing engineering', and truly enjoy turning out a nice-looking engineering drawing, I am realistic enough to know when CAD is the way to go. Not setup for CAD and not of a mind to learn it, so work with people who have it at their fingertips. My Italian grandpa (a whole other story) had plenty of little life lessons he imparted to me when I was a boy. One story he used to tell was 'Ever'body eats macaroni'. It was a story about how a priest in the old country was given a sum of money to have a chapel or some other structure built for the local church. The priest put the word out and the local contractors all made their proposals. The winning bidder was a bigger contractor. Instead of doing all the work with his own resources, he subbed most of it out, giving pieces of the job to the other guys who had not submitted the winning bid, or simply were too small to have bid the job. As he told it, even guys who had nothing more than strong backs were put to work as laborers, and men with draft animals were hired to haul materials or draw sand and gravel from banks and haul it to the jobsite. As a result, 'ever'body eats macaroni', meaning the winning bidder shared the job and everybody made something from it. I follow that adage and call my friends when a job lands in my lap, subbing out steel fabrication, CAD work, referring work to friends who are excavating or general contractors, and similar. I work on a handshake, and I give a hard money price which I call my 'win, lose or draw' price. If the job takes a bit more work on my part, or there is need for me to come on site to inspect or explain the work, no extra charge. I work on a sliding scale, and if a person is a local who is not in the best of financial straits, I'll take a handshake and maybe a pickup load of cordwood and call it even. It's an oldtime way of doing business, and a lot is done on the strength of a person's word and a handshake. A drawing table, slide rule, and all else seem to go nicely with it. A 'Dazor" fluorescent lamp from the 50's lights my drawing table, and an ancient shop stool with a square-threaded screw to adjust seat height is at the table for me. I get asked to make parts for construction and logging equipment, to do welded repairs, to make parts for all sorts of things, and then to do work as a PE or Certified Welding Inspector. It's as good a way to spend 'retirement' as there is for me. I cannot see myself sitting on some huge floating hotel/resort (aka cruise ship) with forced gaiety and being part of a herd of tourists, nor have I ever hit a golf ball in my life and follow no sports whatsoever. I'm recovering from hernia repair surgery, done a little over a week ago. The result is I am on light duty for the next few weeks. The surgeon and I got on famously, and he had to do an open procedure. I kidded that I am getting to look like an old ship's hull or old locomotive boiler with surgical scars from the cancer surgery and now this hernia repair. Flying the old drawing board is about as safe a bet for me right about now as there is.
As for the hernia, I had it for some years, but it was small and not a problem. After the cancer surgery in March of 2021, I got to feeling so good that I started really catching up on overdue projects. Wife wanted a light fixture, I designed and built it for us. I had to put a 12" Bridgeport rotary table onto the Bridgeport to make the 'center hub' of the light fixture. To get the rotary table to where I could pick it with a chain hoist to get it onto the Bridgeport, I dead lifted the rotary table and lugged it over to the hoist. I suspect this put the hernia over the edge. Surgery was a breeze, and I left the hospital the same day, singing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary". Calculations, drawing, and engineering are great ways to follow doctor's orders for the recovery. I also found that wearing a clean pair of bib overalls (post-op instructions were not to wear pants with belts or other constrictive garments) are the ideal thing. I spent the first few days with freezer packs inside the front of my bibs while doing engineering work. The surgeon and the OR people used some kind of blue prep solution to paint my belly and groin with, so the operative site looked like they used Dykem Blue. Gotta love it. I'll get down to the shop in the next day or so and measure the Maihak indicator's union threads and taper.