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OT: Am I going to regret buying a new mill?

implmex

Diamond
Joined
Jun 23, 2002
Location
Vancouver BC Canada
Hi All:
Warning, I have a pissy rant to get off my chest first but then I have machining related question.
So, tonight I drove a 2019 model Toyota Corolla with every fucking techno feature ever made to piss off old farts like me.
You start it by pushing the "START" button ...twice.
You stop it by pushing the "START" button...once.
Push it three times by accident and it makes an ugly noise.
So, no more key like a normal car...this newfangled shit is "BETTER".

You disengage the parking brake by putting it in "PARK" and stepping on the brake pedal until the little red light goes off.
You turn on the parking brake the same way, but it takes a while so you have to sit there with the engine running and your foot on the brake until the little red light comes on
So no more parking brake lever...this newfangled shit is "BETTER".
Took me 5 minutes and a look at the car manual to figure that one out.

The environmental controls reset themselves to the "Useless" position every time you turn the car off, so when you start the whole fucking works fogs up and you need to dig out your glasses and find the right buttons to get it working again.

The car drives OK but the techno shit...well you can guess from my tone what I think of it!

This from a guy who wants to throw his idiot phone in the river whenever it beeps and farts at me and expects me to know what that new noise is supposed to mean.

This also from the guy who wants to murder someone at Microsoft whenever the Windoze 10 box decides to "Update" right in the middle of something important.

So here's the machining related question:
I've been pondering upgrading my 2001 vintage Haas Minimill to something with a faster spindle, that I can also put a TRT 100 onto.
Maybe something like a DM-1

Am I going to regret this???

My old Minimill lets me put a C clamp on the door switch so I can run the spindle with the door open if I want...and I want...I REALLY want.
My old Minimill has a straightforward control with a monochrome CRT screen and a floppy drive and a simple RS 232 connection that even an old fart like me can run...I don't want and don't need newfangled internet enabled shit that will sooner or later find a way to fuck me over like every other internet enabled piece of techno eventually has.
So do I do this, or am I going to regret selling the old girl forever.

Remember...this is from the guy who ripped the internet connection from the design computer and ditched all the software maintenance a few years ago, and runs Windows 7 and Windows XP , Solidworks 2015 with HSMWorks, and Mastercam 8.1 on the shop computers. (No not Mastercam X V8...Mastercam V8.1 from 1998!)
I'm also 64 years old and getting more and more curmudgeonly as I get older (how can you tell!)
Am I really too old for new technology?:willy_nilly:

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining
 
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Ok your title mentions " buying a new mill," No problem there, your dream, your money, your life, go for it. However, in the text you imply considering SELLING "the old girl!" What are you thinking? Never consider selling anything you already have.
 
Hi All:
Warning, I have a pissy rant to get off my chest first but then I have machining related question.
So, tonight I drove a 2019 model Toyota Corolla with every fucking techno feature ever made to piss off old farts like me.
Rented a Toy odour van once. But only once. WTF did you expect?

Let ANY device think it has the upper-hand? It will have!

Same with the "new" mill.

Got 11 or so years on yah. Ain't quitn' my "war with the machines" 'til WELL AFTER I croak.

If some part of anything non-human "offends you"?

Rip it out. Re-configure it the way you WANT it to be:

Elitist? You can bet your sweet ass, I am!

Earn it every day...

loki2$ uname -a
OpenBSD loki2.triligon.to 6.6 GENERIC.MP#372 amd64
loki2$

:D
 
This also from the guy who wants to murder someone at Microsoft whenever the Windoze 10 box decides to "Update" right in the middle of something important.
This one you can fix pretty easily. If it won't let you turn off "updates" (that's the first thing I do with any software) then you can find out what the domain name for the update site is and put it into your /hosts file. Then set that to 127.0.0.1 and the onsite demons will not be able to phone back to Beelzebub.

You can use that trick with other software that tries to phone home.

So here's the machining related question:
I've been pondering upgrading my 2001 vintage Haas Minimill to something with a faster spindle, that I can also put a TRT 100 onto.
Maybe something like a DM-1
Have you looked at Bostomatics ?
 
Retired from a dealership shop forman position a couple years ago. Car engineering was scary then and is much worse now. Literally everything a driver can manipulate to operate the car is a “request for an action” and the supercomputers that turn things on and off decide if will happen. When it got to steering and braking by wire, I’d had enough.
Joe
 
Ive got some years on you and I say you aren't necessarily too old for new technology. I would also say you need to make the decision of whether or not you actually need/want the new technology. When I see a slew of new tech gizmos my first reaction is "well that's something else to crap out". However, if you have to upgrade to new tech to stay competitive then you do what you've got to do. I am definitely old school myself. Simple is better then complex. I don't need a car that parks itself. I also like to buy things that I may have a remote chance of repairing myself. If it were me I would get a high speed spindle and keep what you have. But then again I have a 9A in the corner of my shop that I use from time to time for small jobs simply because it is simple, feels right and it does what I tell it to do instead of the other way around.
 
Ok, so I sort of agree with the car thing (and BTW, it's been around for a while, we have a 2013). I don't like the controls on our Dodge Journey for the heat/AC, and it sucks to have to see the stupid loading screen everytime I start it up... but I love the keyless entry and keyless start. :cloud9:

Ok, back to the machine. At work we have a 2017 and 2018 Haas, and although they do have ethernet capability, ours are not hooked up so no need to worry about that if you don't want to use it. The door safety is a bit more complicated now. You can disable (mechanically) the interlock, but the machines need you to cycle the door at startup, so you have to work around that. I think someone here had an idea how to do that, and still not have them "active", but I don't know how...
 
I do appreciate that a lot of things that used to kill and maim are safer, but I really resent machines or software that think they always know what you need better than you do. Hear that Microsoft?

I was working in a turf equipment business when safety interlocks first started showing up on equipment. Riding mowers that shut off the engine if you left the seat, for instance and push mowers where you had to hold the lever to keep it running. A basically decent idea that got a little strange on a gang mower going over bumps.

But the reasons those requirements even got any traction also came from life events. One of the stories we heard was two homeowners who shared maintenance for the hedge between their properties. Needing the top trimmed they decided that the most expeditious way to trim it would be to walk down both sides holding up a running lawn mower that would trim the top in one pass. (Yeah, I know all you guys who have spent any time in manufacturing can anticipate.) The preparation went fine, but when one guy got a face full of hedge clippings he dropped his side which naturally enough swung into his neighbor. Which may only go to show that safety features can't fix stupidity.
 
The biggest problem with a lot of modern tech is the user interface, which is what the op is complaining about. How many times have you tried to use something and the thought comes to mind that the people that designed it never really tried to use it?
Happens to me all the time. A really good example is the Amazon website. Absolutely horrible.
I don't own a car but occasionally use an hourly rental car share so i end up driving a variety of newish care. Some are straightforward but some take the Amazon approach and throw it all at you at once so you pretty much need to be stopped just to do something simple like adjust the heat.
 
I take it you did not keep the Toyoto, just in case you or anyone else parks it in an attached garage. Be real sure you push the button hard enough to really turn it off. Heard accounts of people dying of carbon monoxide poisoning when it they only thought it turned off.
I hear you on technology, I am just now getting used to stepping on the brake to put a vehicle in drive. If I want to go why do I have to stop first! GRR!

Us dinosaurs are just hard to please.

Kind of like Post #2. One of my sayings on PM has been you can not have too many lathes. When I look around I have got a lot of mills also.
 
Add me to the list that don't see the need for all the electronic foolishness! I get frustrated trying to figure out what all the icons mean? My auto electric guy told me about some new pickup that some guy had with a burned out headlight. No replaceable bulb, you had to replace the whole light for like $1200! To do that required removal of the bumper and grill for $300 labor, and the dealer recommended replacing both headlights because the computer would sense the difference between the old light and new and activate some code? By the time you were done you would have close to $3k to fix a headlight? Why do we need this? Why is it better?
 
Hi All:
I feel so much better having gotten that off my chest; so thank you all!
A special thanks to Richard Newman...I just about pissed my old pants when I read that one!
So if we could actually make that a reality, I'd be so on board with that...
Pity I don't have the first clue about how to do it...if I did I could embrace my inner vengeful childishness with so MUCH JOY!

While we're at it, is there a way to send virtual computer bombs to every spammer that infests my incoming email?
Something that could melt down the spammer's server permanently, and if there could be a small but lethal explosion to go with it (purely for pest control purposes, you understand) that would be a bonus.
Just the thought gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Cheers

Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining
 
Maybe it's time to look at a different brand. I just purchased a new car last Wednseday and don't have nearly as steep a learning curve to go through. Almost everything is intuitive, and in most cases far easier to comprehend. While it has dozens of new and/or updated features, those that accomplish tasks similar to previous model years operate in a similar manner. Going down the list:

1. You start it by pushing the "START" button ...twice.

To start the vehicle:
you step on the brake and push the start/stop button ONCE.
To shut off the vehicle:
you push the start/stop button ONCE

If you only want the accessories to operate:
You push the start/ stop button ONCE without stepping on the brake

To shut off the accessories:
You push the start/stop button...once.


2. Push it three times by accident and it makes an ugly noise.
So, no more key like a normal car...this newfangled shit is "BETTER".

No key on my new vehicle either, but you can push the start/stop button until the cows come home, and depending on whether or not your foot is on the brake it performs the same functions as described in #1

3. You disengage the parking brake by putting it in "PARK" and stepping on the brake pedal until the little red light goes off.

Disengaging the parking brake in my new is done by simply touching the accelerator pedal.

You turn on the parking brake the same way, but it takes a while so you have to sit there with the engine running and your foot on the brake until the little red light comes on. So no more parking brake lever...this newfangled shit is "BETTER".

Although the parking brake in my new vehicle is electronic it is actuated the same as in the older mechanical style. Pull the lever and the brake is engaged. A light on the dash is illuminated just as with the mechanical brake.



It comes down to the fact that the systems and the way they are operated are "Different" not necessarily "Better". I can't say that very many, if any of the new features are "must haves" in my book. They are conveniences that in time will become second nature. In 5 years you'll look back and say "how did I ever do without that"
 








 
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