Protecting this future of this Amazing Forum Practical Machinist

[Richard King]

Protecting the future of this Amazing Forum Practical Machinist

As I was writing a post and stated we need to share our experiences so "future Generations" can read the advice we give. With that said Don, I hope you have done something to protect the web-site if something would accidently happen to you. I pray nothing happens, but please do something if you haven't already. The same goes for the UK Lathes site. Jewels that need protecting. Like a museum. Rich

 

[partsproduction]

I have to assume that there is a financial purpose behind it and that it's not solely a help site without some remuneration.
But I know Tony at lathes.uk appreciates it when people send a few bucks via paypal once in a while to help justify the many hours he spends archiving, sharing machine tool history with us. If nothing else it let's him know we value what's he's done.
I don't know if there is a donation receipt set up for this site but, like you Richard, I enjoy learning and sharing here and since I don't use drugs or booze, nor gamble or chase women (besides my wife) I have a few bucks to show my appreciation. There are other forums too that I toss a few bucks once and a while, the price of a movie maybe, these forums and lathes.uk is far more enjoyable to me than many movies are.

 

[partsproduction]

And thanks for reminding me to send Tony a little for his efforts. lathes.uk keeps expanding so that it is becoming a truely exhaustive compendium. It's getting so that if we don't find the brand machine there we almost assume it didn't exist, yet Tony keeps growing the database.

 

[PeteM]

This bit of legacy keeping is worth knowing and supporting: Wayback Machine - Wikipedia

Snapshots of PM have been taken over the years: Wayback Machine

 

[Milacron]

As I was writing a post and stated we need to share our experiences so "future Generations" can read the advice we give. With that said Don, I hope you have done something to protect the web-site if something would accidently happen to you. I pray nothing happens, but please do something if you haven't already. The same goes for the UK Lathes site. Jewels that need protecting. Like a museum. Rich

I've mentioned this before but I guess you missed it. PM has for a few years now been incorporated with many people working behind the scenes in Chicago. I am the majority stockholder but PM is no longer just me....if I were to be flattened by a falling HBM tomorrow the site would continue without a hitch*...we even have one full time employee. And there are backups of backups in two diverse locations in case of meteor or North Korea strike on the server farm.

_-------------------
* well, ok, maybe the hitch would be a few might miss my curmudgeon posts and there might be less "closed due to meaningless topic title"

 

[Rigor]

This thread closed due to missing 'OT' and meaningless title.

 

[Milacron]

This thread closed due to missing 'OT' and meaningless title.

To me the titled seemed On topic and I got the meaning instantly.

 

[J_R_Thiele]

The focus of this site has always been the sharing of information about machining and machine tools.

Don has sold machine tools throughout this time, but has never "pushed" the sale of his machines.

I will be forever grateful for his efforts and the others who moderate and support this site.

 

[partsproduction]

Don has sold machine tools throughout this time, but has never "pushed" the sale of his machines.

For the record I didn't mean to imply that he did "push" anything by having the website, which does not mean that it hurts business to have a well informed clientele.


I also didn't mean to imply that Tony at lathes.uk was solely motivated by profit, but only wanted to point out that donations show those who lavish time and effort on websites that they are appreciated, and deserve at the very least a "Thank you" now and again, as we all benefit from both of these sites.

In both cases the initial love of machining probably sponsored both their business ventures and the extra effort it took to develop the websites. I hope they are both profitable in their businesses, as should all be who understand the secret of business, that service to customers is the greatest salesman.

Richard King offered a pretty good "thank you" by suggesting that the sites have a means set up to insure that the efforts don't fade away with time, as they should be as valuable to future machinists.

Both websites could be considered a worth while legacy for the founders.

 

[Milacron]

Don has sold machine tools throughout this time, but has never "pushed" the sale of his machines.

I'm pleased that after 17 years​ someone has finally pointed that out. I could easily have had front page banner ads for my other business all this time but never have. I do occasionally list a machine in our classified forum or respond to something I have, that someone is looking for but that is the extent of it.

 

[jimk1960]

Sir (Don),

I am extremely grateful to you and this site. I have learned and gained so much from you and others here. It is so nice that others share my thoughts that we should share our knowledge and experiences so others can learn and grow.

 

[LFLondon]

I've mentioned this before but I guess you missed it. PM has for a few years now been incorporated with many people working behind the scenes in Chicago. I am the majority stockholder but PM is no longer just me....if I were to be flattened by a falling HBM tomorrow the site would continue without a hitch*...we even have one full time employee. And there are backups of backups in two diverse locations in case of meteor or North Korea strike on the server farm.

_-------------------
* well, ok, maybe the hitch would be a few might miss my curmudgeon posts and there might be less "closed due to meaningless topic title"

This is very impressive. You are owed a big debt of gratitude from many people. Glad I had a chance to meet you in Chapel Hill at my farm/shop and see that canary yellow Miata. An engineer friend got me a subscription to Modern Machine Shop trade magazine. I noticed that you/PM had/has a bright shiny ad in it. Thanks again from me for PM, past, present and a long future. The PM archives are gold.

 

[Milacron]

This is very impressive. You are owed a big debt of gratitude from many people. Glad I had a chance to meet you in Chapel Hill at my farm/shop and see that canary yellow Miata.

LF, just to clarify, the Miata was Competetion Yellow, not Canary . I preferred to call it forklift or school bus yellow. The funny part is when it came time to sell it I found out the color was very rare for a 3rd generation Miata, and I got about $1500 more than if it was any other color. The buyer also owned a yellow MGB.

There is something about yellow cars not selling all that well in the new market (which is how I ending up owning it...last 2009 model left on the dealers lot) but doing very well in the less expensive used market

Nice to meet you too, amazing shop you have.

 

[Joe Miranda]

Don - I have said it before (and chimed in whenever anyone else has given you kudos) but just to keep it current - THANKS! Thanks for this website and your earnest effort on behalf of the machining community. This site has been an invaluable aid to me over the years and I stand today in your debt.

I think of your loss earlier this year and hope you find happiness again.

Really and sincerely Don, Thanks!

Joe Miranda

 

[Jersey John]

Don - Thanks for this website and your earnest effort on behalf of the machining community. This site has been an invaluable aid to me over the years and I stand today in your debt.

Really and sincerely Don, Thanks! Joe Miranda

I can only SECOND the above statement ... and IMHO (and through bad experience(s)) would be happy to contribute to this site at any time rather than Lathes.co.uk!

John

 

[LFLondon]

LF, just to clarify, the Miata was Competetion Yellow, not Canary . I preferred to call it forklift or school bus yellow. The funny part is when it came time to sell it I found out the color was very rare for a 3rd generation Miata, and I got about $1500 more than if it was any other color. The buyer also owned a yellow MGB.

There is something about yellow cars not selling all that well in the new market (which is how I ending up owning it...last 2009 model left on the dealers lot) but doing very well in the less expensive used market

Forklift yellow will do, has a nice ring to it. Amazing how collectors will think up reasons to pay more for things. Good you got more money for it rather than less because of the color. It seems yellow sports cars and Spring weather go together. I once had an MG TD.

Nice to meet you too, amazing shop you have.

The shop gets continual upgrades, better/more windows, a big wood stove (comes in handy in Winter) and more workbenches. The Northfield shaper I showed you was sold on Dominion Air's Ebay store. I wish I had gotten more for it but I was lucky to sell it at all.....that is, for more than $1500. :-)

If the publishers of Modern Machine Shop are your corporate partners for PM I'd say they are a good match for this forum. Though their trade magazines are almost exclusively about CNC technology they still have a considerable number of articles and advertisements that are useful to non-CNC machinists. You certainly can keep up with all the industry advances which are pretty amazing. Your PM ad there was well done.

 

[Glug]

I would like to revisit this topic in regard to the photobucket problem, and what actions we will take to improve that situation. We need to preserve great threads.

Last night I was searching for information on rigging large lathes and found a great old thread from a guy who moved a 9000 lbs L&S into his 2 car garage on a uhaul trailer. The photos were excellent, but not visible.

There is a work around, where you can make the photos visible again from PB (there is a thread on that). I am surprised that work around still works. We need to act with a fix, before they eliminate it.

I could have posted a few replies with the tweaked links. But that would have bumped the thread, and it would have annoyed some folks. Plus the fix would only be temporary.

I have a hack that allows me to download all of the blocked PB photos with minimal effort. That's what I did last night.

One option would be to extend that automation and upload the photos to another hosting site (I like use.com). And then the new links would need to be incorporated into the threads - either by automating link replacement in the original messages, or by adding new replies to the thread.

There may be copyright issues there. Contacting every original poster and asking permission to preserve their photos on another site would be time consuming. Of course any author could ask that their re-hosted photos be removed.

I think we must act soon to restore and preserve key forums here - the machine specific and technique info, etc.

 

[M. Moore]

There is no copyright issue with personal photos. If one was worried about copyright then why post the pic on a public forum?
Anyone could copy a photo posted on this site and then make it into a calendar for sale, that would be a copyright issue and would require permission and or payment to the photographer.
Saving the photos and getting them onto another hosting site, not an issue.
Saving the photos is a worthwhile endeavour, the missing images are quite a big loss of information.
You have my support in any efforts to make that happen.

 

[kazlx]

I'd also like to add in, not being a 'professional' or full-time machinist at all and still appreciating how this site is ran. I much prefer it to the home hobby sites. The advice is usually in line with what is needed. Even though I don't support myself doing this, I appreciate the words from those that do. Even though I try to purchase 'legitimate' machines, I always notice that even if you don't have something that meets the criteria you can still get your questions answered if they are phrased and asked correctly. I think that truly helps those of us that like to learn the most correct or efficient ways of doing things. There are plenty of us that enjoy machining and want to make the most of it, but don't have 4 years to make parts for a hit and miss engine or something along those lines....

 

[EPAIII]

You don't need another hosting site. This BB has it's own photo hosting facility which should be there as long as the BB is in existence. If anyone can retrieve the photos from PB, I suggest putting them here where they belong.

Perhaps Don or vBulletin can be of some help in doing this and editing the existing links.

I would like to revisit this topic in regard to the photobucket problem, and what actions we will take to improve that situation. We need to preserve great threads.

Last night I was searching for information on rigging large lathes and found a great old thread from a guy who moved a 9000 lbs L&S into his 2 car garage on a uhaul trailer. The photos were excellent, but not visible.

There is a work around, where you can make the photos visible again from PB (there is a thread on that). I am surprised that work around still works. We need to act with a fix, before they eliminate it.

I could have posted a few replies with the tweaked links. But that would have bumped the thread, and it would have annoyed some folks. Plus the fix would only be temporary.

I have a hack that allows me to download all of the blocked PB photos with minimal effort. That's what I did last night.

One option would be to extend that automation and upload the photos to another hosting site (I like use.com). And then the new links would need to be incorporated into the threads - either by automating link replacement in the original messages, or by adding new replies to the thread.

There may be copyright issues there. Contacting every original poster and asking permission to preserve their photos on another site would be time consuming. Of course any author could ask that their re-hosted photos be removed.

I think we must act soon to restore and preserve key forums here - the machine specific and technique info, etc.