On Fri, 13 Sep 2013 05:56:00 -0500, Pete Keillor
wrote:

The tailstock on my lathe was getting loose, so I decided to pull it
apart. I've been working on one of Andy Lofquist's casting kits, the
filing machine. Anyway, took it apart, placed the phenolic thrust
washer on the tailstock base, cleaned stuff up. Couldn't find the
washer. Not anywhere. Damn! I guess the quantum effect of small
parts tunneling to Floyd's Knob, Indiana is true.

I had some bronze bushing stock for the filing machine, so I made a
new washer, twice as thick to allow for previous wear. Was putting
things back together after washing out the bore, and that damn
phenolic washer appeared out of nowhere and fell in the base casting
where I had looked with a flashlight a dozen times trying to find it.

I guess that quantum tunneling thing works both ways.

Around here, the cobs get into that, too. They put up webs which
catch small items for short times. Y'know? Just until I've found a
replacement for the missing part. They then let it go so I can see it
again. Other than wolf spiders, which I catch and release into the
wild, I kill all the damned cobs. I was in shorts once in LoCal and
sitting at the dining room table. As I scooted my chair back,
something very large landed just above my right knee. I was terrified
until I looked down and realized that it was just a 2-1/2" dia wolf
spider. I scooped him up in both hands and let him go outside. That
was one big bastid.


The upside is I got rid of most of the play in the tailstock ram.

Excellent, Pete. Now you have a spare phenolic washer, too!

--
[Television is] the triumph of machine over people.
-- Fred Allen