Tom Gardner wrote:

I think my heat treating costs are cheaper than the shipping to the heat
treater so I drive the 2 miles.

I figgered that much. I'm definitely thinking ``close to suppliers''
when I go looking for my location. So, if you've got, say, 1000 lbs or
so of stuff to go off to the treater. Say you're after a case harden.
Medium depth. What do you expect to be reasonable? Ball park?

I'll do small, one-offs in the shop.

Yeah, me too. For my own stuff. I'd prefer to treat customers with a
little more respect than that, though. :-)

Like
everything else, supply and demand...are there a few firms in competition
around the neighborhood?

Ain't found 'em yet. You know how that goes: You call an industrial
service company on something you're not sure about and you get run
around if you're lucky. Ignored, primarily, and if you can talk them
into doing business with you later they generally charge you 10X...

Don't do it at home, it's another job that will
steal part of your life and cost WAY more than you think.

No kiddin. That's why I'm tryin' to put feelers out.

Are these parts
for your "time machine" design?

Yup. Although most folks call it a tool post, that's pretty much what
I'm hoping it might turn into: A time machine.

Get to work on the motor!!!!

After giving up on my last time machine and going back to the motor
work again, I later turned back to the time-machine theory (but with
different specifics): Make something to sell that won't consume every
waking moment so you have at least a little time for motor research.
This QCTP just might do that for me. Still in the research stages.
Ain't even hammered down the material yet. The old man used to tell
me that was the most difficult part of any project. Although I didn't
doubt him, well, now I'm really tasting that for myself.

The motor hit a bit of a snag (actually several, but I worked through all
but one). When I finally figured out how to do more of the calculations
with the latest design with all the other snags worked out, I found that
it is not too useful in the smaller sizes. My target market was going to
be to start with toys (RC cars and whatnot). You know, a niche group.
I'm having to go back and redesign for the larger sizes now (no less
than, say, 1 or maybe even 3 HP minimum). I'm thinkin' the new niche
market might be home-shop folks who want to convert their machinery from
3 phase to single phase on the cheapy-cheap. Any ideas where I might
find such folks? :-)

Actually, with such a restriction, I'm honestly starting to doubt if
this is even worth pursuing any more. Just like that. 15 years down
the dumper...

Anyway, I've had to go so far back on the drawing board, well, I think
I'm looking at a blank sheet again. I'm still going to build the one
for which I have the plans and steel. I need to make sure that my calcs
be right. Could be I'm off by a few orders of magnitude (and I'm off
that far IN TH RIGHT DIRECTION). It's been known to happen before.

...or you
will be labeled "The Prince of Procrastination" (I'm the KING)

Yeah, well, more scatter-brain than anything else. Just have too many
projects underway, and always dreaming up new ones.

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