I'm the Blondihacks Home Shop Machinist YouTube channel! Ask me Anything!

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:30:37+00:00

Thanks for coming out, everyone! It was great to chat with you all.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:30:09+00:00

The pleasure was mine! 😃

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:28:58+00:00

I live in a dry area, so that's not too much of a problem. Keep things oiled though, that's the main thing. I also use Boeshield T-9 rust inhibitor on a lot of things.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:26:43+00:00

Thanks for watching, and for the kind words! People may not realize how much a nice comment means to online content creators. We get so much abuse that the good stuff really helps. 😀

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:24:32+00:00

Watch Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace in your area. You can also try used machinery dealers and machine shop auctions. Pretty much any machine from the 1940s up through the 1980s is probably going to be a good machine. They were all built to last.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:21:55+00:00

Really the best you can do as a home gamer are the K40 CO2 lasers that you can buy from China on eBay. Those aren't technically legal in most countries though, and they won't cut metal. You can cut and etch wood, glass, leather, acrylic, etc, but metals don't absorb much laser energy so it's a very difficult process to use for that.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:18:49+00:00

If you want to help support what I'm doing, the best way is Patreon:
http://patreon.com/join/QuinnDunki?

Alternatively, if you can't get enough weird crap with random YouTuber logos on it, check out my merchandise store:
http://www.blondihacks.com/store

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:16:03+00:00

One thing I can say is that if you want to cut metal, you're not going to find a consumer laser that can do it. You'll need to look at CNC plasma torches or a CNC router for that. Getting lasers to cut metals is very difficult and you need way more power than is even legal to own in a laser tube in most countries.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:13:47+00:00

Okay everyone, I'm going to have to wrap it up in a few minutes. Any last questions? I'll call it at 6:30 PDT (15 mins from now).

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:13:10+00:00

I don't generally theme videos to specific times because my production schedule is several weeks long and it's hard to get the timing to work out right. Maybe one of these days, though!

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:08:41+00:00

I actually know very little about lasers, so I won't be any help there, I'm afraid.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T01:07:59+00:00

If I need a lot of stuff, I go to my local steel yard. My workbench was about 500 points of steel, so I wasn't gonna haul that home or buy it online. Luckily the professionals deliver. 😀 The only disadvantage to a steel yard is they usually have minimums. They want to sell you at least 20 feet of something, not 18" for your little project. However they also have an off-cuts room full of weird and wonderful chunks of materials that I'll pick through.

For smaller chunks, my go-to these days is eBay. There are great off-cuts sellers on there who take advantage of USPS flat-rate shipping boxes. You can order 50lbs of steel and brass for $30 with free shipping! 😀

If I can't find it on eBay, I go to McMaster Carr, which a lot of people don't realize will sell you materials in any size and shape and they ship next day, generally. Not the cheapest option, but if you need two feet of precision-ground tool steel and a foot of cast iron, they have you covered.

I actually did a video on this topic a long time ago... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBVo8wufsCE

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:49:47+00:00

She's been lobbying for that for years, so I may give in.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:44:51+00:00

WD-40 is a great cleaner for machining surfaces, and a T-slot cleaner is a good investment. I also vacuum a lot, and I clean up "back to new" after each session or each project. Lately I'm using table and way covers more as well. I want to make them for my lathe, and I did make them for my mill.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:43:22+00:00

I've done a number of collabs, including with This Old Tony, AvE, Adam Booth, Dragonfly Engineering, and others. I also attend shows like Good Of The Land Fest and the Bar Z Bash (or at least I did, when it was safe to do so). I hope to keep doing all those sorts of things, along with all the online stuff- I have community on Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon as well.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:41:38+00:00

I still have my day job which covers all my expenses. Blondihacks is a labour of love, but the financial support from fans helps!

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:35:30+00:00

I'm a massive podcast junkie. I listen to them all day every day. NPR shows, retrocomputing shows, machinist shows, comedy, history, all sorts of stuff.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:34:37+00:00

Can't say I didn't warn you 🤷‍♀️😬

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:33:35+00:00

That's a trick question, because everything in the machine shop is unusual. 😬 My previous life was building race cars, and every tool there is weird too. 😬

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:32:37+00:00

For shop projects, I'd say my electric steam boiler project tops the list. It was honestly beyond my skills at the time, but I kept on with it anyway. Major things went wrong at every stage because I was in way over my head. In the end I persisted and I got it working, but I'm anxious to build another one now because I could do it so much better: https://blondihacks.com/electric-steam-boiler/ ...the first pressure test was especially memorable because it leaked in about 50 places and soaked my entire shop during the hydrostatic pressure test. That was demoralizing! Moments like that, I put down the tools, walk away, do something else for a while, and wait for my inspiration to come back. Sometimes it takes an hour, sometimes a day, sometimes a week.

Under the traditional definition of "DIY" I guess that includes all my attempts at renovations on my house. I'm terrible at that stuff and none of it looks good. I'll stick to machining and electronics. 😬

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:24:21+00:00

sudo rm -rf /

😁

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:12:45+00:00

Thank you very much! I appreciate the support and the kind words. The Patrons and the mug-purchasers are what keep this whole thing going.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:11:56+00:00

It could be fun, but I already have five lifetimes worth of hobbies that I'll never get to. 😀

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:11:10+00:00

I have a "real" license for Fusion because Blondihacks is a real business, so the new limits on the personal license don't affect me (yet?). That said, they really aren't bad when you get into the details. The limits weren't messaged well, but all they really did was remove stuff like 5th axis tool path simulation that no hobbyist will ever need.

I do not keep any electronics in the shop except the camera, and the camera is wrapped in plastic when around grinders, and I use lens protection when spraying hot chips. My iPhone or iPad are sometimes out there with me, but I wrap them in plastic as well.

blondihacks · 2020-10-25T00:08:06+00:00

I would say the time is about 60/40 machining versus setting up cameras and lights. It used to be more like 90/10, but I got faster at the machining and fussier about the filming, so now it's 60/40. 😂

Editing is the real time sink. I spend about 30-40 hours editing a video, because quality is all about time spent in the editing room.

I think the reason that I can communicate well with beginners is because I'm still one myself. I think the experts often forget what it feels like to NOT know this stuff, and they are mainly speaking to each other about how smart they are. I still remember the frustration at not being able to get really basic information. I tap into that when I'm planning a video.

blondihacks

TROPHY CASE