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  • #61399
    maitai11
    Participant

      David,

      We don’t have “Any” kind of specialty stores in Hawaii…that tool chest I bought was $68, and the rest shipping…Not too bad, though, overall. I’ll do a review here shortly.

      David, I’m either incredibly dense, or just very green, but why do you have so many tools that cost thousands? I’m not being a smartass here, I really do want to learn, briefly, because I know you must be busy as heck with the skillset you possess, but the question stands. Are you building your own watches? Is Tom your groupie, or business partner? Seems he posts about your stuff more than you do, haha. Sorry Tom! Truth is, I WISH I was near another watchmaker who had the caliber of tools and knowledge you do. You too, Tom.

      Best,

      Tim :)

      #61400
      maitai11
      Participant

        So Chris,

        Yeah, about the sticky’s and such – it would appear that, as good an idea this thread is (and I mean that sincerely,) there seems to always be the inevitable “side conversations/off track/etc” that goes on in these forums, all for good purposes, but perhaps not as focused as you might want it to be.

        I was thinking, perhaps there may be a way to select the REVIEWS and sequester them into an actual REVIEWS section, where they are all unadulterated. It would seem that would be the way to really keep things kosher. Then, when side conversations and such do occur ( I am so sorry for being an offender,) you can just strip out the great review and post it on a “Reviews – Final” thread.

        Just a suggestion, though I’ll be the first to admit that I do not know how to accomplish this!

        Best, Brother.

        Tim :)

        #61401
        stevefitzwater
        Participant

          Another solution might be to create a new forum, kinda like the Members Shop Forum, a place where the threads do not get lost in the mix, a place where people like myself can go to help clear the fog that comes with buying new consumables and tools… just a suggestion.

          Keep the threads on topic and move or delete side conversation that are off topic to the thread.

          #61402
          david pierce
          Participant

            Tim,
            Tom is not only is one of my best friends but he is also a college professor. I spent close to 30 years of my life as an engineer and machine designer and it is a rare thing in my current working environment to have a conversation with someone who can see things from my academic perspective. From a watch repair perspective I think Tom can see things, as I do, that the future in mechanical watches is headed in the direction of making parts as opposed to ordering replacement parts. This takes machinery and a knowledge of how to use that machinery.

            I went through another watch course before coming to Bob’s forum and am fully aware that watches can be repaired with a couple of tweezers and a simple set of screwdrivers. I also spent several years taking watches apart (mostly wristwatches), finding the defective part and repairing them. For a short period of time I took in repair work and came to a decision that I did not enjoy repairing things as much a making them. Setting up a repair facility is a good dream and is the end goal of many of the other forum members, but, While this is a fantastic and wonderful goal, my heart will always be in manufacturing.

            As far as the machines go I was reluctant to post them for a long time; knowing that it might invoke a negative reaction as it obviously did with you. A couple of years ago I mentioned to Bob in a phone conversation that I had over 60 watchmaker lathes and he spilled the beans in a post a few days later. I initially had no intention of bringing that to the attention of other forum members but once he posted it, inquires about the lathes began to trickle in. Obviously I don’t use all of the machines and most of them were purchased to restore and resell, hence, they are sitting on my shelves as inventory. I currently work a full time job and have not given a lot of thought about selling them at this time. As they sit on my shelves they seem to be going up in value and have outperformed my other investments.

            My perspective in all of this is that there is no right or wrong in watchmaking; only personal goals. Mine just happens to be making things.
            david

            #61403
            chris mabbott
            Participant

              David, two things…

              When you get your lathes setup, it would be great to have you do a review of each one. I know they’re vintage, but when I was fillyfaddling with my decision on which vintage lathe to purchase, there was no such information available. Plus it would be an interesting look into all the different vintage machines, especially those Derbyshire lathes you have. There is amazingly little information on those and I believe no review ore hands on demo..

              Might be a fun project..

              Number two is….. Is that really Tom in his profile photo 😆

              #61404
              gerene
              Participant

                Chris,

                I don’t know if you have the book “The Watchmaker’s and Model Engineer’s Lathe” by De Carle, but chapter 10 of this book has a description of most of the different brands and models of watchmaker’s lathes.
                I found that to be quite interesting.

                Jan

                #61405
                david pierce
                Participant

                  Chris,
                  No, he doesn’t look anything like the guy in the photo. I think we can also assume that Cazclocker’s Avatar looks very different from his actual photo.

                  Jan,
                  The book you mentioned is a good one as is THE WATCHMAKERS LATHE by Ward Goodrich and my favorite THE WATCHMAKER AND HIS LATHE by H. Jendritzki. They are all good informative sources of information about watch lathes.
                  david

                  #61406
                  willofiam
                  Moderator

                    Here is a thought guys, instead of having this thread about “product reviews” first try searching the type of tool your going to post about to see if there has been any other useful info already discussed, if not then start a thread on the type of tool. Chris, for instance, “taps and dies” for the heading, that way you wont have a thread with 20 different types of tools and it gets to be a mile long, typing in “taps and dies” and you find the thread with “taps and dies” I will talk with Bob and Paul about this, I do not think another section would work BUT I could very well be wrong. Have a great day, William

                    #61407
                    david pierce
                    Participant

                      William,
                      The problem is there have been so many posts over the years it is becoming more difficult and time consuming to look up old ones that have already addressed current topics. These postings are listed according to the date they were posted and under a chronological filing system the most efficient way to get an answer to a question is to type it in and wait for a reply. This is not necessarily a bad system because answers can always be improved upon with study, practice and gained experience.
                      david

                      #61408
                      tmac1956
                      Participant

                        @maitai11 wrote:

                        David,

                        We don’t have “Any” kind of specialty stores in Hawaii…that tool chest I bought was $68, and the rest shipping…Not too bad, though, overall. I’ll do a review here shortly.

                        David, I’m either incredibly dense, or just very green, but why do you have so many tools that cost thousands? I’m not being a smartass here, I really do want to learn, briefly, because I know you must be busy as heck with the skillset you possess, but the question stands. Are you building your own watches? Is Tom your groupie, or business partner? Seems he posts about your stuff more than you do, haha. Sorry Tom! Truth is, I WISH I was near another watchmaker who had the caliber of tools and knowledge you do. You too, Tom.

                        Best,

                        Tim :)

                        Tim:

                        David travels a lot and asked me to post his photos while he was on the road. He gave me instructions about what content he wanted posted and in which thread he wanted it placed. He has an unbelievable background in designing and building machines (as well as guitars) and wrote computer control code during the beginning of the CNC revolution. He is kind enough to share some of that knowledge with me – which has greatly reduced my learning curve. Posting a few photos is the least I can do in return. Additionally, I try to give credit for information that I post and cite sources when applicable. If I snag some information from David or anyone else for that matter, I try to give the author of the data credit when I post it. I get a lot of off forum information from David, so he shows up often in my posts.

                        Thanks,
                        Tom

                        P.s Both David and I were once professional musicians, so we actually know what it means to call someone a groupie. 8-)

                        #61409
                        tmac1956
                        Participant

                          @Chris Mabbott wrote:

                          David, two things…

                          When you get your lathes setup, it would be great to have you do a review of each one. I know they’re vintage, but when I was fillyfaddling with my decision on which vintage lathe to purchase, there was no such information available. Plus it would be an interesting look into all the different vintage machines, especially those Derbyshire lathes you have. There is amazingly little information on those and I believe no review ore hands on demo..

                          Might be a fun project..

                          Number two is….. Is that really Tom in his profile photo 😆

                          Chris:

                          Due to popular demand, I have posted and actual picture of me in character.

                          Enjoy!
                          Tom

                          #61410
                          david pierce
                          Participant

                            :ugeek: No doubt that was taken back when you were a “groupie”.

                            #61411
                            chris mabbott
                            Participant

                              @willofiam wrote:

                              Here is a thought guys, instead of having this thread about “product reviews” first try searching the type of tool your going to post about to see if there has been any other useful info already discussed, if not then start a thread on the type of tool. Chris, for instance, “taps and dies” for the heading, that way you wont have a thread with 20 different types of tools and it gets to be a mile long, typing in “taps and dies” and you find the thread with “taps and dies” William

                              William, the issue with having individual threads is that they remain Un-current and have a tendency to become buried.

                              Also, new users who are not familiar with the search function simply post their questions anyway, then if a responder wants to point out a previous thread, they have to search for it and post a link.

                              Number three, is the search function searches for the words you type into the field, so ALL words that contain LATHE for example, will show in the search, this also includes none lathe related topics where the word lathe is mentioned as in…. I USE A LATHE..
                              Subsequently, you will have to go through hundreds of search results to find the info you require..

                              Whereas having many different products in one thread isn’t ideal either, there is a search function that allows you to “Search This Topic” which greatly narrows the time involved rather than doing a general word search of the whole forum..

                              The problem is, as has been stated, are the none related responses that kinda clutter up the room, but that is just the nature of forums, and it is fun, so I think we can live with it until it becomes a huge juggernaught, then we have to get the mods to clean it up 😆

                              #61412
                              gerene
                              Participant

                                I seldom use the search function in the search window on the header of the page, but I use the advanced search function just below. This gives you several different kinds of search, including only topic titles. By using that or any other search criterium on this page, you narrow your search results tremendously and don’t have to wade through pages of search results.
                                I myself would have a preference for different topics for different products, just my opinion.
                                Also I feel that if you don’t have anything to add to the discussion (except some funny remarks that make it light :) ), then please refrain from posting that you don’t know it either. We all have to read it and it is nothing more than a waste of time.
                                I am not advocating for a dull forum where no social talk is allowed because I like to do that as well.
                                Overall this forum is rather good and I enjoy reading it :), thanks everybody for contributing.

                                Jan

                                #61413
                                arutha
                                Participant

                                  This is a good idea but I dont think this is going to work well as it is. This post is already 3 pages long and has been side-tracked wqith information which should be posted under that persons “shop”. If this post keeps growing at its current rate you will need to use the search facility anyway unless you want to trawl through each page looking for a review on tweezers for example.

                                  As William suggested earlier, post each tool under its own heading but in the “Parts & Tool Suppliers & Other Helpful Resources”. If someone reviews Dumont tweezers and then later someone starts another post with Anchor tweezers I am pretty sure we can combine the posts. This would make each tool much easier to find. I think this would be a very useful tool but it needs a bit more structure than it has in its current form. To make reviews of tools easier to find using the search facility we just set the heading as something like “ToolReview-Tweezers” and put ToolReview before each tool review. This would also mean some kind of stuck post to notify new members on how to search for tool reviews.
                                  Just some thoughts.
                                  Paul.

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