Shop Truths, Phrases, Tales; and Outright Lies

[MeJasonT]

This is worth a look

[Toolmaker51]

This is worth a look

If they were to do a layout; it'd be Dykem in a pressure washer

I don't recall mentioning how I ended up champing at the bit literally ''...to be a machinist".
It was a family vacation; about 7 years of age, a long road trip. No idea where we were before or headed to, but we stopped at Hoover Dam, basically right next to Las Vegas, Nevada. The tour went through much of the interior. Sheer Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal immensity, so I was getting pretty lit up.
Two areas dealt considerable excitement; the turbine room, and especially the machine shop. Everything field-day spotless, brightly lit, and roughly 700 feet below the roadway on the dam connecting Arizona and Nevada. I'm quoting, but it isn't precise. Anyway, I asked tour guide "...how they get them down here?". "Well this part of the dam was built around them...". "yeah, but how did they get them down here?" There was a huge engine lathe, a shaft lathe, not oilfield style. Probably an Axelson, American, Monarch, or Lodge & Shipley. My fantasy says American Pacemaker.
It was and impression it made remain the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen; [save a few human females]. From then on, normal kids said fireman, policeman, doctor, scientist, politician, network analyst, write suicide clauses for insurance policies...when asked ''whadyya gonna do when you grow up"?
Not me. First it was just machinist, began studying it evolved becoming Toolmaker after reading bio on John M. Browning, around 11 years old.
Still no cure has been found, with additional side side effects. Intermingling vocation, career & avocation, tool acquisition syndrome, cast iron dependency, mental maps highlighting salvage yards, rustyitemitus at yard sales [running past moo-moos, baby bottles, and non-engineering textbooks], distracted driving while rigged loads pass. Most severe cases have cantwaitformonday, and overtimehellyes, generally income is a requirement of the disease, in pursuing a continual fix. And all those make me happy!
Hey Frank S, same for you? I know C-Bag's got it...Like our milk cartons with missing kids, HMT.net has nearly 15,000 poster-kids.

[C-Bag]

This is another set I got off CL, maybe not such a steal but most of the reamers were still in their wax paper. Obviously off a ship and $120, was missing two reamers, but otherwise all there.i can't for some reason upload the pic of the list of all the reamers, but what is showing its only the top tier.