OT: This ought to make you chuckle

[CW]

And you are working so close to the dangerous part. No push sticks here.

[CW]

I'm with you, charlie. Makes you squirm a bit, eh?

[CW]

Remember old, cheap radio cases. 1/8 inch board with vinyl sewn to it. I've seen machines that will sew through 3/4 inch leather without even working hard.

[Philip Lewis]

also remember that the needle is small... so we're talking about 2HP of power focused on a *really* tiny area.

[mttt]

They made mine too. A daisy wheel. First was an Epson RX-80. (Too cheap for an FX model). I'd start printing my stuff at 10pm and let it run all night. Took all night - that thing was *slow*.

[mttt]

Wife's got one. She's a designer. That thing scares me more than any power tool I have. Even more than a 3" panel rasing bit in a Craftsman router, with no speed control... :)

[Roy Smith]

You should see the sewing machines sailmakers (i.e. guys who build sails for sailboats). Some of the needles are hollow and run compressed air through the middle for cooling.

There are lots of industrial machines out there which have the capacity to kill and maim. I used to have a friend who worked in a print shop. They had a paper cutter which could cut a ream of paper in half without even slowing down. It probably wouldn't slow down cutting your hand off either. To make sure the operator didn't put their hands in the way, it had two switches (i.e. one for each hand) which had to be operated simultaneously, about 4 feet away from each other, each one hidden by a guard. I'm sure there were clever idiots who figured out how to defeat the safety mechanism.

[Charlie Self]

mttt responds:

Yes, it was. I sometimes think of that when I lean over and growl because my current inkjet can often take 10-15 seconds to deliver its first page. I'd write a book and feed it into the Juki and pick up the manuscript hours later. Written in WordStar. You did not want to screw up the dot commands!

Charlie Self "I am confident that the Republican Party will pick a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton." Dan Quayle

[Charlie Self]

Those things were fun. I used one for a year or so, in a print shop. The thing would slice through a 30" wide stack of paper 500 sheets thick, as you say, without slowing down. It had guards, but that was long enough ago that I don't recall exactly how they were guarded--I think one below the table had to be pushed in and up, while the actual actuating switch had to be pulled down from the right. Four feet does sound about right. That was one scary sumbitch.

Charlie Self "I am confident that the Republican Party will pick a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton." Dan Quayle

[Wood Butcher]

I missed those dot commands. Especially for inserting frequently used ugly text strings like "Gopherus Agassizi" where a simple .ga made life easier.

[Tim Douglass]

When I was about 10 I put 3 stitches in the side of my finger with my mom's Singer. Probably wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't jerked away and ripped all three out through the side of my finger. Made a pretty ugly mess.

Tim Douglass

[Philip Lewis]

heh... i've broke sewing machine needles off in my thumb... twice. (guess i never learn) score one for the "meaty" hands! (or is it a score for the sewing machine?)

it's isn't recommended, let me tell you.

I think my wife's husqvarna might fair better if it were to happen again. i could end up with a neatly embroidered hand. ;)

[Juergen Hannappel]

[...]

Exactlly, jerking away is the wrong option. When i out (at a similar age) 3 stitches into my finger (through the finger nail) i just turned tha hand wheel backward (my mother has a foot-operated Pfaff) and got the thread out without further damage to the finger (also neither thread nor needle had sustained any damage)so that i could resume my sewing operation with minimal hassle.

[Hylourgos]

Did you live in Sparks?

Small world, H.

[Hylourgos]

You guys have lost me. Excaliburs were made in Sparks NV, and only there if I was informed correctly when I visited the place. I grew up in Reno, but it doesn't sound like you guys are talking about Reno/Sparks. So where was this other factory?

Curious, H.

[Lazarus Long]

That was Punkin' Hollow Wood & Tool Store. They've been gone for years. Kettle Moraine Hardwood is the place to go now. They've got a location in Hartland and one in Caledonia.

[David E. Penner]

I was at my favorite scrap yard a couple of weeks ago. In the back they had a Cinnicinati brake (used for forming metal). Must have been 10 feet high by 12-15 feet long. Had a nice little sign telling you not to put your hands under the brake bar.

david

[Charlie Self]

Now that would provide the absolute ultimate in limp wrists.

Charlie Self "I am confident that the Republican Party will pick a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton." Dan Quayle

[Dave Hinz]

Sounds like you were lied to, or it's a different Excalibur, or it predated the factory here.

Is (was) in, what is that, West Allis, Wisconsin I think. Pretty sure it existed, since my mom set up their upholstery department and all. They went through a bunch of different owners, maybe one iteration of the company was in Reno, who knows.

1980's until present is when the factory was in Wisconsin, maybe earlier. When was the Reno factory there?

Dave Hinz

[Dave Hinz]

Me? Nope. Screwed a few things up over the years which involved making sparks (or magic smoke), but never lived there.

Dave