Thursday, February 3, 2011

Clearly A Sign

I've been trying to ward off a bad case of lathe fever. The impending illness will certainly induce me to think I should own one. I've been battling it with Airborne, but to no avail, I'm losing ground and on the verge of resignation.

Truth be told, I haven't fought that hard. Diverting my gaze to the horizon, though, the next battle may test my mettle. Not sure Patty is down with either the expenditure or a new piece of equipment crowding her parking space. It's starting to get pretty tight in the garage shop.

I was starting to think I should just be a good husband and back off.  But then, out of nowhere, this . . .

For the last coupla days, something has not felt quite right in my "change pocket", which is my left front. I didn't pay much attention, but I remember noticing a texture or shape that I couldn't quite identify or that seemed vaguely out of place.

So tonight, I was buying something and reached into that pocket to see if I could come up with the 82 cent part of the deal and spotted this funnypenny . . .

all cool on the frontside


holy hell, all kinds of wtf on the backside

Dude, some crazy bastard, for some unknown reason, did that with . . . hell ya . . . a LATHE!  I don't know the history on this damn thing or how the hell it landed in my pocket, but don't you think I'd be totally effing stupid to ignore it???

I tried to share my excitement with the teenage cashier. She dug deep into her bag of retail skills in an effort to show she cared, but I'm pretty sure the moment was lost on her.

I hope it's not lost on you. This is huge.

I can't really go to Patty with this, so against my better judgement, I'm turning to you for advice.  I'm thinking karma-wise that I should release the penny back into circulation and that when I do get the lathe that I'm supposed to have, my first project should be to duplicate it and get a couple more out into circulation and that this will make things right. (and also protect me.)  This is crazy new territory for me, but the main point that yours and my relationship hinges on, going forward, is that we agree that I should have a lathe.  I do care what you say, though.

10 comments:

John Speare said...

Clearly a sign Pat. Ignore it at your peril.

Alistair said...

Lathes can be a hard sell to those that don't understand. "So I'm thinking of buying an expensive, heavy machine that will enable me to take cylindrical pieces of metal, and make them into cylindrical pieces of metal, of a different diameter.."

What I'd like to know is how the person who machined that penny held it, while they faced the tails side?

glen c. said...

Alistair- collet chuck. Pat-you could always hide it in my shop...

Not said...

Obviously the penny is a sign that you should get a lathe. However, I'm going to disagree with the penny - what you really need is a milling machine!
- Ventura

Anonymous said...

Wow. They weren't kidding about deflation.

I can't wait to buy a half-cent of horehounds at the general store.

J Hawk said...

Maybe they Didn't like the wheat straw on the reverse; that's a '47. Vintage for a penny and real copper. I would speculate the modern laminated penny's would not be as satisfing

Hank Greer said...

Hold out until you find an Eisenhower dollar, Pat. Now that would be a sign.

mechBgon said...

Definitely a sign. Buy whatever lathe The Voices command you to get.

Mike Sirott said...

You didn't even mention this and maybe you're trying to ignore the fact that a lathe is a slippery slope to a milling machine and full CNC upgrade for the both of them. It's only a matter of time. I've seen it happen.

Alex Wetmore said...

I've gone far down Mike's slippery slope. I don't think CNC is that useful in a bike building shop though, almost all of the tasks are simple and one off.

I do like my CNC mill for making bike building fixtures though.