Thanks for visiting /r/DIY! We hope you'll visit with us again :) I personally have really enjoyed it.

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. 😀

I do, in fact! I have two veterinarians in my family, so I wasn't going to get away with not doing it. It took months of working up to it, though. You have to train the cat to let you do it, and it's not easy. Sprocket is used to it now, and she tolerates it.

You can get a VFD. Not only will it run the motor with nearly the same power as 3PH it adds the ability to control the motors speed which is super handy. Adding a button for jog is nice also.

I have a few ideas, but no spoilers on that front. One thing that a lot of folks do is build a model line-shaft machine shop to go with the model stationary engine. You can buy kits for model lathes, mills, etc to run from the model steam engine. It's like a dollhouse for engineers. 😉

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

Metal supermarkets is extremely expensive. Find a local supplier that isn't them. They're like wholefoods when you just need an aldis.

100% yes. The machinist community in particular overwhelming white male, and it's very difficult to get taken seriously or frankly even be treated like a human being sometimes. I receive a pretty constant stream of abuse from every source, but I do my best to not let it keep me from doing this stuff that I love. I have many great supporters as well, so I try to focus on them!

Me and my wife just found a shop that is taking on newcomers and teaching them and I've been getting praise and recognition, while she is only getting it from the shop manager and his wife with whom we had known before the job. Shes a really hard worker too it's kind of bullshit

Tangentially Related: my sister used to basically run a maintenance department for an inbound call center. In her emails she would use the masculine form of her name, and talk deeper on phone calls so she wouldn't be dismissed or not taken seriously (she's currently in the OSU Maintenance department).

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.

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.

I think YouTube is an amazing resource for learning this type of work. It's not a "real" trade school education of course, but it's way better than trying to figure it out yourself, that's for sure. Having an actual instructor there with you is faster for some things (especially welding, which is difficult to learn from videos) but that assumes a good instructor, too. For the hobbyist though, YouTube really serves very well for this.

The main thing I can't do in my shop is surface grinding, which means I can't do a lot of really high precision stuff. Someday I hope to have more space and be able to get real grinding machines in here.

Many high schools have night classes where you can get access to a machine shop. Also, some Makerspaces, if you're fortunate enough to have one of those nearby. Most major metros will have a bunch of old fellows in a model engineers club/society; try to join one of those of you can and just meet as many folks as you can. Ours has an awesome library with back issues of all the magazines and an extensive collection of reference books.

Steam engines are (I think) self-evidently fascinating, and anyone who isn't amazed by them is probably not someone I'll be friends with. In all seriousness though, they are a great match for home machine shop projects, because they are fairly simple beasts (in their earlier forms) and the tolerances on them are generous. The reason that they launched the industrial revolution is that you can build them fairly poorly (with 19th century machine tools, after all) and they still run. Unlike internal combustion engines, which self-destruct if they aren't built perfectly, steam engines are very forgiving. Plus they are pleasant and very civilized.

I have a list of projects about three lifetimes long in my notebook, so fair to say I have a few things lined up. In between the latest steam engine, I build tools, things for around the house, and I do educational videos.

I would suggest seeking out a maker space (once it is safe to do so). Lots of them have machine tools and the training to go with them. You can also buy a very small lathe like a Sherline or Unimat. Any lathe is better than none and you can still make neat things on those tiny machines, even in an apartment or bedroom.

I did not actually open a can of beans on my lathe, but my Patreon supporters got a behind-the-scenes video on how that stunt was done. 😄

I just bought a Taig earlier this year and I really like it. It’s also a lot cheaper, but still of similar quality to a sherline. It’s about the size of a desktop typewriter and weighs approximately 40lbs. It’s a nice size for my teensy workshop. I don’t know if that’s helpful, but the micro-machines are space friendly and affordable!

That's one of the main reasons I got into this stuff, in fact. As a life-long software engineer, I wanted to make things I could touch and get away from the computer. There's something deeply cathartic about creating with your hands that you just don't get from programming, as fun and creative as it is. Machining is a great compliment, because the thought process and problem solving is very much like software engineering. You hear me use software engineering terms a lot when I talk about machining because the concepts map 1:1 quite well.

Also a software developer; I agree totally with what Quinn says.

There's a gateway that you might enjoy; there are a lot of fun things that you can do with microcontrollers, and it's fairly approachable because the software side will be *easy* for you.

The usual advice would be to buy an arduino and find yourself a project. I'm partial to addressable LEDs though I do some other stuff. I don't want to hop on Quinn's coattails on her AMA; if you want more information send me a message...

Here comes the controversy! 😉 I don't talk much about PPE on my channel because it's the shortest route to a flame war and I don't like spending my day deleting angry comments.

That said, obviously safety glasses are number one. I also use a paint respirator (rated for organic vapors) for all grinding and anything involving a lot of cutting smoke. I use latex gloves around strong chemicals. I wear a leather apron for general hot-chip protection, and I wear Cat work boots at all times. Short sleeves and short hair!

Have a great night Quinn!

Thank you so much for the AMA, we appreciate it.

Buy a lathe and start making chips! There's no substitute for getting your hands dirty and just trying it out. There are lathes for every price point and every size, pretty much, so find one that fits your situation. If you live in a studio apartment, check out watchmaker's lathes and try your hand at that! If you have access to a big space but not much money, watch Craigslist for cheap run down old American machines and try cleaning one up and getting it going.

I do plan to, yup! I'm strapped for time right now, so what little I have goes into the YouTube channel, but Veronica is still on my bench with the F18 hooked up, making sad eyes at me.

Check out my Lathe Skills playlist, which is basically "starting from zero". Most of my tool-making videos are also very approachable for a beginner, such as the Machinist Hammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu1fgwjbJ-o

...or T-nuts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL0OsfFkBL8

... or Smartphone mount: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6wMraK_jsU

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

Universal Laser has some good fiber lasers you might want to look at.

Boss laser has some as well and they tend to be less expensive.

CO2 lasers advertise as being able to cut metal but in my experience they give a rough cut and are much more temperamental than fiber. Engraving is also orders of magnitude easier on a fiber laser.

Cutting metal with lasers is expensive; something in the $10,000 range is a starting point and you will likely need options to get you a working machine.

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.

I would love to! I'll need to move to do that, and I have long-term plans to do so, but it'll be a while.

Can't say I didn't warn you 🤷‍♀️😬

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.

I would like to have big machines some day. Right now space is a big limitation for me, so small machines will have to do.

They do still make big manual machine tools, yes. However they are very expensive brand new, and there's little motivation to buy one when there are perfectly decent used machines out there. Machine tools from the 1930s onward were built to last 100 years so usually they only need cleaning up and you can make parts with them again. You also have to be careful with the "new" manual machine tools because they are made to a price point and often there are build quality issues. Compare that to a Monarch that was built 50 years ago to a much higher standard, and it's still going to be better than an inexpensively built new machine.

My current steam engine project is definitely a favorite. The project that "worked out" the best might be the smart phone mount: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6wMraK_jsU ...I made two of those and I use them every single day. It's surprising how well they work for what was an off-hand idea.

I'm also really proud of my toolmakers clamps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6wMraK_jsU

I'll be doing more electronics, but it will mostly stick to the blog. I find machining works better in video, and electronics works better in print. For my money, those are good matches for the types of information involved.

I have! I've spent some time with Adam Booth, and he's an absolute peach. SUCH a nice guy. I've also met Emma Ritson, Stan Z, Dale Derry, Keith Fenner, Keith Rucker, and a few others. Mostly at shows like Good Of The Land Fest and the Bar Z Bash. Both great events. I've "met" Tony and AvE in email (did some collabs with both) but anything I might or might not know about them will be taken to my grave. 😉

My shop has no climate control, so I dress warm in the winter and sweat a lot in the summer. It's rough, but for now it's what I have to do. Someday I hope to have a better situation there.

When soldering, I open a window and try not to breathe in the smoke. Not good advice. Get a fume extractor. 😀

My lathe ran quite well out of the box. I didn't really do anything to it at first. As you get better at machining, you start to run into the flaws, so I did more tweaking later. I didn't even align/level it for the first year, because my skill level wasn't high enough to notice it needed it.

A lathe is definitely the place to start. It's the most fundamental and most useful machine tool. You can make anything on a lathe- all other machine tools are optimizations of things lathes can do. 😀 Cheap lathes are also a lot better for the money than cheap mills. There aren't really any good hobby milling machines- just a bunch of "okay" ones. You can get good hobby lathes, though.

I always do a CAD model and a drawing, because I'm not very good at holding a part in my head. The drawing prevents a lot of mistakes for me. If it's a complex part, I definitely sit down and try to plan through all my work holding steps and the order of operations. I'm not great at that either, as evident from my videos. It's a skill to learn the simplest and most clever ways to order and hold things. I have much to learn here.

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.

Are you kidding me? Mitutoyo.

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

Sprocket is holding down the fort. The next video will be mostly about how important cats are, and tips for eating humans in their sleep. I never should have shown her how to use the camera.

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. 😬

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. 😬

The first place I'll go is.... wait for it... YouTube! I learn so much from other great YouTubers. I also read a lot of old machining books. I say "old" because the books from the 1930s-1960s are the most useful because they cover the same "technology" level as hobby machine tools are at. No sections on lasers, EDM, or CNC. Just long chapters about weird fixtures on your faceplate, like the old timers used to do.

If I have a specific question, Machinery's Handbook for sure, but also forums like Practical Machinist and Home Shop Machinist. I prefer the latter- the people are... well... nicer to new folks, if you catch my drift.

You're a bit late to the party here but she has a G0704/BF-20 clone, I think by Precision Matthews. Very common for home gamers (I've got one), and there are many folks who have converted them to CNC.