/r/Skookum

Photograph via snooOG

A place where people come to learn, or teach.

(Or have a chuckle out in the shop)

NSFW: inappropriate adult language!

Rules -

1. This sub is intended to be a place where people come to learn, or teach.

2. Provide Context. If you post an image, gif, or video, you should also post a comment explaining what we're looking at, with as much detail as possible. This applies to 99.9% of all posts here.

3. Users are strongly encouraged to submit posts for technical or career assistance. We're here to help! But at the same time, don't be lazy - Google exists and RTFM. Demonstrate that you've done your homework before asking for help.

4. Don't be an asshole. Seriously.

THIS INCLUDES GATEKEEPING - this sub is as much for aspirants to skookumness to learn as it is about celebrating those who have already mastered it. "This isn't skookum!" posts will get deleted - help them understand where they could have gone better, don't just throw rocks at them.

5. Re-posts less than a month old will be removed. Serially re-posted content, or content that's generally played out on social media, will also be removed.

6. "Big Wrench" pics (and similar pics of large-scale industrial equipment, etc) will be removed with extreme prejudice!

Exceptions can be made if you use the thing and you have a story to tell or have a teaching point, but in general "Look at this big thing!" posts will get nuked.

That goes double for posts featuring the brand name "Skookum" on some random chain hoist or whatever.

7. The Skookum community will not participate in the development of illegal weapon systems. This excludes devices of a legal sporting or ornamental nature, ie. blades, firearms, archery equipment, etc.

This does not mean you need to report every pic of a legal firearm. Gunsmithing is an acceptable topic.

8. Everyone can use a laugh from time to time and the occasional shitpost can bring light to someone's day - in moderation. Humour is subjective and the mods reserve the right to lock and/or delete shitposts based on how good they think your joke is and the current shitpost frequency. Anything racist/sexist/similar will be immediately nuked and might get you a ban as well!


Wanna watch some cool shit? Check out the following YouTube Channels-

Abom79. In depth industrial machining videos.

Alec Steele. Creating beauty with fire, metal, and percussion.

Applied Science. One of those guys that can make cool shit without making a huge mess.

Aussie50 "An Australian dicking around in the shop with whatever was at hand, making cool shit, putting it on the internet."

Great channel. Guy'll be missed.

Bad Obsession Motorsport. Home of Project Binky, a highly involved Mini Cooper project.

Big Clive. Electrical device tear downs featuring excessive facial hair.

Chris DePrisco. The guy that built a high performance CNC mill from scratch.

Clickspring. Machining true works of art.

Cody's Lab. Proving that you don't need to spend a lot of money to get OSHA to show up.

Electroboom. Desktop electrical engineering from a mind that is both curious and funny.

Engineering Guy. The Stephen Spielberg of technical YouTube videos.

Essential Craftsman. Carpentry with a dose of zero fucks.

Far North Racing. Race car fabrication, CNC conversions, and other shop-related bullshit, from a long time member of the Skookum community.

Jimmy Diresta. Making all kinds of stuff with genuine expertise.

Keith Rucker. Search for and rescue of vintage machinery.

Make it Extreme. Name says it all.

Matthias Wandel. With a name like that, you know he's a wood worker.

NYC CNC. The place to start for aspiring CNC machinists.

Ox Tools. Machining and fabrication at a professional level.

photonicinduction. He's back! High energy, sketchy as frig experiments.

Project Farm. Low-bullshit comparison tests of products for home and shop.

Regular Cars. Bringing social and technical context to automotive journalism.

Smarter Every Day. How good do you have to be at making science videos to score an Obama interview?

Taofledermaus. Citizen science for firearm enthusiasts.

Tim Hunkin. An absolute OG. Created "The Secret Life Of Machines" series in 1988 and is now putting out "The secret Life of Components" on youtube.

The Post Apocalyptic Inventor Using a German accent to make devices with salvaged electronics.

This Old Tony. Machining and top quality dad jokes.

Welding Tips and Tricks. A great resource for amateurs and pros alike.

Inheritance Machining

My Mechanics

Hand Tool Rescue

/r/Skookum

143,941 Subscribers

42

Sandblasted Metal Pup - What Should We Name Him? Anyone Else Ever Make Something Like This?

18 Comments
2024/10/30
19:55 UTC

27

Nuweld clamps

Bought these from a mechanic that no longer required them Skookum AF

2 Comments
2024/10/30
07:17 UTC

47

Can't think of a better subreddit so I'll try here. Where do you buy these things?

40 Comments
2024/10/29
15:26 UTC

142

Check out the startup sequence on this 20,000 watt microwave oven; it is capable of melting Tungsten.

Haven’t seen any of styropyro’s videos posted here in years. Would you consider this skookum?

55 Comments
2024/10/28
03:16 UTC

0

Skookum CFL (compared to the normal ones at least)

4 Comments
2024/10/26
19:21 UTC

12

Project Binky - Episode 39

2 Comments
2024/10/26
20:33 UTC

21

Tight fit

2 Comments
2024/10/26
19:24 UTC

0

Ave-ism confusion

Ave sometimes says something to the effect of 'lequer mama' and I'm not sure what that means.

I'd Google it myself, but being that it's French and probably Quebecois at that, I don't have a ton of faith in my ability to type it correctly.

Any insight?

54 Comments
2024/10/25
22:40 UTC

38

Skookum Shop-Made Boring Bar (Cutting Edge Engineering on YouTube)

9 Comments
2024/10/25
10:43 UTC

314

There’s only one beer that really hits the spot when you’ve spent the morning replacing the hot water heater that had the audacity to die on a Wednesday night.

41 Comments
2024/10/24
21:51 UTC

19

I think I need a water cooled rock drill. What's the cheapest kind?

Friggin granite tryin to have me beat and stop me from making my own Colin Furze tunnel system...

My tools are crying in pain. They don't much appreciate the solid granite bedrock. I only get about a dozen holes per 4 flute carbide hammer drill bit before they fall apart. It's just costing too much at this point.

I was thinking if I only had a through hole cooled drill bit or something, they'd last for so much longer. But that ain't exactly something I can get off the local Harbor Freight equivalent. I could probably find something off the interwebs, except I'm not sure what to search for to find it. Surely there's gotta be something like it?

Sure, there are the professional hydraulic drill setups and whatnot, but I'm not spending $3000 for it... It's gotta be within shits and giggles budget. Any suggestions?

37 Comments
2024/10/22
06:45 UTC

531

If you need to manually tap an M30....

Girthy

41 Comments
2024/10/21
17:31 UTC

164

Got Grunt?

Old unitized tractors.... Where heaviness is next to godliness. Where the manufacturer understands that the owners of the tractor will abuse it, misuse it, and ultimately blame the mfg when it breaks..

Let he who has found Torque rejoice. For those blessed with Twist shall inherit the woes of man and the adoration of women.

3 Comments
2024/10/20
12:43 UTC

396

A 57 year old capacitor decided it had had enough. Quite the flash, bang and smoke! I was listening to an old reel-to-reel tape of me when I was 3 years old.

23 Comments
2024/10/12
22:15 UTC

1,675

My company's 2 meter diameter integrating sphere.

234 Comments
2024/10/11
05:46 UTC

225

Skookum camera rig for UFO hunters

I saw this in the movie V/H/S/Beyond and immediately thought of this sub

39 Comments
2024/10/08
15:13 UTC

36

I think the drillers may have chooched the skookum right out of this gear...

7 Comments
2024/10/04
22:13 UTC

29

Basics of Machining Videos for engineering grads

Looking for some good basics of machining videos for new engineering grads in a mechanical design role designing with no machine shop experience.

23 Comments
2024/10/02
05:16 UTC

53

Any rock breakers here?

I've decided I want to dig a tunnel. Or a cave. It's not too important. I just wanna do it because I'm an irrational man and it feels good. There's a rock face behind my house and I want it to be a tunnel instead.

It's a little... strenous, because... it's solid granite bedrock. The location is not accessible to machinery other than hand held tools.

I'm just looking for some general tips to progress faster. Right now, I'm using a 12 Joule hammer drill to drill 16 mm holes, into which I drive 20 mm round chisels with said hammer drill to crack the rock. Sometimes I switch it up making 20 mm holes and then shoving 30 mm chisels into he holes with my 60 Joule jack hammer. This has been the quickest way to progress the fastest so far, but it's still quite slow going. I can rarely break off more than a fist sized rock at a time. Plus, I'm going through drill bits at an alarming rate and it's kinda starting to get expensive lol. They rarely last longer than a couple of dozen holes before the carbide tip starts falling apart on me.

I've tried expanding rock cracking cement, but that was a huge letdown. It doesn't seem to generate more cracking force than a chisel does, and just takes waaaaay longer.

I also used a diy flame thrower which worked quite well. It's not your typical kind, more like a furnace burner/jet engine lol, 200 kW. In the end it's roughly equivalent in speed to drilling and chiseling though, but with the added hassle of being constantly showered by very very hot tiny rock fragments which isn't a great time overall.

I've considered using my big angle grinder and diamond disc to make deep cuts for cracking but it throws so much damn dust everywhere that I'm kinda reluctant...

I want to use feathers and wedges, but it's been absolutely hopeless to source any of a reasonable cost and size...

Are there other methods I should try? I'm hesitant about explosives because it's just a few feet from my house.

Even stupid ideas are welcome. I'm just having fun with it after all!

100 Comments
2024/09/28
08:52 UTC

16

Long shot - anybody got the PDFs of the 1955 PopMech DIY Encyclopedia, volumes 5 & 7?

A while back, I sifted through archive.org for scans of Popular Mechanics DIY Encylopedia. The most complete versions were the 1968 version - which I managed to cobble together into an all-in-one, 2GB monstrosity - and the 1955 version, which I frankensteined into a 0.7GB all-in-one-but-missing-vital-organs thing. Like the title says, couldn't track down volumes 5 & 7, back when I was first doing this a year ago. If anyone's got some high-quality scans lying around...

15 Comments
2024/09/28
01:52 UTC

33

Biggest gearbox and steam drive I've seen - retrofit sugar mill

3 Comments
2024/09/27
22:36 UTC

61

Machining a worn lift motor shaft IN SITU (!) over Chicago

18 Comments
2024/09/24
00:05 UTC

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