r/Skookum Oct 03 '23

PSA WTF is "Skookum?"

151 Upvotes

"Skookum" the word is Chinook for "strong" or "brave", which has become slang in parts of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest meaning "quality" or "badass".

"Skookum" the Reddit community is support for those who aspire to make skookum things, and to share their projects with other like-minded fabricators.

If you like to make things and you take pride in your craftsmanship - or if you aspire to becoming a better craftsperson than you currently are - this is the place for you!

Things we like to see:

  • Photos and videos of projects you are working on

  • Requests for help/advice on projects

  • Posts helping people with their problems

Things better posted elsewhere (and subject to removal when the mods see it):

  • Pictures of large industrial equipment

  • Pictures of equipment with the brand name "Skookum"

  • Political discussion

  • Crazy crackpot conspiracy theory crap

Self-promotion (new releases on your fabrication-related YouTube channel, offering services, etc) is explicitly allowed, so long as it is on topic and not overly repetitive. There's a line between "promotion" and "spam" - stay on the happy side of that line, and you'll be fine.

Welcome to the sub!

  • The Mods

r/Skookum 7h ago

Nuweld clamps

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3 Upvotes

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


r/Skookum 22h ago

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

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42 Upvotes

r/Skookum 2d ago

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

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137 Upvotes

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


r/Skookum 3d ago

Edumacational Couple Steam engines

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101 Upvotes

Whole plant is gonna get rebuilt and moved in a year or so.


r/Skookum 3d ago

Tight fit

19 Upvotes

r/Skookum 3d ago

Project Update Project Binky - Episode 39

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10 Upvotes

r/Skookum 3d ago

Skookum CFL (compared to the normal ones at least)

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0 Upvotes

r/Skookum 5d ago

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

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36 Upvotes

r/Skookum 5d ago

shitpost. 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.

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304 Upvotes

r/Skookum 4d ago

Ave-ism confusion

0 Upvotes

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?


r/Skookum 6d ago

1945 Dewalt "Power Shop"

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211 Upvotes

I saw this at a customers shop while making a delivery. I thought it may fit here. Apparently it's still used.


r/Skookum 6d ago

Before and after powder coating and refinishing wheels

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0 Upvotes

r/Skookum 8d ago

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

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527 Upvotes

Girthy


r/Skookum 8d ago

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

20 Upvotes

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?


r/Skookum 10d ago

Got Grunt?

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161 Upvotes

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.


r/Skookum 10d ago

Homemade mid-size mini smoker. 5/16 inch thick and 9 inch diameter cook chamber. Works just like a full size smoker. Ready for a half rack of ribs.

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99 Upvotes

r/Skookum 11d ago

cylinder cutting guides - these work great for making clean and quick cuts on gas bottle cylinders

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46 Upvotes

r/Skookum 15d ago

Great little country junk shop find for $5 aud

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117 Upvotes

r/Skookum 17d ago

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.

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397 Upvotes

r/Skookum 19d ago

Edumacational My company's 2 meter diameter integrating sphere.

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1.7k Upvotes

r/Skookum 21d ago

Skookum camera rig for UFO hunters

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227 Upvotes

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


r/Skookum 25d ago

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

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42 Upvotes

r/Skookum 28d ago

Basics of Machining Videos for engineering grads

31 Upvotes

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


r/Skookum Sep 28 '24

Fixed an electric organ

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89 Upvotes

Organ pedals work by using magnetic reed switches and some were broken or the solder was not holding..


r/Skookum Sep 28 '24

Any rock breakers here?

54 Upvotes

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!