Now Just a Follower;

[Jim K 324]

      Hi ! to all my friends on this forum , I think it is time I confess as to
            why I am now just a follower on the forum , I had a very nice
            shop with all the bells and whistles and did three small engines
            with all the good thoughts of advancing to something bigger.
            Then macular degeneration set in and I went from 20/20  in
            just a few months to  20/190 eyesight, lost the left eye completely and
            now almost the right one  couldn't see to do anything
           on the lathes, sold all the gear closed the shop , so now I am a very
           interested follower of the great threads. So I am still here just a little
           quite.

           Regards to All !!

                   Jim

[b.lindsey]

Jim, I am so sorry to hear of this and that it has happened so quickly too. I do hope you will continue to monitor the forum and feel free to comment whenever you wish. I wish you all the best in dealing with such a difficult situation.

Bill

[90LX_Notch]

I am very sorry to hear that Jim.  I wish you all the best.

-Bob

[Jo]

 

Jim, could I offer you an alternative? Yes ok so you won't be making swarf but you could be making model engines: virtually in your computer  .

Have you ever tried the parametric drawing software? I have the Alibre/Cubify software. It lets me draw up my engine pieces in the computer: cutting away unwanted bits just like machining, I can then assemble them and when I turn bits the rest move in response. The finished parts/engines can be made into a 3D drawing and viewed from all sides.

Ok so it is not the same as playing in a workshop as you will never have any castings to fondle or have to wait for material to turn up so you can continue your build but you will never break another tap in a hole when you make your model engines  .

Jo

[ths]

Hi Jim, I don't know that we've spoken before, but I feel very strongly for you. I hope other things will fill the space, and that the joy of creativity will continue in ways hitherto unknown. My very best wishes, Hugh.

[steamer]

Yes!   Very sorry to hear that Jim!....Please do follow along...

Dave

[GailinNM]

Jim,
Maybe we need to start a club. But just hope we are not starting a trend in model engineering.
I was diagnosed with AMD about eight years ago. Wet flavor in the left eye and dry in the right. If the light is right I can still count fingers at 18 inches using my left eye and about 6 feet using my right eye. Mostly a case of having lots of light and a good contrasting background. As you know treatment options are very limited for AMD. In my case I have gained a whole lot more respect for the old children's promise rhyme that ends with ".... and stick a needle in my eye".  After over 50 injections in the eye I have really developed a dislike for visiting the eye surgeon. Especially when you know there is no hope of it getting better and the injections just slow down the progress of the disease.

I am still machining some but it is very slow going. It takes a week to make a part that used to only take an hour or two. It gets hard to to use the machine when you have to hold a flashlight in one hand, a magnifier in the other so you can read the dial and then turn the crank with your spare hand.

For computer work I have a large very bright LED backlit computer screen and a program called virtual magnifying glass. It is free and works on many computer operating systems. it can be downloaded at:
http://magnifier.sourceforge.net/
It allows me to enlarge a portion of the screen so I can see it better and also to flip the colors around for better contrast. I assume that you, like me, have lost most to your color vision also so getting adequate contrast on a computer screen is difficult. When you get the brightness turned up enough to see it the contrast seems to fade away.

Without a light shining on the keyboard I have a hard time typing. A stroke four years ago took away a lot of the feeling in my hands and while it is coming back my touch typing is terrible. I solve this problem by purchasing a voice recognition program and now do most of my typing by dictation. I tried several programs and one that work better for me is Dragon Naturally Speaking. It still makes a lot of mistakes but you can get it to read it back to you and catch most of them.

To help the creative urge I purchased a 3-D printer almost a year ago. I am not very good at 3-D modeling, but I have managed to create a couple of simple engines that I can at least turn over  by hand. Is not the same as machining an engine and watching it come to life under its own power but it does help with feeling that you are not completely useless.

Best wishes to you as you learn to cope with AMD.
Gail in NM

[PStechPaul]

I am also sorry to hear of your vision loss. My good friend's brother-in-law not long ago lost most of his vision due to ischemic optic neuropathy (strokes in the eye) which could have been treated if he had acted quickly.
 
One possibility may be to contact local schools (or retirement communities, etc) to find people who are interested in machining, and perhaps could act as "your eyes" by performing some of the machining operations under your guidance. I hope you will be able to continue at least some contact with the model engineering community and metalworkers, and share your knowledge and experience.

[Stuart]

Well guys with your problems I consider myself lucky waist down NBG so it's a wheel chair , low benches and machines because I have to sit down to work , yes it's slow and tiring but at least it keeps my last remaining brain cell functioning , it's one of the reasons I got a cnc mill , I can draw up the bits in the hose in comfort and let the machine get tired😀

I did read a long time ago about a blind machines who did some good work on a lathe but I do not know where I read it

Stuart

[BillTodd]

Reallysorry to hear of your troubles , it must be quite frightening at times :-(

May i offer some practical advice...

Now is the time to sort out any pc or tablet based reading devices or software (often referred to as text to speech).

There's a lot of good stuff out there that can both read and write using vocal commands , mostly internet based (i.ee. they send your voice to a server that converts it to text) but some run on the tablet.

It even be worth investigating the Amazon echo which is purely voice controlled (again requires Internet) and can , i believe, be commanded to read  books and online text.