MOPED ARMY

But how often do we moped artists have to drill a half-inch hole in a heavy steel plate? Every machine tool has limitations, and it's wise to recognize these and work within them. My Harbor Freight machine does fine drilling holes in, say, angle iron, but mostly it winds up drilling less noble materials like thin-wall electrical conduit, which is very handy for braces of various sorts. The big machines are truly magnificent, but are largely unnecessary for home shop use. You'll find Asian machinery in most machine shops these days, and to an extent I regret that, but American craftsmanship essentially dropped dead in the 1960's and our machine tools reflected it. The Asians learned from our mistakes.