The Home Machinist!

You got a steal and a couple of very nice machines to learn on. I spent a lot of hours on that model of Clausing and it is a nice lathe to use. The Bridgeport is also one of the most versatile mills around and there is a ton of tooling available for it. Hopefully you got tooling with the machines be...

I have the Lufkin version and it works great. That type is a lot more durable than the ones with a gear train.

Tom

The 6" diameter is going to be pretty large to turn on a mandrel. You would need to take really light cuts to keep it from spinning. A better bet would be to mount the blank to a faceplate or hold it in the chuck to do the work. Make sure you turn the diameter and the bore in one set-up to main...

This is a good thread, I'm surprised there aren't more responses. My walls are pretty much covered with stuff. The Cleveland decimal equivalent chart is over my lathe and is probably the only thing that I actually use, the Wright brothers mural is my inspiration, the Cleveland Air Race memorabilia i...

The whole point of temper is pretty much academic if there is adequate wall thickness on the barrel. The original barrels were cast and certainly not heat treated, but they had a heck of a lot of mass. Metallurgy was a pretty young science back then so they probably just over engineered the heck out...

The downside of a fabricated brass barrel is attaching the trunnions. You don't want to heat it excessively or you will anneal the brass to its softest state which is not desirable. While I would have no concern silver soldering trunnions to a steel barrel, I would not do so with a brass one. Georg...

That's on about 1/2 ounce of powder (1/3 of a Dixie cup) and that's the point where where the muzzle blast just starts to crack. I've always wondered about the velocity of the ball, I imagine it's somewhere around 1000 fps. The recoil isn't as bad as it looks in the video. It generally rolls back ab...

Tom, A 1.2" diameter brass barrel will be more than adequate for a .36 caliber bore. My cannon is a 1/5 scale Napoleon has a .94" bore, is 2.25" diameter at the breech and I've been shooting it regularly for the last thirty years. How are you planning to do the trunnions? I spot faced...

I use a lot of HSS tooling so I get quite a bit of practice hand grinding and grinding a small radius is one of the toughest skills to master. It takes a very light touch and the use a fine wheel (100 grit) so you have more time to form the radius. Start by resting one edge of the tool against the w...

An OUTSTANDING collection of lathes! Mine is a Hardinge HLV-H that I acquired in 1984. With the exception of a few cosmetic issues from spending a year in storage, it is in pretty much as new condition. It has a taper attachment, an Aloris tool post, a dial indicator carriage stop, a full set of 5C ...

Sam, A slitting saw would be the best option, but if the price is prohibitive, a screw slotting saw would be your next best bet. Get the smallest diameter cutter you can get away with (don't forget to allow for whatever arbor you use), use plenty of cutting oil, a slow feed rate and keep the chips c...

If you are just trying to remove the primers, you can make a punch to fit in the neck of the cartridge with an offset pin to drive the primer out. If you are intending to replace the berdan primer with a boxer primer, the hole will need to be reduced in size, re-sized and drilled. The following is a...