The Home Machinist!

Not familiar with your particular setup, but sounds like shims are your best bet. I have worked on lots of CNC machining centers that, after being crashed enough, require shimming. Even a $500,000+ 5-axis Micron. I'ts a long and laborious, sometimes frustrating endeavour but very satisfying in the e...

Very impressive! Nice mill too. You did all that by yourself? How long did it take to get it down the stairs?

And it is not the wisest thing a user can do to use them for sizes beyond nominal. Harolds right. Go for the nominal size whenever possible. Thats the actual size of the hole in the collet, when it was machined. Whenever you put a smaller shank in and collapse the hole you get a smaller contact are...

titanium lense holders..., but only for the finishing after grinding flat and parallel. Sorry, I was confused, we didn't grind titanium, I dont know if you can? They had to be lapped by hand to get somewhat flat before milling. We ground stator cores made from Hyperco, wich is a nickel based alloy,...

The reason I'd avoid the setup you suggested is that it won't be great for taking cuts (driving 5" from a half inch hole isn't my idea of a good setup) I agree, Harold, it is a bit of a sketchy setup, but it didnt sound like davec43 was ready to cut into those nice softjaws he worked so hard t...

I have never machined bismuth, or heard of it, but after doing a search, sounds pretty similar to lead. I have machined lead, but as a .250" thick plate on a mill. We turned it into a picture frame type thing. It got pretty thin and had to be well clamped and supported so it didn't pull up and ...

You should consider mounting your pulley on a stub mandrel for finishing. With proper tooling selection you can finish both grooves in the same setup, and get them pretty darn true to the bore. Rough out as much as you can in the chuck including the grooves by flipping in your hard jaws, try to get ...

"Make a pulley" and making a pulley are two different things as you know. A reamer approaching an area in the bore which has a vestige of a keyslot, will pull the reamer into that area. What Spro says is true, but if you HAVE to ream a hole with a key slot, (e.g. repairing damaged pulley)...

Inserts are sometimes designed for specific holders, even though they're designated by the same code. From my experience, diffferent manufacturers have subtle differences in their inserts, screws and and holders. As an example, the torx wrench that comes with a Sandvik CCMT (similar to DCMT) holder ...

I meant dont use your drill chuck for milling :? They're not designed for side loads or the vibrations. I use collets as much as possible. You want to keep your tool as short as possible, closer to the spindle bearings. You might also consider some parallels for your vise. Just thinking of the tools...

How bout a set of collets. Mill/drills have limited space between table and spindle. Solid endmill holders take up more of that valuable space. If you are planning on adding a rotary table you might need it. Remember you dont want to use your drill chuck for macmilling. I would get a cheap set of co...

The Multifix is said to be the best. I have never personally used one, and it looks a bit complicated, but the angles you can get are a bonus. I think thats the idea, right? You can index the tool in small increments to change your lead angle. My preference is a production style Quick Change where y...