The Home Machinist!

My aircraft mechanic friend is zealous about air and spinning a bearing. He claims that it doesn’t take much movement with a dry bearing to cause damage. After cleaning in solvent they will blow the bearing out but restrict any moment in the bearing. He said that is standard practice in the aircraft...

OK, I have to mount a 1/2" square shaft 6" long in the lathe between centers. 1) Assuming one starts with a 4 jaw chuck how does one center a square piece in the 4 jaw chuck especially one that is only 1/2"? 2) Most of the shaft is to be turned down to 1/4" round except for one end which will be lef...

SUCCESS!! Thank you to everyone but especially Harold. I used Harold's instructions and everything turned out just perfect. I am now a big believer in softjaws. Since I have no machining experience or anywhere locally to gain experience, this board has become my apprenticeship. It's awesome to have ...

Ok, I'm sure this is going to be a stupid question but I'm drawing a blank, so here goes. A job requiring softjaws is about to commence. I have softjaws and a spider but how does one measure the diameter of the softjaw cut. All of my micrometers measure at 180 degrees whether they be calipers or mic...

It seems I have a talent for picking up those little tiny shards of metal that penetrate the skin and rest directly upon a pain receptor in the skin. I'm sure you all have experienced the zing you get from a sliver of metal so small as to be almost invisible. So far, a a tiny tweezers from a Swiss A...

I have lately been having really good results on the faux Bridgeport using carbide end mills and CRC TrueTap Aqua in a spray bottle. It's a bit awkward because I'm spraying with one hand and turning the crossfeed with the other. It's time to investigate better options. 1) Is there a better system th...

I had an older fella give me some,advice many years ago. He said, “It doesn’t matter what what the value is. It only matters what somebody is willing to pay for it.” Ebay is over run with sellers who do not seem to understand this simple fact.

Thanks fellas. The counterbore pilot tip was measured at .1460” so a #26 drill (.1470”) was used for the clearance portion of the hole. A drop of oil was used and the operation went smoothly. Thanks Harold for the tip on modified drill bits. That will be used when a counterbore shoulder is needed an...

I'm about to use a counterbore for the first time. The material is 6061-T6 AL and the counterbore is for a #6 socket head cap screw in 6-32. The hole is already drilled to a #36 for eventual tapping but now I have to counterbore down into the piece. The piece will eventually be slotted to create a c...

On the Little Machine Shop page it lists under the “turning” section a range of ft/min for most materials. For instance under “Plain Carbon Steels” the range is from 125 - 215 ft/min for HSS. How does one know what value to use inside the range for a particular material? 1018 vs.1025? What about the...

On November 2, Hammermill (Ken Long) passed. He was a huge community volunteer helping with many different organizations. His contributions to The Pendleton Round-Up and The Happy Canyon Indian Pageant and Wild West Show are not only large but difficult to replace. I particularly will miss his abili...

“True Value” has it in our small town.