The Home Machinist!

Does one NEED a 3D printer? I respectfully submit, that if you are looking in on this forum, then the answer is yes... really. I have been working my way into owning a Lathe and Mill for years. Space and budget kept me away. 3 years ago I 'discovered' reprap 3D printers, and what they could make. an...

Yea.. I stoned... and stoned... and managed to flatten the drilled holes, and put some shine around the outer edges... After which I gave it up as a bad job. I talked with the machinists at work and they offered to straighten it out on their larger milling machine.. (their surface grinder gave way t...

A bit more news. I took the Compound unit in and they exchanged it with the showroom one.. no pits... big win. And they repaired the Tail-Stock nut by drilling and tapping it for a larger set-screw.. I took it apart when I got home and inserted 4mm of steel rod in the bottom of the hole so that the ...

I'm going to try for warantee. I hand-pushed the live center into the taper, never even pressed it against a workpiece and got it to pull the nut again. http://araspitfire.smugmug.com/Other/Machining/i-cWLtkPZ/0/M/CA_02171421350291-M.jpg I'll take the part in on Thursday, and the compound slide and ...

Had a good start to the day today. I decided to play with my insert tools and attempt to make a Cylinder Square out of a bit of SS hand-rail pipe that I had laying around. The insert parting tool did it's job, the turning and facing tools performed great.. lots of spirally chips. I used my DRO to tu...

I am limited, but by the DRO cables.. not the pickups. I think I'll loosen them up a bit (just an inch or so) and see how it goes. I have been moving slowly, but got first chips yesterday. (Using a threading tool, as that was the only thing I had ready that had enough angle to get aluminum to cut). ...

As I've seen so little about this machine on the internet, I thought I'd create a thread of my commissioning journey here. I just bought this lathe here in The Netherlands. http://araspitfire.smugmug.com/Other/Machining/i-Fp2zFMJ/0/M/CA_02131419215753-M.jpg HERE is the website of the lathe. The lath...

I've just bought a Chinese 3in1. The brand is HBM, but the manufacturer is likely Weiss (another Dutch company), made in Nanging. The British sell it as Warco. Just getting the shipping grease cleaned off of it. Not cut any metal yet. As I've seen so little about these lathes on the internet, I will...