The Home Machinist!

Not sure if it's alright to post here- sorry in advanced. Anyway, I have a Smith WH200 lifetime warranty heavy duty torch. This is the big boy of the Smith line. I'd like to trade it for something smaller. I'll gladly take an import torch if it comes with a few different welding tips. The reason for...

Oh, and as far as the tapping chart, I have an old stainless steel Craftsman one like I said.. But what if the diameter of the shaft isn't standard to the thread it has? For example, what if the shaft were to be 1/4", and the thread 16tpi. I doubt my gear shafts are something goofy like that, b...

Good stuff mklotz! Thank you very much. I'll copy all that info down and put it into practice. As for the other suggestions, I do have a drill/tapping chart.. I also wanted to learn the formula to be able to do the calculations without always needing a chart nearby. I also have a digital copy of Sou...

Me again. I've really gained some traction on getting my lathe together with all of the advice from the members here. So I would first like to say thanks! I have the odd ball 8" SB 408-Y. I have not yet disassembled the cross slide to see what I would be getting into to upgrade to large dials- ...

Actually, I will turn the dials myself. Like I said, I'm getting ahead of myself. I do that a lot. Anyway, I just realized I was thinking of buying dials because I don't have a # punch set. Well, for the price of the dials, maybe even cheaper, I could buy a punch set, make the dials myself, and the ...

Warning- A few, if not all of you may raise an eyebrow at this- My 8" SB 408 model has very small 3/4" dials. They are worn and very hard to read. I need large dials. I want to make this as painless for ME as possible. In my particular situation, I'm new to the lathe, but I consider myself...

Patio, I immediately realized that I'd rather have a lathe with QC gear box- no doubt. I've only had this lathe a couple weeks and it really bothers me I didn't know any better when I bought it. Serves me right for not properly researching first. For the time being though, I've come to terms with my...

I sure hope the atlas thread dial works.. I already bought it. I found one with 16teeth.. And found a forum post of a guy who did the same thing I'm thinking of, he only had to add a bushing. I found a thread dial with straight teeth, so I don't have to worry about lead screw direction. I'll file th...

I'm the guy who has posted a few times now trying to figure out what I'm going to do about getting change gears for my 408-Y, 8" SB. With the wisdom from members on this site I was able to buy an almost complete set of gears I need which are for a 9" SB, the only difference between my mach...

Excuse me, by "collet holder" I meant Collet Chuck.

I'm going to eventually buy one of the cheap HF or Grizzly mini mills. They use an R8 collet. So... I want to make a draw bar for my 8" South Bend, and I want to be able to use the same R8 collet set. I'm going to weld a bolt on the end of the draw bar that's 7/16 or 9/16 by 20tpi, don't rememb...

Thank you! I emailed him. I appreciate the help. I hope I can salvage this situation.