The Home Machinist!

John,

Great job and I'll bet it was fun too! Ain't it grand having all the resources to turn a idea into a functional hunk of steel!

Stuart

Good looking job! Do you have a specific task in mind for that setup...the only way to hold the dial indicator would be by the back lug which seems to me to severely limit how one could use this device.

Stuart

I don't know how to fix it but I would run it as is. I have a dead half center like yours and have used it maybe once in 30 years. They work well when threading close to the end of a small diameter shaft where tool or tool holder interference would be an issue but a live center with a long snout wor...

The equivalent to a roughing cut on a surface grinder might be .001 of an inch so my guess is one would never notice any perceived HP loss. Hogging aluminum on a mill and grinding material on a surface grinder are like comparing apples to kumquats IMHO.

Stuart

Conrad, My two cents...frequency drives are nice, I have three of them powering various peices of machinery. The options they allow you are almost endless but to be honest, other than the simple generation of 3 phase for your grinder I would look elsewhere. I used a static converter for many years t...

If you're the crafty type you could take a old piston, sans rings, flip it upside down and after affixing a small tool bit of the appropriate configuration, use the wrist pin hole to turn it in the bore..voila, instant chamfer tool.

Stuart

My experience has been that de-burring tools like those mentioned don't work worth a hoot on cast iron. I think you would be much better off with a die grinder and a burr..and a little patience. I think flipping the block is way overkill too. Some rags in the bore with some grease or something stick...

Although this thread seems to be a dead horse now I have been thinking about my post. I had a 50 ton Edwards years ago and just realized that it wasn't actuated with the electric pedal as they now seem to have. Mine was a pedal that was connected mechanically to a hydraulic valve that actuated the c...

Bones93,

Welcome to the forum. I would think a stop under the foot pedal would only affect the speed the cylinder would operate at and have no effect on the length of stroke. Length of stroke control would be a whole 'nuther' matter.

Stuart

Yeh and what, more magnesium than aluminum. I ran my bus everyway to Sunday, high to low in valleys and mountains. The engine was so far removed, I layed on that thing and it kept going. Nobody will take that away from me. I'm not sure what to say about this post...maybe English is a second languag...

It truly does machine wonderfully but for most of my applications it's too wimpy. It wears poorly, doesn't have a whole bunch of strength and of course..rusts quite quickly! I wonder why that is.

Stuart

I seem to remember a rather crude way to figure this out...maybe smack both pieces together, the softer of the two will mark, that being the 12L14. hit each piece with the edge of a file or something quite hard. The softer material will indent more than the harder one.

Stuart