The Home Machinist!

After a two year hiatus, I finally finished my 2X scale Moryia fan. It made its first two showings this past weekend and drew a great deal of interest. It can be seen on my Web site. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see it in its finished state. Internet Explorer users will have to press the...

I cannot give you an expert answer, but I can relate some of my experiences/preferences. Cold-rolled is closer to dimension. That is, I wouldn't be afraid to put a piece of cold-rolled in one of my collets without screwing up the collet. However, I always measure, first, just to make sure. Cold-roll...

I use slag sold under another name (IIRC, it is Black Diamond) for all my abrasive blasting. It works fine and I have no complaints. At the place where I worked before retiring, it was the only thing they ever used.

[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif"%20alt="[/img]Orrin

That could very well be it. My mind is so foggy that I can't even remember if it were tubing or solid stock. Your mention of solid stock jogged my memory a bit. I think the fellow used the material for ways on a home-built cam-shaft and and crankshaft grinder. It was a beautiful piece of work, BTW. ...

I'm racking my brain trying to remember the name of a material that was described to me by a fellow at PRIME last autumn. I'd be grateful if someone might be able to tell me the correct terminology, and, where I might obtain it. Let's start out with DOM (drawn over mandrel) tubing. This material is ...

I will copy a paragraph out of Timken's Bearing Maintenance Manual for General Industrial and Precision Equipment . From page 9: "Precision bearings also have unique requirements for specific bearing accuracy of rotation, whihc is more commonly called "bearing runout." Timken produces...

I have two Sheldons, one of which is a ten-inch. The bearing cover plates on mine have the same grooves you speak of. They do not have seals. IIRC, there is a spot milled out that allows oil that's slung into the groove to drain back out. This milled drain should be positioned at the bottom side whe...

You've already gotten good tips from others; but, there's one thing I'd like to add. I find that the use of a co-axial indicator is the easiest and quickest way to align my lathe tailstocks with the headstock spindle. I no longer hesitate to offset the tailstock for turning tapers because I no longe...

Like Harold said, check to see if the jeweled finger has jumped out of the spiral cam. The pointer (and cam) needs one turn of preload. Every one of the used 711s that I've gotten had either been tinkered with or dropped and didn't have the required preload. Check to see if the pivot screw is too ti...

After I made my post it occurred to me I should have done a better job of explaining the alignment. After obtaining the horizontal alignment, adjust the holder height to get the same reading in all three posistions: 1) horizontal right; 2) horizontal left; vertical, with the indicator facing up. As ...

I use a Blake co-axial indicator to align my tailstock with the headstock. It could also be used to align the toolpost-mounted Morse taper tool holder. I mount the indicator in the three-jaw chuck and set the stylus to ride on the inside surface of the tailstock ram. It readily shows horizontal as w...

The manual for my VFD warns against putting a switch between it and the motor.

I've wired the former motor controls (FWD, REV, STOP) to control the VFD. I left the motor overload intact, but it opens the power supply to the VFD. I never get an overload warning. My VFD is a TECO-Westinghouse.