The Home Machinist!

That would be a nice puller if you had all the parts.

Thanks Harold. You made it clear what my problem is; technique. The mill I'm using is a 1983 Taiwanese "Select" mill. It's a knee type and looks quite rigid although I know it's a light duty machine. There appears to be about .008" backlash in the screws, which I take into account whe...

Armed with that thought, I choose 29°, and set to the mark. Are you saying go by the 29° mark on the compound? I was thinking I had to use a protractor to set the compound relative to some other part of the lathe, the chuck or faceplate for example. Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. The reason i...

When making multiple passes with an end mill, I go from R-L on the X-axis, advance an amount on the Z-axis and reverse X-axis feed from L-R. I'm milling conventional in one direction and climb milling in the return direction. What am I doing wrong? If I were cutting a slot, would going back and fort...

Harold wrote:Armed with that thought, I choose 29°, and set to the mark.

Are you saying go by the 29° mark on the compound? I was thinking I had to use a protractor to set the compound relative to some other part of the lathe, the chuck or faceplate for example.

Plunge cutting threads tends to be troublesome on slow spindle machines. The problem is chip flow, as the chip is generated from both flanks of the thread, flowing towards the center of the cutting tool. That creates excessive tip pressure, with the potential for failure of the cutting tool. For th...

Maybe Glenn or Harold can shed some light on the use of vee blocks. I have a set of Starrett blocks (expensive) and maybe used them 2 or 3 times. I really haven't found a good way of using them, but they must be good for something.

I second the motion. Happy New Year to all and thank you for all the knowledge you have bestowed on me.

True; the clamp always gets in the way. When used in pairs, they seem to work alright on longer stock. You could also cut the screw shorter. It looks to be too long anyway.

looking to find machinable cast iron tubing 4or 4.5 " id and 8" od, no smaller than 7.5 though and no bigger than 5" on the id. anyone know where to purchase something like that or do i have to get bar stock? thanks josh It wouldn't be too expensive to make a pattern from wood and ha...

You could set the block up on the compound with the center in line with the lathe spindle. Place the drill in the headstock chuck and use the saddle to feed the block into the drill bit. You can also do it on a vertical mill by clamping the stock to an angle plate and raising the table (knee style m...

On a drawing, it would be called out as "c'bore xxx dia x xxx dp for bearing (or pc #).