The Home Machinist!

I would not use concrete for your support. A good foundation for your machine would be built up with steel members and use "Chock fast orange" www.itw-philadelphia.equip4ship.com. for leveling. That will give you a foundation that will never fail.

Harold; I have never heard of PFG stones before. Have you ever used them? Their description makes sense for maintaining flat surfaces. At $200 a pair, what do you think?

I would go with a used Rohm or Albrecht. If they have excessive wear, they can be rebuilt with new part: Chinese if runout is not a problem.

I tried all the suggestions, but nothing worked. Checked online and the read head cost more than the whole caliper to replace. The caliper is about 5 years old and never dropped or abused.

My Mitutoyo 6" digital caliper overnight started displaying a 5-dash blinking pattern. I thought it was telling me to change the battery, so that is what I
did. It still blinks the 5-dash pattern, so it was not the battery. Any ideas out there as to how to fix the tool?

I have a cheap Chinese chuck on my drill press. On my lathe and mill, I use a German Rohm chuck. I have other Jacobs chucks that find use in various applications. Generally, I stay away from Chinese junk. I'm sure they can make quality stuff, but I don't know how to identify them. Chinese factories ...

I have the DROPRO on my milling machine and am very pleased with it. Best money spent. Just dial in the number you want, No keeping track of revolutions on a dial. i do appreciate the skill developed in using dials, but it is not a skill I am able to develop. Since I got a DRO, my precision machinin...

How did machinists deal with temperature when working on press fits. Can you say "coolant"? The home shop rarely emulates industry, so it might be hard for the home taught machinists to understand how things may be done. Exterior round precision fits are (were) often ground, where holding...

How did machinists deal with temperature when working on press fits. Did they wait for the temperature to drop before the final fit was made? During wartime machining, time was at a premium. How much could a machinist wait for temperature to normalize before continuing? I would assume he would be wo...

I have an 11" Sheldon lathe that saw duty onboard a liberty ship. As close as I can tell, it was a late 40's lathe and by its condition, didn't see much use. When I got it, sone of the ship's allowance components showed little or no signs of wear. I bought it in San Francisco for $650 from a ma...

When turning or milling, heat is generated in the work piece. How much does temperature affect dimensions? I know it makes a difference when machining to very tight tolerances (gauge block size changes by hand temperature), but for everyday machining when tolerances are ±.001", is temperature a...

That said, and like the others suggested, your testing should be done with shim stock, a feeler gauge, or some other solid medium of a known thickness. Unless, of course, Mr Ron's goal in the first place is to measure the thickness of the paper! At this point we don't yet really know what he's tryi...