The Home Machinist!

I can not believe it. they gave to whole shop away free to a company Just for comming and taking it away. They didnt even leave me any scrap aluminum pieces. cleaned the place out. All i got was some left over pieces of lexan and LDPE. And to a stranger they give it.

i would have bought it in a minute if i lived in florida, steve. Drill presses have their place. And even if the thing were worn out how much would it take to replace the bearings and maybe the chuck.

I would not have believed it. but three times can not just be a fluke. Thanks for the follow up. amazing!

the trouble with hole saws in a small drill press is that those drill presses generally do not go slow enough. That produces terrible chatter problems. (I added a reducing shaft and pulley to slow mine down. Also if you are drilling deep holes with a hole saw you should drill some half inch holes al...

Most chains should not be used for lifting. Special chains are made for that purpose and they are quite good for the job. Unfortunately many people do not know or care about what chain they are using. Kind of thinning out the herd.

I asked if there was going to be a public auction. The men i asked didnt know. If you are near to Chicago i will let you know if there is one. But if there is I got dibs on the plasma torch. Most of the tools would be hard for me to get in my basement. The brake will bend 20 foot pieces of 1/4 inch ...

The company has decided to close down and sell off their fab shop. No more welding stainless, or aluminum, no more shear, or break or iron worker. No more plasma or acetylene torches. It shouldnt bother me all that much because i am retiring soon, but it is like my best hunting dog got run over. I r...

I think that when the home machinists first found this web sites they were happy to share decades of knowledge and projects. I for one have never met, in person, another person that has a home machine shop. so i was very happy to find this web site. But after the site has been around a while it will...

I made safe side file and put the dovetails in. It went easy. I think i spent more time grinding the flat on the file than cutting the dove tail. Thanks for all the input. But no one has come up with a foolproof excuse to buy a tool grinder that my wife will understand. Maybe just the truth. i am a ...

Thanks J, i know that is how the old gun smiths used to do it. I didnt think about making a safe side on the file. Good idea. a regular triangular file has a squared off edge that ruins everything on the dovetail. I definately need one of those tool grinder set ups. Does someone here have a foolproo...

Rock slabs, I am always looking for slabs to knap arrow heads out of. The only trouble is that there are endless varieties to choose from, you never run out of a new and amazing piece to buy.

I want to make some specialized holders for my DTI. (Brown and Sharpe) What i need to do is cut those tiny dovetails for the indicator to fit in. Probabaly in aluminum. The problem is that i can not find a cutter that small. Seams that 3/8 is the smallest cutter. I tried to grind a bit in a piece of...