The Home Machinist!

Have a 7" Rhoades, wish I had room for a 12". Not for sale, love running it.

If you could get or make a small fly tool holder and put a high speed steel cutting tool bit in it and tapping it out for every pass it would work. You would need to learn some basic skills, and would have to be very careful in bolting everything down SOLID to keep from getting hurt or harming machi...

Place I worked had same problem. Had room to use the braided nylon pallet strapping in the cable's place.

I have seen one ground into a drill. I cannot duplicate it so cannot take pictures. Basically if you look at a drill bit held vertically, cutting edge at the top, with the side of the drill with the clearance for the edge facing you, the chip curler will go in under the cutting edge tapering into th...

Invest in a pin vise and put in regular drill chuck.

Marv Klotz's site has many calculators.

Harbor freight has thin diamond slitting saw blades fairly cheaply.Never tried cutting carbide yet. MSC had carbide blanks also. A Google search should come up with more results than you would care to research for "carbide blanks".

Hardened washers will not "dish" out as readily, clamping more solidly, and making precise movements easier because no hump to finangle around.

Since it seems from here they must be carbide then they could possibly be brazed onto tooling to make carbide tips. Might not be the best grade for the job,but they would work.

If all it takes is being grumpy, then I am there!

It's possibly too late to help you, but, FYI There is an ointment made called drawing salve. It's made to help draw stuff out. Takes several days that you might not have now. I think it must dry out skin or such, have not used for years but worked when I needed it to.

The Hobart welding site has a few posts on this subject. Just to let you know what some guys with a little experience can do!