The Home Machinist!

This guy came to live with me when my daughter's dogs were making life miserable for him...no, they didn't hate him, they loved him...wouldn't leave him alone, wanted to play 24/7. I've never been a real cat person, but he basically adopted me, & when it came down to just him & me here, he w...

What is the part made of? You can heat the remains of the bolt red & let it cool, then soak it with loose juice...expansion & contraction is your friend. If the part is aluminum or potmetal, you have to be careful heating it. Thing to remember about seized parts is they didn't get that way o...

Just in case you had any doubt, your post offers *no useful advice* on the question I actually asked. Sigh. Edit: And this is puzzling, as your answers to many other questions are so often helpful... John Ummm.....I think you missed the useful advice. An ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cur...

Silicon heater hose is what you want if you want it to last a LONG time. But the price will set you back a notch or 2...
As for the innocent/foe thing, I have no information for you on that...

Aftermarket suppliers tend to consolidate several "close" variations of parts into one "will fit" piece, to simplify catalogs & inventory. Not saying it's right, just that it's done...I have a feeling the Japanese stuff is worse in that regard, it seems they make running chan...

I wouldn't call it a fetish, but I've bought a couple chucks on ebay just because I liked 'em...one tiny little 4-jaw that would be perfect for a 1/4 scale model of a lathe, if I ever got around to making one. :? The other is a weird little 2-jaw that does fit my Craftsman lathe, but I bought it mai...

One of my biggest fears in my small shop is not removing the chuck key from the lathe and accidentally starting it up and flinging it through the windshield of my "baby"..... What motivates me to take the damn key out of the chuck is NOT being caught by a bound key and being pulled into t...

When I was in high school machine shop, the old instructor, upon seeing a chuck key left in a chuck, would grab it & throw it down the aisle in the middle of the shop where it would end up under the welding bench...the "walk of shame" to retrieve your key would make a lasting impressio...

after the elk is on the ground is not a good time to find you have few friends and they are older than you. in Oregon with the drawings for tags you may forget why you wanted to hunt by the time you get a tag even. Oh, you kill an elk & you have friends you never even knew you had...trouble is,...

I always wanted to hunt deer or hogs. The thing that kept me from it was the thought of me, three miles from a car, with 200 pounds of meat to drag, followed by the horror of butchering, wrapping, and freezing it. Yep, the saying goes, when you kill it, the fun's over & the work starts...except...

I thought I'd fool 'em on the high-dollar stuff too, bought a Harbor Freight drill-driver on sale. it worked...once...literally about 30 seconds, & the gears sounded like a coffee grinder in there. So I took it back, got a garden hose & torch cart in trade. the hose lasted one summer, the ca...

For fine adjustment of facing cuts, you need a micrometer carriage stop. Or you could use one in the absence of a compound...I know, more accessories to buy...there's no end to them...