The Home Machinist!

I have sometimes found that it must rotate the SAME direction for best finish....... no sense being dogmatic about it, whatever works.

Ground ways work fine with oil....... The fact that one surface is not smooth may be due to a fit so bad that the "actual" bearing is on a different surface than you (or the designer) expect.... Are you sure it isn't actually contacting on the dovetail TOPS? if you have cranked that slide ...

In the last several days, I have gotten through to it ONCE. Every other BBS etc on the web which I go to is working just fine, so it must be that one with the issue. There was a thread there, accessed only after LONG delays, mentioning problems that were blamed on Firefox, which I use.... But I foun...

Always the odd man out, I love spiral flute taps. They're great for aluminum and plastics. I wouldn't consider using one in any other material, and probably not under power. And not without the right lubrication for the aluminum. For anything else, form taps rule, but if I can't use a form tap, a s...

Well, I have started to "aim me" instead of trying to be the human x-y positioner..... Sure helped on the edge welding.... to have the unwelded stuff nearer to me than the arc, so it lit up where I was going, and not where I had been. Now my problem is to keep the arc short while trying to...

I have made arbors of all sorts, AND I keep one of those "junky" spring-loaded multi-steps around too. It works fine, actually, other than getting really really tight one time recently.... I got it loose, stoned off the spot where the key slot gouged, and have used it since, good to go. As...

OK.... I'm ASKING, not complaining here....... just to get that out of the way. When I see that sort of design, with multiple "tip points" secured only by small clamp screws at the pivot points, it tends to make me wonder how stable the part is, AND how easy it is to adjust..... Just looki...

So who has just ONE? I have a "good" 5/16" or so chuck, and a "not quite as good" 1/2" chuck for the T/S. The "good" one when I want it right, the other for all the rest of the time. Both are key type....I see no reason at all to be twisting on a chuck which i...

One of my hobbies is silhouette shooting. I do it with a precision air pistol shooting off-hand (one handed). ................All I do is close my eyes, relax, then raise the pistol aimed down-range at the approximate height the target is, then open my eyes to confirm proper alignment or not. If I'...

Harold_V wrote: I've experienced less than acceptable performance from spiral flute taps.

Harold

If that translates to several interlocked broken pieces in the hole, that do NOT wanna come out, when you absolutely cannot just "scrap that one", It sounds like what has happened to me.

For me, compared to ANY other type of tap, bar none.

OTOH the spiral POINT taps absolutely rule. There is, IMO, no reason to buy ANY other type than a spiral point (aka "gun tap") for general use.

The more you do, the more you know. Relax, you are nervous about the learning curve, and wanting to do it right. Unless you are the majical one, It aint gonna happen. You will have to get beyond your obvious failures , and come back tommorow and do it again, only bettter. I understand..... It does ...