The Home Machinist!

I have this little chart hanging in my shop for BA conversions:

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/xo18thfa/BA.txt

I am looking at an old article in Live Steam and the author says the minimum inner radius of a 90 degree bend should be the thickness of the material. That's the inner radius, so 1/4" for your stock. Then the radius to the center of the stock would be 3/8". The author is using bending jaws...

Beautiful work Jack. A real lesson on fabrication. Thanks for sharing this.

Bob

It's either .185 or .190, but would have to see the whole vernier to tell. Just looking at the barrel, the tick is half, maybe more between .175 and .200. The vernier is on 5 so that would mean some kind of even increment. As my eyes get older and weaker I need to trade in all this vernier stuff for...

The holes for the tommy bar are easily deformed with repeated use. The spindle is NOT hardened. The tommy bar place a lot of torque onto the short 3/8" nib. I finally made a hook wrench/spanner. Do not know the proper name. Is a 3/4 section of a hole with a tooth at one end of the arc segment ...

One bench is Formica I laminated myself with contact cement. At first I worried the edges would peel, by it has hung in there well. The other benches are regular laminate kitchen counter top I got from a shop going out of business. They wear pretty well, but stain easily. I accidentally set a freshl...

I am reading this thread with great interest because there looks like a bad trend developing. I do not know all the facts, but I have heard of various troubles at LALS and Riverside. And recently a 15" gauge line in Oregon got shut down. Groups that organize as non-profits, or some other comple...

I have a very dumb question. In 3.5" gauge raised track, do you have switches in yards and such? If so, how do you negotiate with legs hanging off the sides?

I have never seen 3.5" gauge, just 7.5" on the ground.

3.5' gauge looks like a lot of fun. I wish we had that around here. An LBSC "Tich" would be too cool.

Thanks. I never had a problem with my Atlas 6". Just did not know if the larger size would be a problem. Sounds like I am OK.

Bob

I just got a Grizzly 9 x 20 lathe. It has a 39mm x 4mm threaded spindle nose. I worry that the tools that came with the lathe will not be adequate to get the chucks off the spindle, if they work themselves on too tight.

How do you guys remove chuck from this lathe??

Thanks ahead of time, Bob

I have a small grizzly mill. The lead screws are not english or metric thread. They are something odd. I've learned to deal with it. Mine does not mill very well. It is loose, by the time you tighten up the gibs, it's locked down. The column is not rigid enough. It drills great, however. The G0519 i...