The Home Machinist!

Of all the lathes, the Sheldon 11 stands head and shoulders above all of them. The only thing a South Bend heavy 10 has on it is a the availability of a fine feed gearbox, and the Clausing 4900 has a higher spindle speed, but other than that, the Sheldon is tops in pretty much everything. While the...

Many of my grinders are mounted to a massively heavy industrial cart I have defined as my "grinding cart". I have a 7" Baldor and Baldor Carbide grinder each mounted to the heaviest of the HF grinder bases (the one with the thick/heavy cast base). And finally, an 8" Baldor that's used outside for he...

It's been decades, but when sharpening chains with files I don't ever remember the rakers being touched. My experience with chainsaws growing up was mainly with my grandfather cutting firewood or clearing land. Perhaps he or my grandmother dealt with that when I wasn't around, but considering the ti...

I think our wives may be related, closely...

Around here (which is much more scarce than the rust belt), there are always nice vises listed on CL/FB/OU/etc for less than $400. Of course you have to pay attention and not buy junk, but vises aren't exactly hard to check out. I was just last week sorely tempted buy a 4" Athol (~80 lbs claimed) fo...

Nice. And at $250, I only wish I could have beat you there... Congrats.

Regarding wheels, I'm no expert by any means, but yes, there is a bit to know/learn there, certainly far beyond what I do know to tell.

I am inclined to think it doesn't matter which way one pushes a chainsaw file, since the metal can't tell. I do plan to observe the height of my rakers from now on. On all other points, agreed. But if this was directed at my response, I don't think you understood. As it turns out, unless you work u...

Me either. But as I said, the way we all sharpened our chains didn't require we concern ourselves with the rakers. If you had a quality chain, which in spite of being "dirt poor" we generally did (avoiding false economy), so the well maintained chains lasted quite a long time and always cut fast and...

I grew up in NW AL, where cutting wood with chainsaws was just part of life for many of us. Firewood (for use or sale), clearing to build etc, clearing from storms, not to mention a few working in the logging industry from time to time, and so on. Everyone I knew (family, friends, and even a few sem...

Oh, and those fore/aft receivers on my trucks also mount a HS9500 winch with custom built cradle (protection for winch, and handles to carry) front or rear. Trucks very often get winches mounted on the front, which is fine for rock crawlers that use them to get over otherwise impossible barriers alo...

Most of my receivers are mounted vertically, and all tool mounts have a vertical post. For those not vertical (mainly vehicles), I have a 90* adapter allowing the use of the vertical mounted tools retaining the height variability/adjustability. For greater stability with more displacement, a longer ...

I'm troubled by the comment that the additional feed doesn't result in a cut. Something, somewhere, isn't secure, or the tip of the threading tool is badly rounded. I forgot to comment on that one. My thought when reading was that with the very shallow infeed angle, hardened steel, perhaps less tha...