The Home Machinist!

"I'm having difficulty defining my parameters because I am unsure of future project requirements..." I feel your pain - :? Here's my take on it - you won't end up where you start out. It's pretty much unavoidable that you're going to change, at some time in the future, to different machine...

"...you are what you write..." Unless, of course, you're something else entirely - :D FWIW, my advice: Buy the lathe, on condition brother-in-law will actually transport to your location for free (or, at least, at very low cost). When lathe has been delivered as promised, terminate, to gre...

"...I'll measure the TIR on the bearings to see what that is like. They look to be shimmed ( I have not opened the bearings but there is shim stock sticking out. OOF!)..." It sounds as though you may have a bearing misalignment-generated problem - you have not said (if you have been able t...

What Harold and J Tiers said... Plus, this: Just as external threading is a specialized form of outside-diameter turning, internal threading is a specialized form of boring using a boring bar. It's been a long time since I taught basic lathe practice (and even longer, of course, since it was taught ...

Groundhog goes good in Kentucky Burgoo (as does anything else that "...don't make it acrost tha road in the mornin'...", for that matter), but you'll need at least 2 or 3 'hogs to start with

(Has the thread been hijacked sufficiently yet?)

First wood lathe project was a mallet handle, followed by the mallet head (head was made of Osage orange, aka hedge apple - man , was that stuff hard!!), in 9th Grade Shop class...1958!! First metal lathe project was a tapered alignment bar for auto-repair work, second semester of 12th Grade, also a...

Suggestion for future reference: I usually keep a small amount of Duxseal around, wrapped in a plastic zip-lock bag so it doesn't harden - this is a sticky, rubbery hand-formable sealant material that electricians and plumbers use to close up cracks and seams around wires/pipes where they pass throu...

Well...you know what they say...It Ain't Workin' If Ya Really Like Doin' It!!!

Keep on bangin' that steel - looks great!!

Well...it's been quite awhile since physical sciences class, but here goes - The only accurate way I know of to determine the center of gravity of an object empirically (50-cent term for "by experimenting") is to suspend the object a series of times, using a rope or cable from straight abo...

Wow - nice lookin' machine.

Fit kinda snug under that swing-up garage door, didn't it?

Good luck, and have fun...

Either that, or you could use some sort of swivel-joint connection at the ends of the equalizer bar...

The main thing, to me, would be to get the equalizer's arms into tension, so that the strength/stiffness is there where you need it, and to simplify the design as much as possible...

Steve/Capt. Turk, I'd be the first one to admit I don't know very much about locomotive suspension and/or equalization. However, I do know a thing or two about mechanical design. Consider this possibility: Take Capt. Turk's equalizer bar, and remove the thicker parts used to rest atop the axle boxes...