The Home Machinist!

I use the Fowler EZ-Read mechanical micrometers. No batteries and direct readout to .0001 or less

70 MPH? It is urban legend. Think about it. It is patently ridiculous.

I have several VFDs is use around the shop and home and recently was called out to work on a few machines. While I was there, the client showed me two 2 hp DC motors and controllers he had. The short story was that I was not impressed. There were not as quiet as I was led to believe and they didn't ...

Magnetized tooling can creep everywhere. Soon everything is magnetized if not abated. Picture tube degaussers, hand held video tape degaussers and others are be used to remove it. WHen I first got my lathe some tool pieces were magnetized. I kept at it and eventually got rid of it all. It takes time...

In my shop I turn them off at night. The VFD for my pump stays on 24x7x365. It doesn't matter one way or the other.

I won't have a static converter in my shop. It is like running a gasoline engine on kerosene. Sure it will run, but it is nasty.

I don't get it. If you need to turn a 2x4 down to something round, then the most you will have is something that is about 2" in diameter. Actually it will be about 1.5 inches. When turning wood like that in my wood lathe, I use a live center and a MT spur like the one below. http://ecx.images-a...

The drawers are made from some scrap pecan. The cabinets are 3/4" oak plywood. The knobs were turned on the metal lathe from some aluminum hex bar. The slides are ball bearing K&V.

Here is what I did. I now have all the room I need.

The picture was taken before I put fronts on the drawers and made a proper chip pan.

The two end cabinets support the lathe. The center cabinet is separate and can be moved.

.002 is a lot to be off if you are trying to obtain a reasonably precise taper. In what I do, .002 would turn my parts into scrap.

Another problem with some Chinese stuff is that the people working at the factories don't care about quality. They just want to put in their time and go home. I consider that philosophy to be normal for any communist or socialist country. It is what the Govt. there wants and what it gets. Imagine th...

While a contactor is not required, it is a darn good idea. In the case where a conversion/integration is being performed, the contactor would be surplus so why not use it? Using contactors as a means of controlling power is common in new machines. Most of the new import machines use a contactor to c...