The Home Machinist!

Funny that for a couple of bucks in cast iron that could have been a much better machine from the factory without the end user having to fix what should have been done at the design stage.

RSG, Robin is one extremely talented and clever guy. Any video he's done is well worth the time. Tornitore45's point about seemingly rigid machine parts having higher deflection rates than you'd think is the main reason I now don't even have a drill press for metal working. Any drill press I can aff...

Strangely it seems to be more of a UK or mainland Europe practice to use the top slide for parallel turning. Many of my books and magazines are published in the UK and it's very common to see that shown or mentioned. North America it seems much more universal to use the carriage and that dial indica...

Yep I do remember that post, I just couldn't recall if yours had the built in spindle feeds or not. Mines a step pulley mill with a VFD, but looking at that picture again I'd be willing to bet some of yours was built using the same casting source as mine was. The base and column casting shape is exa...

Some but not all plastic types are hygroscopic. Just like wood they can absorb and retain water from the atmosphere. If it we me I think I'd Google the property's of any plastic type I was thinking of using first.

He mentioned on page one he found a loose cross slide gib and that fixed the problem.

I think BadDog nailed it. Somewhere in the past and likely in a very old tool catalog I've seen something like that. There's been a few items like it where the exact tool tip used was proprietary to the manufacturer. Those were mostly threading tools like BadDog also mentioned. Resharpening was usua...

Since I'm no mechanical engineer I can't give proven numbers, so can only repeat what's been stated on the PM forums and mentioned by John. Yes apparently being a hollow casting for the head over torquing the bolts can create enough deflection to cause problems. My opinion is there's a whole lot mor...

Yep and that's why I value having a set of gauge blocks Harold. Having the ability of actually testing most items and how well they measure and repeat is worth a great deal to me. Not to throw this thread OT, but I've read multiple dozens of statements on other forums where new people are advised th...

Whenever I'm buying any new metrology equipment I now usually check the Long Island Dial Indicator Repair website. They have extensive recommendations for most of the items were likely to be using. However they don't think much of almost any dti on the market today. But like others have mentioned th...

Thanks for the clarification that open area in the incomplete Ebay gauge block set is for a stone. That makes sense. Not an idea invented by him since there available commercially at a fairly high price for what they are. But ROBRENZE on YouTube started surface grinding good stones with a diamond wh...

Many on the PM forums think exactly the same as BadDog. I have to agree as well. I've got spare indicators and the aluminum plate to easily build one but I've just not bothered. Using a dti is almost as fast, much more accurate and can be extended for much farther distances on the X axis. There ARE ...