The Home Machinist!

I bought my little South Bend shaper in Tacoma Washington so had to rent a truck to go get it. Crossing the border back into Canada got a whole load of questions about what I was bringing back, it's value plus the usual inspection since it was more than apparent they had no idea what it was. After t...

Think about it, from birth to death there's nothing you use, live in, drive, buy, eat, or even throw in the garbage that wasn't touched or in some way has it's origins traceable to a machine tool and that machinist. Most today don't have the faintest clue about the importance of machine tools, machi...

The P&W might? have been Pratt and Whitney as the manufacturer (maybe). But they made a lot of machine tools, cutting tools and some high end well thought of metrology equipment as well. I'm not real enthused with MT's that use a drawbar even though they work fine. There's just better tapers than a ...

A MT test bar only works if the female taper is in pristine condition with zero dings, rust or debris in it. Without that the test bar can indicate the headstock as being out when it may not be. With the right conditions and some bad luck it could even indicate the headstock as being correct when it...

I'd certainly agree Harold, a normal edge finder doesn't need to be adjusted to run true. These Haimers would only be highly accurate if they are. Adjusting them is done a bit like a 4 jaw independant so it's possible to get them under a couple of 10ths.

The only real use I've found for that set screw is it indexes anything put into the spindle taper to the same place each time. My 3D Haimer edge finder uses a dedicated 3/4" end mill holder and the edge finders C/L gets indicated in and adjusted until it's dead on to the spindles C/L. So it's helpfu...

My personal opinion is it's probably a good idea to pull equipment like this apart for a detailed cleaning and relube. What I found on even Taiwan equipment is there's always a bit of dust,dirt, and maybe a bit of grinding dust since there built to a price point that doesn't leave any extra for the ...

Good idea Earl, when I fially get around to building one I'll now need to make two. So you've just doubled my work.

If you did want to take it apart for a proper cleaning and relube? There's at least 2 Youtube videos showing the disassembly and reassembly for the B & S heads these were copied from. It's not quite as straight forward as it seems. BasementShopGuy and Keith Rucker did the two videos about it that I ...

Nice score.

The integral rear fixed jaw is a good sign since it's more cost effective and easier to bolt that jaw in place. So my guess it wasn't a poorly made vise when new. And even 30 years ago Japan was making some excellent tooling. I'd guess that flaking isn't just to fool the buyer. Any wear on the movin...

Within average limits then there's pretty accurate calculations that can be used to adjust for size if the material type and temperature is known so when things cool down or warm up to the more standard 68f/20c specification they should be quite accurate. I can only go by what I've read about it sin...