The Home Machinist!

Hot glue is sometimes useful as removable bulk. For example, I produce multi-level turner's cubes on my mill, with the nested inner cube(s) loose (but captive) within the outer cubes. My procedure is cut from side 1 cut from side 2 cut from side 3 cut from side 4 cut from side 5. If I tried to cut f...

The Tormach manuals are all online. Just Google "Tormach 440 manual" or "Tormach 770 manual" or the like. The proper power-on sequence for any of the Tormach mills is undo the emergency stop click Reset click Ref X to move the table to the left-hand X limit similarly for Ref Y an...

I have a Tormach PCNC 770. Your R8 tooling will be usable, but you won't be able to take proper advantage of the 1100 until you get a few of Tormach's TTS toolholders, collets, and chucks. Only with TTS toolholding can you set the effective length of a tool and then use it repeatedly without re-meas...

I had an SX3 for a while, and every once in a while it would fail to start. It turned out that the membrane buttons on the control panel had to be _just_ the right distance from the PCB behind the panel, and the PCB had somehow crept away. Take the control panel off, and you'll see that there are 4 ...

I don't know about the relative costs of one solution versus another, but I here note what I did for my 500-square-foot basement shop, with good result. My heavy machines are all along two perpendicular walls, and the dumbwaiter through which heavy objects enter the shop is at the end of one of thos...

My variation on Mike Cox's model is described on my Web site at http://www.fenichel.net/pages/Indoor_Ac ... gidity.htm.

I agree with Jaxian as regards non-mill-specific DRO mounting hardware, but not as regards DRO Pros ("DP"). I used to own a Sieg SX3 mill, and I mounted one of DP's' 3-axis glass-scale kits to it. My main lessons learned were DP is a pleasure to deal with, and I thought that the DRO and sc...

It can't be the emergency stop switch, because if that switch were effectively closed (that is, if the button were effectively pushed in), the tachometer would be blank. I can't rule out the start switch having failed; my next step will be to take the front housing off to check, but my check would b...

I have a Sieg SX3 mill (= Grizzly G0619, but not from Grizzly) that has suddenly stopped working. Today, in between uneventful uses of the mill, the motor stopped responding to the controls. With the main power on and the emergency stop button out, the mill looks ready: the power lamp is on, and the...

Threading with an automatic stop/reverse for the lathe makes the process much more relaxed. I designed my own (see http://www.fenichel.net/pages/Indoor_Activities/metalworking/lathe/autostop/lathe_autostop.htm , but other designs can be found here and there on the Web. Some of the most skillful memb...

For one use of a dial indicator coupled to a carriage stop, see http://www.fenichel.net/pages/Indoor_Ac ... gidity.htm.

Don't try to get away with a 150mm Y axis. I have an SX3, and I installed a DRO from DRO Pros. Some notes on my installation are here.