The Home Machinist!

The petrobond I use to cast has lost its strength. After a lengthy discussion with Lancaster Foundry. A phone call to Lancaster foundry is answered by a nice lady and when my questions got long she transferred me to the owner who was more than just helpful. In order to restore my petrobond I would h...

Screws and nuts are the easiest of replacement parts to find.
Determine what you have and buy a length of acme screw and a few nuts.
Most likely Ebay and Amazon both will have what you need
Then get busy adapting the new to the old.

Ive got one of those... I use it exclusively as a horizontal. These are small foot print machines that can to the job. My vintage 1968 mill started in the Morenci AZ school system and then spent some time as a sign for Moore Tools here in Phoenix https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4767719,-112.1269202,...

Today yet another thing not commonly mentioned is the importance of carboard. Recently I forgot to place some carboard under a crucible. Of course the crucible had something on it that stuck to the crucible base block. This little forgotten detail made the total weight of the crucible, charge and ba...

As a VFD user and not an expert. Using a 1 hp vfd to power a 1/2 hp motor sounds good to me. More vfd hp than motor hp has worked for me in the past. More motor hp than vfd hp experinces have not worked as well. As of which one thats a harder question.... I have bought used name brands, new cheapo C...

How to get power can be a hard decision. Initially I went with a VFD for my first 3 phase machine. The problem with a VFD is each 3 phase motor needs a VFD. When it came time to power a Famco mill I learned there are 2 3 phase motors and they can not be powered by a single VFD... A rotary phase conv...

Check out this video.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1x5_S0Pq4k Starting at 5:00 he kinda mentions selecting the pitch... Also look at TOT.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAawhg6JtyY At 2:00 In this video he goes into a little bit of the machinists handbook spring section. A good material t...

This is the closest oiler I could find to replace the original on mine.. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BMJQF9I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 WOW checking the pulley sizes isnt fun...And I now know why I rarely change the belt position... I dont have room where the mill ...

Here is another planner repair video series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhWO6Zoz-EU

Even more stuff no one mentioned about casting.... 7) Buying casting parts and materials from Amazon can be iffy. Some great and lots of complete disappointments. Not to knock imported items.... But my Amazon Cheap thing record is poor to say the least... The mounting end of the thermocouple I bough...

There were 4 new crucibles in the deal, 3 #8 crucibles and a #10. And 2 new silicon carbide plinths
The #10 is a tight fit but it does fit.

Thank you for the pictures... And ideas. I settled for somewhat of a combination of both examples. Pictures https://imgur.com/a/DZM825T The first try was with 1/2" pencil rod.... And after using it the first thought was HEAVY... Round 2 was with 3/8 pencil rod....just over half the weight of 1/...