The Home Machinist!

With the Tapmatic keep in mind that the tap backing out of the hole lags behind the Z axis retraction. Start off by giving yourself an extra .5-1" of retraction than you think you'll actually need because you won't enjoy it if the mill starts off to the next hole while the tap is still engaged ...

Everything I've done with the Tree so far has been 2.5D. I keep meaning to try some 3D contouring but most of the parts haven't needed it. I've made a small batch of several items. http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/metalwork/accelpumpcover.jpg Those are covers to block off the accel pump on Dell'Or...

All my machine time is on manual machines, so work holding for CNC is a bit of a puzzler at times to keep things out of tool paths etc. I have very little use for CNC work, so don't do much, but I enjoy it when I get the chance! Glenn, one of the cool things about CNC is how easy it is to make a cu...

Dave correctly points out that the killer is the usual business stuff like opportunity/carrying costs. My hobby interest is racing/vintage motorcycles. I've even had a part-time business selling some bits for that market. I suspect the model engineer market is not much different. People will moan ab...

Get an order, load a metal blank into the CNC machine, and print. Done. Kaching! Which ignores the cost of the machinery, the tooling, the CAD software to design the solid models, the CAM software to do the code for anything more than very simple 2.5D work and the hours and hours spent with the CAD...

Remember that aluminum is about 1/3 the stiffness of steel, and stiffness is your friend when you are machining. The smaller the diameter of the arbor you are using the more it benefits from a stiffer material. FWIW Enco has 4140 and 4140HT all the time and the prices aren't bad, especially if you f...

I added a small sleeve (brass) at the plunger, so it will not drive the plunger into the indicator, with less probability of damaging it. I did scraped one so far, but I've been using an indicator for three years already. That would have been handy a couple weeks ago when I got focused on things an...

I've got a 12" 4 jaw for my 17" Mori Seiki. That is a BIG and HEAVY chuck. Like Ken, I'd think twice about putting that big of a chuck on the size lathe you have. Also consider the mounting method. My lathe has an A1-6 with the chuck bolted firmly onto the spindle. Is yours going to be a t...

Hi Randy, That's very kind of you to make such nice comments. There are some spots on the beads on the main tube that don't look too swell but by the time I got to the smaller parts I'd had a fair bit of practice! Getting my new Miller 250 and discovering just how worn out the foot control on my pro...

I've finished the painting and other small final tasks and added another 6 photos to the bottom of the page to show the final configuration.

cheers,
Michael

I've got a 3x rivet gun and some 4x6x.25 tubing and will either do a pneumatic planisher from that (basically to the TinMan specs, they worked a treat when I took Kent's class) or maybe instead make a small mechanically-operated hammer. A lot of little hammer blows seems to do less damage than waili...

Dan, I suspect that I should be able to have a lot of force as I'm using a fine thread (1mm pitch x 24mm) on the adjuster which will give a lot of mechanical advantage. From what I've seen mentioned people who have actually measured the force with a strain gauge are reporting 1000-1500 pounds of pre...