The Home Machinist!

Well, I talked to a good friend of mine today and he is going to ride out wednesday afternoon and help me out with this thing. He rebuilds lathes on the side so things are starting to look up.

Guys its been a while but everything is normal. I ran my axelson lathe for a little while after adjusting the clutches and thought boy what a cadillac. Well, it turns out that my cadillac was a geo metro after all. The clutches started slipping and it seemed that the clutch shaft had some movement b...

It is a 9" model a but I am not sure as to whether or not it is a wide bed or not. The lathe was in good shape until the back gear crashed and chipped off some teeth. I have located one and it is on the way so hopefully I should get it soon and be back in business. I noticed that I had an exces...

It goes in a tilt furnace and I am thinking seriously about going with clay graphite and using this one to melt iron. But on the other hand; I only deal with aluminum, brass and bronze right now and seldom if ever have a need to do iron. Aluminum is hot, brass is hotter and like you said iron is hot...

I was wondering if anyone can tell me if a back gear assembly off of a 10" south bend lathe will also fit a south bend model a 9" swing lathe. Can anyone give me an idea of what back gears would interchange with the model a ? Any help that anyone can give me would be great.

Apparently they don't need the business. One of them is local (within 75 miles) and is part of a chain of foundry supply places and I think that their business has really slacked off. Oh well, if they close that particular branch one day because there is not enough business to justify keeping it ope...

I tell you what; as bad as times are apparently some of the foundry suppliers do not want to sell supplies. I have been shopping around for some prices on crucibles and out of 3 suppliers only 1 has given me a quote. The crucible that I am needing is a 150 # teapot type a bilge and as it looks right...

Thanks for the advice big dave and I hope the weather isn't as darned hot as it is down south. We have had 3 days of hades to say the least 102 yesterday and 101 today. I gave it up for the day and came inside; the humidity in south carolina is terrible. Oh well, thanks for the advice and I will kee...

I have been trying to use some of the sodium silicate (liquid glass) core binder that reacts with co 2 gas and am having no luck so I need to see what the heck that I am doing wrong. Here is a little prelude of what I am doing and how I am doing it to give everyone an idea. I am mixing the binder in...

Here are the pictures as promised.

Hey Dave, the molders friend is just as you thought. It is a machine with a drum on it that runs along the shop floor and mixes the foundry sand. My wife finally took some pics of some machines out in the shop and hopefully I will have them posted by the end of the night.

Looks like I may have to "risk it for a biscuit". I am basically at my wits end right now with everything. If you were to buy a new furnace like this it would set you back about 40 grand and likewise I have some other machines that need repair but they sure aren't going to be cheap to fix....