The Home Machinist!

I found this link just now....
http://www.budgetcastingsupply.com/ITC.php

Thanks for taking a look and the feedback. I am very interested in what you have to say. I know a little about the chemistry of a refractory lining. That is to say very little. I do know enough to wonder why those guys were putting like 40% portland in their linings. I was planning to use about 25% ...

Hi everyone, I am building a melting furnace out of an old 20lb propane bottle. I am documenting the whole thing on my web site. It's still in the early stages, but I have a working burner. If anyone has any suggestions, it would be great to hear them. Here is a link: http://chucktilbury.com/pages/p...

several sizes of internal rollers are for sell on ebay right now So, if I buy the 5/8" tube expander on ebay, that is supposed to make the inside diameter 5/8" correct? It looks like they have some adjustments, there is a long bar with a brass nut on the end, but that is a raw guess. (wis...

Do you have the ability harden and grind the drill rod? Not to mention boring the holes for bearings. You can give it a shot and see how it goes. I would have to have those parts made for me. I can pretty much do everything else, though. Another thing you might try is a carbide roller on the end of...

am i mistaken in my understsnding thst boiler tube swedgers and condenser swedgers expand the tube from inside out??? The ones that I looked at, I could not really figure out how they work just by looking. It seems as though they do that. The burnishers are pretty obvious, but I think they are almo...

Why not use a drill press. Mount a 3 jaw chuck to the table lined up under the spindle. Then roller burnish the inside using the stroke of the drill press with the spindle on. Bored soft jaws or even a collet vise would work also. Not trying to disagree. Only trying to understand better: Roller bur...

Have you trried a roller burnisher. These give you the proper size and diameter if you know how to use them. I know people who have used them and bore .002 under size and roller burnish to size and it looks like polished chrome in steel and run hydraulic seals on the finish with no trouble. I have ...

look a a greenlee ko punch set the bigger ones have a hydroild ram that pulls instead of pushes. a shop press could do similar use hardwood blocks to hold the tube and rosen to improve the grip So you would make a hardwood sandwich gripper? Or maybe some kind of a tapered hole? I looked at a couple...

I think that for balling to work, you have to have an outside form as well as the correct size balls. The outside form has to be made in such a way as to compress the tubing wall against the balls so that it has an effect similar to hammering it.

I tried annealing the tube first, but now the tubing is not strong enough to handle the stress of getting the mandrel pressed into it. Results were all warped and not good enough. However, I did suceed in getting the right size socket. It was really pretty good that way, though not perfect. If I wer...

The screw and cones on a typical 'tail pipe expander' will not develop enough force to actually stretch the tubing. They are intended to round out an uneven pipe. You would likely need a long taper and pretty high strength screw. Since your range of expansion is pretty small, it might be possible t...