The Home Machinist!

You need to sneak up on it. If you are starting with rough stock, let's say it's warped, you will find that even if you did smash it down onto parallels in a tight vise (tight enough to hold it where you put it), the mill will make the top flat, and you'll still have a warped and probably uneven thi...

Steve, Something else to consider. What is your budget, and is this work, play, or something in between? You are certainly welcome to keep those answers to yourself, but as all of us tool freaks keep piling on with our great new toys (like my arbor press[*]), please note that all of us have wish lis...

An H/V bandsaw is a great gizmo, but be warned that mine (last piece of Jet - I mean junk, I'll ever buy) looks like an undergraduate design project gone wrong. Actually, undergrad engineering students should know better than to do some of the things that appear on that saw. It is miserably (dangero...

Remove the pin by just tiping the lathe upside down, come on its only a few 1000lbs its easy. Or I guess you could just use a magnet if you wanna wuss out. :) (like one of those little magnetic pickup tools) Magnetic pickup tools are great for getting loose fiting pins outta holes. It did not feel ...

Alex, Jose, FWIW, I had very good luck with the expanding arbor. I bored a 1.004" hole, and used the 1" arbor as delivered. I could have gotten a larger arbor and turned it to the final ID size, but for a single part, it seemed better to turn the OD and then enlarge the ID. That approach l...

You have to remove that sprung little 'pin' from right next to the T slot and the T nut will come right out, no force required. Please. No banging on the T nut or trying to press it out unless you want to ruin things. That makes sense; I've read otherwise in a couple of places, but I believe you. O...

Dave, What I find essential with calipers is to apply light pressure while allowing them to "find the part." FWIW, that is far more easily done when both caliper and part are hand-held; it can be tricky with the part firmly held in a machine. Bill, For that reason, I sometimes hold the cal...

Hello all, I'm past due to mount my QCTP to my lathe. There are a couple of challenges standing in the way. First (no surprise) the t-nut from the new post is too big for the slot. Second, I cannot fully remove the old post :oops: The attached photo show the compound, the disk/nut from the current p...

Dave, Understood about the limitations, but they are convenient. Calipers have their place, even the cheap ones. Good for checking drill bits, to be sure it's the right one. Fine for stuff that only needs +-.005" beyond that, beware. I have done work to +-.001", but only using a gauge as a...

Hello all, IIRC, I paid $9 for electronic calipers at HF; I bought them as an experiment and with fairly low expectations. I was not surprised :( Actually, the motion of the slide is remarkably smooth, but the resolution is limited to 0.01" - ok for what it does, but not what I had in mind. Mor...

Steve, A few random thoughts: 1) A tilting table might be of use to you. See http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=436&PARTPG=INLMK3&PMITEM=418-4200 2) You might put a toolmaker's vise on it: http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=429&PARTPG=INLMK32 Expect to do lots of indicating...

An idealistic question: do you have control over the design? The zero thickness is problematic IMHO. Just where does that last row of atoms end up 8) Worse, they won't stay there; the thin end will be quite weak. You would be better off with a trapezoid, again thinking idealistically, you might just...