The Home Machinist!

The tool has lead, and modest rake, so there's no reason for the cutter to pull out Need clarification Lead means the peripheral facet is not vertical? I glean that from the comment about flycutting to a shoulder. If I understood correctly then the sholuder would not have a crisp angle. If I unders...

You should go look for places throwing out metal banding used for strapping crates etc.,

I use the metal banding to make springs to keep the parallels... parallel in the vise.
Bend them into a V with rounded bottom. Have several sizes.

I did that. I learned to my surprise that I'm a 31 year old pro football player with an unimpressive record... Who knew? Much of the success from a Google search depend form your name... If you are Bill Smith your record will be buried in 27,674,596,201 hits. If you are Garbanzo Vanadium, you have ...

Also your potential employer, is common practice now. Although I would not want to work for such a nazi company.
For fun, Google yourself (discreetly) and see what comes up, you will be surprised.

That is a hard way to get a 1.5" x 1.5" billet.
But if you have no use for a 4" x 4" is the cheapest.

Mount a 7" carbide tipped crosscut blade that you tipically use on a Skill saw. Mount it on the Mill, I would not use a hand held. 7" with a 3" spindle will give 2" deep cut which is enough. I used a 7" on thick material and work like a charm. Start slowly to get a feel, as ...

Unless you want fancy features such as spin up/down acceleration and/or resitance compensation at low speed, all things you do not care much for a saw VFD can be switched from motor to motor. If the VFD is much more powerful that the motor then you want to set the trip current as suggested in a prev...

Harold, I am running a home shop for hobby, my technology level is no better than what was available 50 years ago therefore your help is still very useful and up to date. I have a dozen commecial pins in several sizes that are very useful to index, center, etcetera. After all I read here I concluded...

What kind of Anti Seize to use for steel lugnuts? I have a terrible problem with my tires. The Jaguar nut ($14 each) have a SS cap on top to make them look prettier than they are. The situation of 3 hex losely nested favors slipping and rounding.

I'm assuming you are not working on the hole, but a feature that is concentric with the hole. Correct. All good point to keep in mind. I am making one or two parts so I try to minimize machining extra parts, however since most of my holes/shafts are standard fractions I can see a good reuse in havi...

Good points Harold. I learn much from your explanation, you pointed out factor to consider that I never given a thought.
I usually learn quickly from MY mistakes but rather get a jump from other's mistakes -- I meant experience.

When edging thin plate or hand pivoting a piece on a dovel to round the end is preferable to have the cutting force directed downward, even if this means giving up on end cutting. I did not use the proper term, with end cutting I meant plunging (cutting with the end), I figured that a reverse helic...