The Home Machinist!

Well, if you want the "Mercedes" of DRO's you want to look at these. For the Brown & Sharpe #2 Mill that I rebuilt, I bought one of their ND750's . I paid almost ten times as much for the DRO as I did for that old mill. That's the fun of it being a hobby, you don't worry about the bott...

I not only weld rail into longer sections, but weld up scrap also. When we purchased our steel rail (6000') from the Lake Shore Live Steamers, they shipped it to us cut at around ten feet long. They did not worry about exact length, so, most sections vary between 10' and 10'-3" . This spring, I...

I buy my handles from Reid. That 5/8" sq hole forged handle was $45. It was not worth the bother to make my own in this case, but for a longer handle for one machine, I cut round stock in half milled a 3/4 x 3/8 slot in each half, welded it back together , and welded onto an arm. If you go to t...

I have been a member of two different types of unions, and I believe belonging to both has benefited me. I was a member of the "Order of Railroad Telegraphers" (ORT) which later merged into the "Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks" (BRAC), for over 25 years. I also was a me...

I recently bought several hundred dollars of rough oak from Kettle Moraine Hardwoods in Wisconsin: http://www.kmhardwoods.com/ It was worth the drive from my home in northern Illinois, because I saved lots of $$$. I do not know if they ship, but it is worth looking at their site to just compare pric...

I posted photos of a just purchased angle vise in the previous thread, here are photos of the reworked Brown & Sharpe #3T Universal Tool Maker's Vise. This is an example, as I had written before, of good old "American Iron". Yes, I know some of you like to buy new "Chinese, super ...

Harold, you have to be careful when you malign "foolish" amateurs like me. I think we make up the vast majority of those who view this site. I'm not a machinist, I'm a physicist. I learned all my machining by asking questions of knowledgeable people like you. I started collecting Brown &am...

How about some old "American Iron"! Here is a Brown & Sharpe #3T Universal Toolmakers Vise I just bought on eBay. I was the only bidder and got it for $99.99. This vise probably dates from the 1970's, they stopped making them around 1980. The number 3T was the most expensive vise B&...

Here is something of interest. "AFS announces the release of an updated and advanced library website located at http://www.afslibrary.com/ The library website houses the world's largest collection of metalcasting reference material with more than 37,000 papers and articles available for purchas...

Dividing plates are used to divide the circle into equally spaced segments of any number depending on the plate. Most rotary tables only divide the circle into degrees, which you must set by manual adjustment. A dividing head would have a fixed number of segments, and use dividing plates for other s...

This morning, when I was sweeping the shop, I actually remembered your question. I took a ruler and put it against the Bridgeport handle. Between the center of the square hole and the center of the end handle I measure 7-1/4" +/-. I use this Bridgeport Vise on a 1950's Brown & Sharpe #2 Uni...

Sorry that we did not have time to run the locomotive, my brother had a meeting to drive to Friday afternoon. As it was, we left the BC&S at 3PM, and got home at 1:30AM. It's not exactly the way I like to drive; seventy mph in the dark, with a 1000 pounds in the truck bed, and all those BIG truc...