The Home Machinist!

My indian lathe always had a small problem. The compound feed was a bit dodgy, in that it was always tight then loose, or in simple terms, it would bind a bit once in a while. never so bad that i could not turn it, I just could never make smooth cuts. I largely got by with out it, I have a taper att...

Thank you Harold: Yes, I understand that it is a melting furnace I am looking at building, and it will probably be inside an expired 30# propane bottle. I have a buddy who is a master blacksmith, who will help me, it is his suggestion that I use castable refractory, he makes excellent burners. I may...

Harold, I am not so much cheap as not knowing what to buy, Silicon Carbide sounds like the ticket, thank you. I saw you mentioned that you had some crucibles with size numbers, what do the numbers mean? I am looking to be able to do something like 5 lbs of brass/bronze max.

I have not tumbled castings, but I was raised in a rock shop family and know a few things about tumbling. If you can get small stainless steel balls and use a fine grinding compound, they will have a good finish. If you look into the SS pins that the reloaders tumble brass with it you will see what ...

It is winter, and things are very cold and the snow is deep. I am thinking of building a forge in the spring, and casting a bit of brass and bronze, and aluminum. For metals in these melting ranges is it appropriate to just make a crucible? I would think that mild steel would be ok. I am new at cast...

True these endmills I got free are junk, and only useful for a few specific tasks. The insert tooling I have bought there was not junk with one exception. The inserts may not give the finish that a name brand one would, but they are pretty good. And, of course, I could buy name brand inserts as they...

I bought some small endmills from a Chinese website called Wish, they were sets from 1/16 to 1/2, and they included a 5/32 instead of a 7/16. They were advertised as being SOLID CARBIDE. So I ordered and paid for 3 sets, at about $15 per set shipped. I have bought lots of things from there, and I ha...

I have a buddy who is a fairly new hobby machinist, who wants a set of reamers for tap drill sizes. He is pickier than I am. Might not hurt to point out to your friend that the minor diameter of tapped holes does NOT make contact with another surface. So long as it's the right diameter, it is good....

, many jobs don't warrant the expense of buying a new reamer for one hole, maybe to never be used again. Nyle That is my feeling about them, I ordered an offshore set up to 1.5", Usually I can bore holes on the lathe, I do have a 12 inch 4 jaw, and can set a fairly large fairly awkward piece i...

Does anyone use these under power? my lathe will go pretty slow, 50 rpm, and I have a vernier on my tailstock so I could see how fast I was feeding. I will have time to think about it, as the flooding in British Columbia has no doubt tipped the supply chain, and the ones I ordered from India will n...

Does anyone use these under power? my lathe will go pretty slow, 50 rpm, and I have a vernier on my tailstock so I could see how fast I was feeding. I will have time to think about it, as the flooding in British Columbia has no doubt tipped the supply chain, and the ones I ordered from India will no...

In my course of tool hoarding, I would like to have a few reamers. I see that on ebay, most of the reamer sets are adjustable.. do you guys use adjustable reamers or do you buy them as required to size. I am surprised there was not a set by 16ths or so on ebay.