The Home Machinist!

This is disappointing; new ring compressor broke open, 2 rivets failed on the last piston!

I should send it back, but I want to get my job done so tomorrow I'll make a couple of tiny solid rivets and fix it.

My 39 year old Italian SAME tractor was running on 3 cylinders due to a blown head gasket. It ran so well that way, it makes me think I should take one or two cylinders out! Not really, but I never use the power the 250 ci engine has, I just need the weight and stability of the large tractor for my ...

My mill has press fit zerk fittings (for oil). When I needed to replace a few, I made adaptors. To get oil through the zerk fittings, I had to adapt a grease gun for the job. The adaptor is just a little piece of mild steel rod I machined to fit. I'm sure you could do the same for a ball oiler. Ruhl...

congratulations on getting it solved and working.

seal killer wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2024 10:06 am liveaboard--

I have several of those bars that use triangle inserts. I've always used them on the mill. Mine are all short.

I bought a couple of spares (a left and a right) and cut them short to use on the mill boring tool.

Or for $20 or less, you can buy a boring bar from ebay or Amazon with a common carbide insert like CCMT060204 or CCMT09T308.
I buy the inserts for $1-2 each mail order from China.

Of course it's useful to know how to grind your own tools; on the other hand, sometimes you just want to get a job done.

Yeah, it does object a bit; but as I said, so far it's still in one piece. it's (originally) a 2-speed 700/1,400rpm motor. I don't know the spindle speed at the new full rpm; in reality I rarely go over 150%, but I have spun it up a few times. The gearbox also has a higher ratio that I'm no longer u...

You mean the motor itself? Yeah, could be. There's also a reduction gear box that must have some, and the lathe head has roller bearings. The motor is a curious thing; very old, made in the Netherlands (where I bought the lathe, which is Polish), it has an info plate that appears to have 185V crosse...

On another forum, a German guy used a shaper to make a set of quick-change tool holders for his lathe, just like the ones I'd just made with my milling machine. It looked to me like the shaper did the work just as well as the mill did; probably slower, can't say. It was nice though, and interesting ...

It's a good feeling to save old tools.

Today I spent an hour saving a few old clamps by making new swivel pads.
Not glorious like that caliper, but the emotion of satisfaction is probably pretty close.

On both the mill and lathe I set the speed ranges at 30Hs to 90Hz in an effort to protect the motors. I set mine to run maximum 100hz, double the design speed of the ancient motor of my lathe; so far, it's holding together. I admit though, I rarely run it that fast. It sounds a bit loud when I do t...

My VFD is Lenz, a US company.
The language in the manual is still difficult, due to the specialist technical jargon.
They should include a glossary, or better yet just have it written for the users instead of for each other.