The Home Machinist!

Looks like ER40 to me.

They always seem to be the wrong size.

Excluding the wild double piston above...
Pistons are designed to become round when they reach operating temperature.

Probably everyone knows that already.

I have a jig to cut ovals in wood; it's a strange setup I found in a book, but it works beautifully. I made some tables and other furniture. Possibly a similar jig could cut a blank to use as a tracer on a machine like Bill describes. Basically, 2 sliders with vertical pegs in 2 grooves in a base pl...

Too hard for a saw for sure, but an angle grinder will make short work of making it short.

If that's what you want.

I suppose it's not too difficult with a CNC machine; but how was it done before, back in the manual only days? a 4-jaw eccentric setup will not produce a true oval. Even on a mill, it would be devilishly difficult. I suppose some sort of crank system on the spindle could move the tool in and out, bu...

Terrible weather here; still no rain!
The whole area may be a desert soon.

Went to use the mill yesterday, and the table went down instead of up. Fortunately it has a clutch on the feed because it was already bottomed. Then I saw the other axises were also running backwards; what sort of diabolical error was happening now? Then I realized the spindle was reversed too. Then...

Different glue sticks are available... I've used it successfully outdoors in full rain and sun, but not on anything with much stress on it. I used black, which usually has better UV resistance. It wasn't particularly high end material though. In a dry interior environment, I haven't noticed any degr...

I have several and I find it a very useful material. I have 3, one each for white black and clear glue. Strength is moderate, it depends on the surface as well as the fit. The hot glue fills gaps well, but when used that way it's not very strong. It is strong in thin films on porous surfaces if it w...

That's more accurate than my tailstock for sure; I gave up when I figured out that the bed has more wear than the error I was trying to correct. 2 shafts I cut 31mm (1-1/4") in diameter and 30cm (12") long, mounted between centers, are both equally 0.15mm (0.006") thicker at the cente...

I cut and sectioned a cast iron exhaust manifold, then welded the resulting 7 pieces back together with cast iron welding rod. This was 30 years ago, and I don't know what the rod was composed of exactly, but it was not nickel. I tacked the parts together with the flanges bolted to the head, then re...