Recent content by jerryc

Pistons protruding below cylinder at BDC seemed to work fine on older car engines. It wasn't until the 1930's that car manufacturers found they could trim back on piston skirts for less weight and the engine would still run.

A simple cheap tool post type grinder will often do the job. Place a washer the approximate OD of the stock you will use and grind to fit.

I was a Tool&Die maker 1958-2009 My brother was an Insurance man and made projects like this in his basement in spare time. Brother thought I was the luckiest guy in the world to get to do this AND get paid for it. Now that I'm retired I see what he meant. I'm shopping for a Bridgeport and a...

If you have an old machinist's handbook, such as Machinery's or Audel's from the 30's/40's from when lathes and mills had gears that you manually changed, you will be able to use the direct gear chain computations. I only know this stuff because I went through an apprenticeship with a couple of...

If you check your machine specs, .002/.005 TIR is about industry standard for a 3-jaw chuck. For closer work you can go to a collet or a 4-jaw chuck.The choice is yours. Collets are usually within .001 or so, some brands like Hardinge seem to run within .0005 while the ones sold by somebody like...

With those interrupted bores, an old trick is to clamp or bolt a piece of similar material (Aluminum in this case)on the outside of where the hole goes giving you a non-interrupted cut. A lot easier on the machine and your ears. Also on those .002 boring heads, try a magnetic base and a .0005...

Back to G**gle. When I was in college I got interested in rockets. So I giggled "Rocket models" among other things. You Would be amazed what they let show up. And I was a lot younger then. I think they may have blocked that site.

Many turret lathes, Warner&Swasey, etc used a tool mounted upside down in the back of the machine . Worked quite well as I remember.

RE: Spark plug thread dimensions. Locally at least, there is a chain of auto parts stores called "Pep Boys" that has a good supply of manuals including spark plug dimension charts. Might give them a try? Jerry

My 14 yr old went to a bunch of porn sites, You wouldn't believe what it put on my computer. Thought I was gonna have to buy a new Hard Drive. >:( He's banned from my computer until he's 36.

???? I tried to buy some coal for a stove a couple of years ago and was told coal has been outlawed.

The old wooden floors were the best. They were not laid as planks. Large 12x12 beams were cut into short lengths and laid upright so you were walking on the end grain. Chips just pushed down into it. I worked in a shop with that just before OSHA came along with their grumpy inspectors. Federal...

In most machine shops I've worked at you just take it over to the EDM dude, go take a break, come back and pick up up your (now) good part. Of course, if the boss sees all this happening you have a lotta 'splainin' to do. On paper. In triplicate.