Recent content by Poppy Ott

Same here In northeast Mississippi. We narrowly missed being hit by tornadoes the last two weeks. Nine people died, in last weeks storm, just a few miles north of us. We’re keeping a close eye on the radar.

when I made the change I didn’t know which side would be best to use, or if it would work at all. Would the belt just slip on the smooth pulley surfaces? I decided to try rib side first and see what happened. That worked so well right from the start that I never tried the flat side.

I have a 10” Logan lathe that uses a flat belt. When I got it (about thirty years ago) the belt was missing. I bought the stapling tool to make replacement belts and, what I thought was, a decent supply of belting and staples. After a couple of years of replacing belts I switched to a 1” wide...

Over the past two weekends I added a power feed unit to the Hardinge TM mill. It seems all the after market power feeds are designed for Bridgeport mills. The Hardinge not only does not follow BP design, it has no provision whatsoever for a power feed addition. (The UM version of this mill...

I replaced the garage door opener Friday. The old one (screw-type) still has some life in it but it was getting noisy. Rather than throw it out. today I installed it on the garage-type door of the shop. That door gets opened, I would estimate, less than ten times a year so the opener should...

I don’t have to put things away to lose them. I can do it while standing at the lathe and not moving an inch. Where is that mic? It has to be within arms reach, but I don‘t see it!

I like organization but seldom achieve it. I sometimes think a larger shop would be nice (mine is 20’ x 24’) but one must keep in mind the bigger backpack theory; a bigger backpack doesn’t really make for better organization, it just allows more stuff to be collected. I don’t buy more machinery...

I made some more mounting plates for the wood lathe. These things are like woodworking clamps; the number of clamps one has on hand seems to only be sufficient for the project recently completed. The current project will almost always require at least one more. The mounting plates have a 2”...

It’s actually next to the pool. Would rather have a hot tub than the pool.

I put up a greenhouselast October in anticipation of getting an early start on gardening efforts this year.

In one of those chicken first or egg events, I acquired a set of DA 100 collets long before I had a use for them, or even anything in which to use them. When I finally got around to making the vertical head for my milling machine, naturally I used the collet on hand. At 3/8” maximum capacity...

I think I have cut gears and racks by just about every method there is except with a Fellows Gear Shaper. With regard to cutting racks I have cut them on my Atlas shaper, using the horizontal spindle on the mill, and with the vertical spindle using end mill cutters reground to an included...

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I have four surface plates, funny how things accumulate. Two, one cast iron and the other a Starrett granite, see regular use and have permanent location in the shop. The other two are surplus to requirements and are in storage. In keeping with the title of this thread, I’m offering the two...

Online Metals usually packs my orders tight and close but once in while they ship a lot of air along with my order. Amazon is the worst, in my experience, for poor package-to-product ratios, Mike1’s photo being typical.