Recent content by Stu Miller

I recently ordered cast iron from Speedy Metals online and was pleased with service and price. You can order it by the inch.

For a tapper appropriate to small taps, go here. http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/Tooling/MiniHandTapper/minihandtapper.html I built a knock off of it myself, but my project grew a bit. It will handle taps to #10. Also, take a look at his other projects. He does some neat tools and tooling.

Ozzie, I mostly hand tap and discovered I quit breaking taps when I went to spiral point taps. Even though they are described as machine taps, In my opinion they work much better than hand taps.

Ozzie, Just out of curiosity, are you using hand taps or spiral point taps?

Spiral point taps will work in blind holes with a bit of care. If you can drill the hole a bit deeper than you need to tap, you will provide clearance for the chip pushed ahead of the tap by the spiral point.. You can back the tap out after you feel it beginning to push down on the accumulated...

Andrew, If the reamer flexes because the reamer and hole are not lined up, the reamer will flex in the direction of the hole offset. Since the reamer cuts only on the end, the hole will guide the reamer in at an angle to the hole axis and the part of the hole initially reamed will help guide the...

Julian, Here is your find as shown in the 1952 Craftsman Tool Catalog. By 1956 the price had gone up to $52.50. This is the same as my first lathe. I watched each new catalog arrive for several years before I could afford the purchase. As someone noted, the spindle was fragile. I bent the...