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Would it be possible to rather grind the grooves than to machine them? I'm thinking of perhaps mounting a Dremel tool in your lathe's toolpost, if the bearing's ID is large enough to accommodate one of those Dremel grinding disks... The other option would be to anneal the bearing, do your...

That's probably why the belts were sold as surplus in the first place - long past their "use-by" date 😇 In my experience, it's not advisable to re-join belts purely due to safety - unless you are using them on a belt grinder with speed control turned all the way down... and then you might as...

Timo, Man... that's just bragging... like the guy complaining that he pays $1 000 000.00 tax every year ;) But yes, you have my sympathy - I battle to just clear the chip tray below my lathe every week or two 😇

Thanks. Unfortunately my photographic skills are not on par with my knife making :oops:

Keenest edges are obtained with fine-grained steels that do not contain large carbides. Some modern powder metallurgy "super steels" actually have much finer grain, and smaller carbides than O1 or A2, and can achieve both a keener (i.e. thinner) edge AND be stronger (less likely to chip or "turn...

Timo, We can spend hours discussing the points you mentioned above. To keep things simple, though, let's just talk about the various types of belts, and the grits used - from a knife making point of view, but applicable to most metal working. As I stated earlier, it pays to use the better...

Gordon, You could consider the chemical etching technique that most knife makers use to etch their logos on to their knives (both hardened carbon and stainless steel). Just Google "photo resist etching"... Here's an image of my knife-maker's logo: And here's what it looks like on a knife...

This is an interesting statement - do you care to elaborate? Not being an accountant, I cannot see how even a noisy milling machine would affect one's property value. After all, after you have sold the house you will be moving out with your machines, and any "lost" value would be immediately...

Great build - Belt grinders are hugely versatile, and mine is my most used machine in the workshop. Some comments/suggestions from a "frequent flyer": Get yourself a contact wheel in addition to the flat platen - a 300mm/12" diameter is ideal. The "rebound" from a wheel is mush less than...

Thanks for everyone's continued input - much appreciated. Dave, I'm still looking - have received some quotes on new machines, but decided to follow advice from the Forum and also look into second hand units - not so easy living in South Africa... I will probably bite the bullet in a week or...

Thanks everyone for your input so far - much appreciated. I'm still waiting for a couple of quotes, but at this stage I think that I will be looking very seriously at the Knuth VHF1.1 with the ISO 40 taper. Yes Timo, that's pretty standard - same as with music amplifiers, most cheaper...

Thanks for this - given that the Bridgeport type of machine (with the horizontal spindle) is substantially cheaper than the universal head machine also pictured in my first post, and everyone's input that it would be more suitable to hobby-type work, this settles that debate for me. Next...

Thanks for your post, Stof. PM sent regarding your offer to share contacts - much appreciated.

Thanks Richard - that helps a lot, and I concur with the points you made. This was one of my main concerns, and I raised the question in my very first post: The Universal Head machine that I'm looking at does have a power feed in the "Z" axis (through the knee), but I could not find anything on...

Thanks for everyone's input so far - keep it up :) Richard (and everyone else...): I'm certainly not being argumentative about this advice as I don't have enough knowledge or experience with milling, but please elaborate on why you're making this recommendation (I like to understand "why" with...

Thanks for your input, Clockworkcheval. That is one of my concerns, hence one of my original questions "Does anyone have first-hand experience with the latter type of machines, and can you please explain how one would accurately adjust the milling depth on it?" Drilling small holes would not...

Thanks Dave, but from your attached data your drill/mill is even smaller than my current BF2, only weighing 75kg vs ~110kg of the BF2... I'm really looking to upgrade to a "proper" milling machine... not to replace it with something similar to what I currently have.

Hi Everyone, Following up on the most informative discussion "Let's talk drilling", I would really appreciate your comments and input regarding milling machines. I've been using a little Optimum BF20 mill/drill for the past few years, and have become more and more frustrated with it's lack of...

Will, yes - if it was me, I would certainly treat the re-hardened tools with LN. I would not try to reduce the grain growth through multiple quenchings, as I mentioned earlier, as that would likely create even more carbon loss, without any guarantee of grain refinement. Case hardening requires...

Congratulations, Gordon - welcome to the club :) If I may comment on this - W1 only has a very small % of alloying elements, and I would expect that it would only be necessary to soak this steel for a short time - It's never a good thing to keep any steel heated for longer than is necessary, as...