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I have finally gotten around to cleaning up a variable speed Powermatic drill press that I picked up at a school auction some time ago for $75. It's a metallic green one made, I'd guess, in the '70's. It weighs a ton! This is a clean up, not a rebuild. I'm not sure the unit was ever used since...

I have an old Craftsman 24" throat scroll-saw that I have been tripping over for almost 40 years. It is used almost never and takes up a lot of floor space, I have been questing for a die filer, but I've had no luck. The saw has about a 1 1/4" stroke. So, I am seeking opinions on cutting up the...

I have an old Acu-rite II DRO on an ancient B'port. Today it started acting funny at one end of the travel so, figuring it has some crud in it, I took it apart and discovered that there is a crack in the glass scale about 4" from the end and that is what was making it get confused. Since the...

Didn't get much response over on GJ so I thought I'd try this group as well. I recently purchased a 16 ga. x 52" "stomp" shear from a government auction. It's a JET made in Taiwan. It appears that it was never commissioned since all of the some-assembly- required items were still wrapped up in...

I have most of two Delta 6"x48" vertical belt sanders. One was trashed at work when it tipped over and broke the table trunnions and one is from a school auction for $35. On both machines, the aluminum upper drum that the belt runs on is worn out and it is a part that delta no longer supplies...

Working on an engine that uses brass gears which I am learning to make. Going well so far (one test piece). My question is whether bronze would make a suitable substitute for one of the gears. So, it would be bronze on brass. Don't know the alloy; it's an old propellor shaft. Aluminum is also a...

Does anyone worry about shrinkage factors when casting small parts typically used in small engines. Depending on where you look, the shrinkage for aluminum is around 10% or (in another place) .156"/" . This seems significant even for a small part. Thoughts?

I have seen several posts where the poster indicated that they had measured a bore and found, for example, that it tapered .0002 in an inch. While I know this level of precision is possible, I'm curious what tools and set ups are used in a typical home shop that allow this level of measurement...

I have been setting aside material to build a furnace and I have done a lot of research on same. There's more out there on the internet than one can absorb. In all the things I have seen, I notice one common theme that has me confused. Why do all the furnaces have a big hole in the top to let...

I have used an adjustable boring head several times with good results although my approach seems a bit clumsy. Basically I usually rough the hole undersize with a drill or other means. Then I adjust the boring head to clean up the hole (hopefully still undersize). I measure the hole and from...

Half the stuff in my shop seems to have become magnetic. Pick up a drill bit and you get all the chips it just cut along with it. So, the question is what recommendations do you all have for de-magnetizing this stuff? I have one of the little ten cent store things which is useless. Also, what...

There's always a risk in these topics of revealing something that everyone already knows. I grew up with conventional measuring instruments (non-electronic). For the last 10 years or so I have been switching over to digital stuff because it seems a good value to me. For a large part of that time...

I have read through a lot of the posts under this topic and have some thoughts. Just my ideas on the topic. For many, myself included, there is a certain thrill in making something from "found" material. Many times this works out well. Sometimes it doesn't. I made some parts yesterday from some...

Hi, this is my first post on this forum, so thanks in advance for any feedback. I have a Bridgeport M head machine with a dovetail ram that was originally built in the late '50's. It's in fair condition and, generally, adequate to my needs. However, the tooling limitations imposed by the...