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It’s been a while since I did any maintenance on my Craftex Mini Mill and things are starting to move in ways they just aren't supposed to. One of my biggest beefs on the mill has been the fine feed knob. I don’t know if this is common on all mini mills but on mine the fine feed has about 1 1/2...

The one thing missing on my ML7 is a resettable dial on the cross slide. I wasn’t thinking of posting this but there might be something in it that someone can use so we’re going to jump in in the middle. The inner hub is pretty straight forward. There are 3 evenly spaced holes drilled 1/2” deep...

I’m pretty sure if you look up “weedy tool rest” in the dictionary it just shows you a picture of this thing. I’ve been meaning to replace the rest on the grinder in my garage since the day it came out of the box but never got around to it until now. After a little head scratching and a few...

Stumbled across this the other day when I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole. Just one more use for a 3D printer I never would have thought of.

We’ve been in “social isolation” for going on a month and all the interesting stores are basically closed. It’s also been unseasonably cold and we still have about a foot of snow in the yard so I needed a project. The other day I was printing a new enclosure for my engraver and this was going...

I have (had) a foot switch that I don’t use often but I do like it if I’m using my little tankless compressor with my airbrush. The other day after using it when I unplugged the compressor it shattered like glass and the socket pulled right out of the base. When I took it apart I noticed a crack...

I can’t remember exactly when it was that a marketing guy decided that the average consumer wasn’t smart enough to squeeze out equal amounts of epoxy from two separate tubes so they started packaging it in the dual syringe style that in some cases is all that’s available. The idea was...

So I decided to start a build thread on this thing and perhaps share my pain. I needed a new project and started work on it just after Christmas. I’d been reading a lot on the internet, and watching a lot of videos on 3D printing but after watching Thomas Sanladerer series “Dolly: The Prusa i3...

I had to think where to post this? Tools, Machine Modifications, Home Foundry & Casting Projects? In the end this is a casting project. Whenever I finish a project with a lot of holes to tap I start thinking of making a tapping jig. After finishing Mr. Elmer Verburg #5...

I ordered a 4 pack SCS8UU bearing I’m thinking of using on the X axis of my laser engraver from one of my favourite Chinese suppliers and had a chance to mess around with them over the weekend. On line I have read that they may be half the price of brand name but you should order extra...

I’ve always liked Elmer’s No.5 geared engine because it’s such a weird design but the ring gear is just too expensive for me to justify to myself. Playing around with the geometry it looked like it should be doable with almost any ring gear so long as you adjust the gear arm length to keep it on...

Emler’s geared engine has always intrigued me mostly because it’s such an odd design, but with the cost of that ring gear here in Canada is around $75.00 so I just couldn’t justify it to myself. Then while cleaning up the workbench I rediscovered my “drill grave yard bin” and in there is a...

I finally got around to doing some long overdue work on the mill this past weekend. I’ve had iGaging DORs on the X and Y axis for a couple of years now and had picked one up for the Z a while ago when Busy Bee had them on sale. I’d also picked up a gas spring to replace the damnable torsion...

I’ve had a few people tell me that they like the project (http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/showthread.php?t=25783) but don’t feel comfortable with the electronics. I’ve been playing around to simplify it down to where I feel anyone who wants to could comfortably build the controller. With...

I want to be able to cut the gears, and to do that I needed an indexer or dividing head. I’d looked at a lot of plans for different styles of mechanical indexers and was leaning toward “A Fairly Simple Dividing Head” http://www.deansphotographica.com/machining/projects/divider/dividinghead.html...

A couple of months ago I stumbled onto a web article titled “MAKE THIS 3D PRINTED LASER ENGRAVER FOR JUST $20” https://3dprint.com/79856/diy-3d-printed-laser-engraver/ created by Stephen Brockett an engineer in New Zealand. He has made all of the information available in the public domain...

I knew that they are using a lot of plastic gears in small engines but I didn’t know that they are making the cam lobes out of plastic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL7xWCAlczU Model engines (generally) don’t run under any load so with some of the filaments out there now could 3D...

I know I haven’t finished the Whippet castings but some things have to happen when my wife is out. For the past couple of years she’d been putting out water for the birds all summer in basically a dog dish so I thought I’d try casting a birdbath for her for Christmas. I wanted the pedestal...

I have a center punch that lives in my garage, it’s was a cheap one I’d picked up and I have had a love/hate relationship with it for years. The picture below shows just how the trigger on this type of punch works.

* * * WARNING! * * * If you are looking for a fast paced, exciting thread that ends with a great model engine making that iconic first run . . . this isn’t going to be it. This is going to be about trying to make the pattern and about as fast paced as watching paint dry. But it may have molten...