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I walked though the machine shop at work yesterday and was a little displeased to see this. The power was on and the lathe was in gear. Just made me want to reach out and touch someone. Apparently a maintenance man had used the lathe to drill a hole. He also removed the QCTP from the cross...

These days I'm the manager of a CNC secondary machining department. I also do the purchasing for plant maintenance. The maintenance guys come to me with an obsolete low pressure gauge. 0 to 15 ounces per square inch with a front flange mount. I cant find those gauges anywhere on the internet...

I've used that trick. Thanks for sharing it here! I was working the day shift in the CNC department, dreading the day ahead. The job was a thin wall part where the OD was turned last. I knew it was going to chatter and ring like a bell. The third shift man had four of them finished with no...

My lathe is getting old. (So Am I!) Things start to wear out. My 3 jaw chuck runs out about .002" now. If I'm making a part that needs to be flipped for machining on the other end the 4 jaw goes on for the second setup so the part can be indicated in as close as possible. If a part can be...

WOW! "They don't make em like that anymore" !!!! Great find Dave!

Rule of thumb: Buy the biggest lathe your hobby budget allows. The smallest lathes come with challenges that can be frustrating, but they are better than no lathe at all! :cool: Rick

3 jaw chucks are not really precision things. They get bumped, banged, abused and go out of round. There is a way to fix that. Even in an out of round 3 jaw chuck, the tool will cut perfectly round. Chuck up a piece of scrap stock and turn it to any size you wish. Cut off a short section of...

In my day job I purchase from MSC almost every day and from Enco occasionally. I wasn't are of a connection between the two companies. MSC sells quality machining products. Enco sells decent import stuff at a much lower cost. I do know that an order from MSC will be delivered next day. An...

Oh No! That was a golf ball on top that flew, not the thundermug. That thing weighs more than I'd want to have flying around the back yard. Had my experiences in younger days as well. Made a little model rocket car that shot right under the crawlspace of the house when we lit it. Made a tin...

That looks like a bad example of homemade flash powder. :eek: You wouldn't want to use flash powder in a signal canon. It could become a bomb. These toys aren't really unknown to me. About 10 years ago I was into high power model rockets and had a BATF Low Explosives Users Permit. I didn't use...

Actually I saw it here: http://www.pyrocreations.com/salute_cannons Lower area of that page. Rick

I'm in my 6th week of recovery from back surgery and I'm getting bored. When I get bored, I usually end up getting into trouble. No exception this time! :rolleyes: I saw these little brass, relaodable firecracker like things on the internet. Didn't take long to figure out the actual...

And Patience! ;) There's nothing worse than roughing out an eccentric quickly to find it's moved and you have to start all over again. Rick

jwcnc1911, Beautiful work! :bow: I do a little bit of smithing for family and close friends, but liability concerns limit it to that. Plinking with the 45 can be a little pricey. 60 cents a round for factory loads, but only 24 cents each for reloads. I have an answer to that as well. This...

I love poking holes in paper targets and knocking down threatening empty soup cans. I recently purchased this import clone of a Commander size 1911 45ACP pistol. (The grips and trigger are not original to the pistol. It may as well LOOK good.) Out of the box accuracy wasn't terrible. Rapid...

We had a couple hundred parts at work that wouldn't accept the Go-Gage after being plated. I purchased a special size drill bit to drill-ream the small end hole to specs. My right hand was starting to get a little raw from manually running the parts up and down the spinning drill bit that was...

I was no student when I made a "part" that looked a lot like that. At the time I had about 20 years experience. Simple pins with a chamfer on both ends. Brain dead, boring work. Pull the stock out of the collet, touch off the end of the stock and teach +.030" The program would call up a facing...

I have used boring bars for facing applications and facing tools for boring shallow bores. It's not something I'd recommend, but sometimes you have to use what you have on hand to accomplish what needs to be done. It's all about common sense. If it feels shaky or unsafe, it probably is. Don't...

The BIG things will get you too if you get reckless. I was drilling 1-1/2" hole in a compacting ram to prepare it for tapping on a Carlton 8' X 19" drill press, identical to this example. The radial arm is 8 feet long and the column is 19 inches in diameter. The 1-1/2" drill bit got so...

When you work in a job shop, speed will keep or cost you your job. Some machinists take medium rough cuts and depend on one finish cut being accurate. I always took the heaviest rough cuts the machine would push and allow stock for 3 finish cuts. The first pre-finish cut was just a spring cut...