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I would not buy it. A self centering 4 jaw chuck is only used for holding precision ground round material. They are used where rigidity of the work piece is an absolute necessity. Look around and see...

There's no need to get all excited over sharpening these drills. I shape and sharpen these drills with ease. The biggest I have so far sharpened is 5/8" and the smallest is 3/16". These were...

A Toolroom Lathe is a very special and specific form of lathe. The photo of the Boley is an average example. The lathes were very solid with a heavy main spindle and very precise fitted ways and...

Hi John
A 10mm end mill will run quite happy at 1500 rpm. I can fully understand your anxiety about climb milling but a ball nose cutter is a far cry from a normal solid end mill. The secret to...

Make sure there are no "loose" spots along the clamping plates. With only about 3 to 5 mm overhang from the milling table, you should be getting a super finish. The first thing I would check is the...

I needed a high quality jack that would be as versatile as possible. The jack had to lift the boat off the car, lift the boat and trailer, lift the car and my mates truck when needed. I have never...

Your problem is that you have far too much front clearance on the end of the drill. Reduce this to the amount as shown on my previous post/s on drill sharpening and you will have no more problems. Do...

Have a Bo-peep here. I wrote a lot of info about this very same thing not all that long ago.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/search.php?searchid=7430941

Read all the posts and replies that I wrote...

Hi Ray
Punches that have curved edges (dished in the center) are used when the hole to be stamped out (pierced) are relatively big in diameter. These are normally found on sheet metal type dies. The...

Gudday Bruce,
thanks for your kind comments, yes, it's so good to work in thous. Regardless of what anybody says, thous are the best ever for working with. I do love working with press tools, they...

Hi Jordan,
Entry is the distance the punch enters the die after it has penetrated the material being punched. If you stop the punch so it is level with the top of the die, the slug may not come away...

Hi Jordan,
HSS is notorious for shattering when used as a small hole punch. It often disintergrates and the small pieces fly out with great velocity. These small pieces can do a lot of damage to you...

To make the punch, you need a piece of 1/2" dia Silver Steel. This is machined down to 3/8" leaving a 3mm thick head at the end. the 5mm dia. is flared into the 3/8" dia. with a generous radius. It...

When I was teaching machining at a college in the US (I was the senior instructor in charge), obtaining a great finish was always so hard for the students (ages 19 to 55). If I remember correctly,...

Sorry but O1 precision ground steel is not suitable for springs. It is a tool steel for making special tools. It cannot be forged without risk of hot short and it lacks the chemical properties for...

You don't have to machine a bar and "waist" it to set the lathe bed. If you find that the job is tapered, simply chuck a length of solid bar in the chuck and place a dial indicator at the end. Set...

This www site might help. Untitled Document


I don't have any brass taps/dies as such but have used a lot of BA threads in building my "Simplex" steam loco. These threads have been great to use...

All fixed steadies have three steadying points that are arranged at 120 degree intervals. I would never be without mine and I have two of them for my lathe. One is the standard fixed steady that came...

This should be an easy job to do. If you are drilling metal, make sure the drills are sharpend perfectly to begin with. Many a new drill I have used has needed to be resharpend before it could be...

I have always preferred not to machine two collars on the 300 mm shaft. The problem is because of the length of shaft protruding from the chuck. It is all but impossible to machine a 25 mm shaft of...

I have a precision level but I hardly ever use it. A lathe does not need to be level. I have my lathe set with a slight fall to the right and to the back. This slight fall ensures that the coolant...

If the sleeves are properly cleaned and assembled, they will run without any wobble. When assembled correctly, wobble is a sign of a bent drill shank. If you are going from a No.2 up to a No.3 for a...

Do you mean the run-out is actually Radial run-out? Two mm run-out Radially is far too much. Check the spacers for correct size and true running without being mounted in the wheel. The max run-out...

The gudgeon pins must be a specific length. This is achieved when the pins are being ground to diameter. The pins are run up to a special stop and then the ends are finished ground. Only a very small...

A gudgeon pin such as this would make a most excellent master square. These pins are centerless ground and the end are squared off to form an annulus on the end. This is a small ring that can be seen...

Some time ago I wrote a series of articles for this forum about thread cutting with a lathe. With more people seeking advice on threading in the lathe and how to do it, I have taken the liberty to...

Cutting a four start thread is easy to do. It's no harder that a two start thread. I could do it for you but my Myford Super 7 is not up to the job. A much bigger and robust lathe is needed that can...

For Joe Hovel and everyone else,
Thank you so much for the great comments about my drill sharpening article, you are all most appreciated. Please feel free to use the information I presented. I...

I wrote a full length article on drill sharpening that was very easy to understand. If you do a search you will find it here on this forum and also on the land yacht forum. I have taught many people...

My guess is that it's a cheap die-cast hinge for light duty only. The countersunk screw holes do suggest its for light duty. If it was for heavy duty, the holes would be standard holes to fit bolts...

All my benches either for welding, woodwork or general use are 900mm wide. Any narrower and there is not enough space/area for setting up with jigs, clamps etc. If you made the bench 600mm wide you...

I would make the frame from 50x50x3 mm RHS with good bracing all round. The top is a little thin. I would go for at least 5mm but my own preference would be 6mm. I wouldn't use ally (aluminium?) as...

If you make a table frame using any form of mild steel to use for assembling and welding stainless steel you will severely damage the stainless steel. Any tiny amounts of mild steel grit or rust or...

Hi Ray
It's great to see that you have had excellent success with the carbide inserts, keep up the good work.
:2tsup:

You are using the lathe for machining so you obviously have some form of tool holder. Therefore I would make what you don't have and so make the fixed and travelling steadies.
To shape the tool for...

I'm not fussed on using carbide for machining aluminium. The high raked angles as shown (carbide) are the only style to use. I find the biggest problem with carbide is to obtain a razor sharp cutting...

When I was working at a college in the USA, I was in charge of the (highly advanced) machine shop. I needed some truly accurate angle plates, 3"x3"x3" and 3/4" thick sides. To be able to grind these...

shop around for the taps that are used for making standard nuts. The threaded section is the normal length but the tap body is such that the nuts are lifted up in a continual feed. I haven't seen one...

I never use carbide on my lathe as it is a belt drive. Carbide needs lots of power to use properly and if the spindle/lathe stalls, the carbide will chip every time. The best material for cutting...

When I am drilling a deep hole or a very ductile metal eg. aluminium, I much prefer the TiN coated drills. The TiN coating has extreme "slipperyness" or lubricity. This means that the swarf has much...

I had to screwcut an Acme thread for my Simplex loco. The thread was .25" OD and left handed. The nut was also screwcut to fit. The total length of the shaft was about 2.75". The thread was no more...

I made all the springs I needed for my "Simplex" 5" gauge from 16 SWG music wire. I bought the wire from a local RC Airplane supply shop. This wire comes in lengths about 650mm long. The wire is...

I guess I'm too much of a scrounge. I reckon $150.00 is far too much to spend on a tool to melt lead for sinkers. I made a "ladle" from a piece of 5" steel pipe x 4" high that I then welded a bottom...

I find that a far safer way to treat the rods for making the holes in the sinker is to pass them over a candle flame. The candle flame will coat the rods with a thin layer of carbon. The lead won't...

And thank you from me. My grandfather was in the Boer War and at Gallipoli. He was one of the few to return home.

I would be wary of any timber that had a tannin content. The tannin will seep out from the humidity and it can make the tools rust up very quickly. I would favour an oily timber and my favorite for...

Can someone let me know if the English made taps, "Goliath" brand in HSS are a high quality tap? I have lots e 5/8 BSF holes to tap in some 316 stainless steel and I need some good taps.
I have been...

Hi Greg
What a great effort! You have put a lot of thought into this problem. Well done.
Unfortunately I do not have a milling attachment or collets. All I have is a 4 jaw and a 3 jaw chuck. I do...

One of the things I have always stated as an instructor in machining is, "If you have only worked a cnc lathe you will never be able to work a manual lathe without training in turning". These two...

Cup-head bolts as pictured above will be perfect as the cup-head is obviously on the inside of the rails to protect the horses. Just keep in mind that the steel used in cup-heads is not as strong as...