By Howie Grunert When I am using the lathe I always need a pad of paper and a calculator handy to decipher those big numbers! The paper sat on the drill press table and the calculator behind me on a cabinet – not very handy. Photo 1 shows my lathe with a toolbox under it, [...]
Shop Made Collet By Al Hanson The photo shows a shop made collet used to chuck a reamer in a 5/16" collet in my milling machine. The reamer’s shank diameter has been reduced to an odd diameter and I didn't have enough vertical height to use a drill chuck. I did have some 5/16" OD [...]
By Ron Geppert Over two decades ago, I acquired a French 1822 T-Bis percussion pistol in .69 caliber made by Chatellerault, but it was missing the hammer and screw. I finally found a hammer from a Westley-Richards lock that was close enough to fit. To determine the thread pitch and diameter for a hammer screw, [...]
By Dave Kellogg In many cases a tool is more pleasant to use if there is a shallow depression to help locate the user’s finger. Consider, for example, a rotary knob a couple of inches in diameter that the user spins, such as a radio tuning dial. Another example might be a lever the user [...]
By Chuck Dorcey I had considered replacing the tailstock clamp on my Jet BD-920 lathe (which requires a wrench to adjust) with a cam-operated mechanism, but before going that route, I asked myself, "Why isn't a quarter turn of the wrench enough to release the tailstock?" The answer is that when the clamp under the [...]
By Roger W. Thomas Oversized taps are available in the marketplace and the common size is +.005". They are typically used when sending a part to be heat-treated. Since you normally get shrinkage when heat treating, it is proper to use an oversized tap. What do you do if you have an odd tap size [...]
