by Steve Acker One of my customers brought in an old lever-action rifle with a centrally mounted hammer. While in pretty good shape overall, the hammer was very loose in the frame side-to-side. The hammer pivot pin and the pivot hole in the hammer were badly worn. He wanted to reduce the side-to-side play of [...]

by Mike Solomon I have yet another method to align the tailstock with the headstock. I have used this method for years and have found it to be quicker and more accurate than the usual center-to-center method. All that is needed is two pieces of drill rod; 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch diameter works well. [...]

by Herb Helbig Here's a very minor screw cutting tip, but it may be useful to some folks. I often use a screw-checker to trim bolts to length. Clamp the checker in a vise and run a nut up the bolt to lock it against the screw-checker plate, leaving the excess sticking out the back. [...]

by John Meacham A previous email tip (MW, December 08) about centering a round piece under the mill is similar to how I set my lathe tool at center height. I put a steel rule (use an old rule!) between the cutter and the work and if the rule is vertical the cutter is on [...]

by Walter Yetman Flowers can bloom any time of the year using some basic machinery and a little creativity. The materials needed for this project can be purchased at any hobby store. An evening or two spent in the workshop will produce a beautiful bouquet of brass flowers! Beginning with a template, I scribed the [...]

by William J. Haworth I have never been one to let "a lack of machine capacity" prevent me from attempting a project! I was faced with the following issue: I needed to bore an aluminum bicycle wheel whose diameter was 20". Since my lathe was 13" (with no gap) and the throat dimension of my [...]