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Today I did a production run of adjuster bolts for the V-guides. The lathe has been set up with the centered threaded collet and I wanted to anneal some die blanks. When preparing the vermiculite I remembered the bolts in the container. I used a slick machinist's magnet to get them out before placing the hot die blocks in for very slow cooling. So I did the bolt center drilling. Used the gas forge to heat the die blanks simultaneously. When I was machinig the die stock I decided it was a bit too hard for my tool steel dovetailing bits, so I'm trying an elementary annealling to see if it matters. Now I can use the lathe for other things. That took most of the morning. My steel shipment arrived. So I spent a buncha time flame cutting pieces to length-plus. The plus amount allows milling to square and to length. It is for the next Octagon 50 that I'll be starting on real soon now. I ran out of oxy and acet so I ran after tanks before closing time.
