BIGGUNDOCTOR

Hope ya got deep pockets,or a supplier of surplus. The last time I priced some Phenolic it was pretty steep. Can you do a core of something like fir, and veneer it with maple/phenolic? The phenolics I have are tough on compression, but seem to separate fairly easily when compressed edgewise. I remember watching the hydraulic CNC spinning lathes at Mare Island NSY during one of the family days. Pretty cool watching the part form. The only thing I have spun was an aluminum oval air cleaner base for a friends car. It fit a single four barrel. I used a 2x6 for the form, and a broomstick for the tool. Did it in my 18.5"x54" Monarch lathe run up as fast as it will spin-850. Came out really nice, if I do say so myself.

pics would help. The screws may be holding the gib. The locks that I have seen are singular in nature.

Since this is a job that you do not want to mess up, I would suggest contacting a good stone mason in your area. If you want a desk built you get a woodworker, if you want metal brackets made you get a metal worker, if you need something done with stone you get a stone mason. Not saying you cannot do this yourself, but since you have sooo many questions I would seek the services of a professional. Maybe even have him install it for you. Not saying you can't watch and learn.

You can always use the handle for twisting bars with some inserts for different size bar stock. Pics? Don't worry, what you have is a case of smithitis, a fairly common and incurable diease that causes one to scrounge metal, and tools even when their is not an immediate need. Someday you will find a use for your newest treasure.

Having a rigid setup is paramount. You want the bit pretty much on center. Some books say .015" above, so that the torgue draws it down to center, but I usually just center it. To get center you can use the tailstock center as a guide. Make sure the blade is perpendicular with the part, if not it will drag on a side, and possibly grab. Another thing is a lathe that is tight. Too much play in a compound, or cross slide can allow the bit to grab also. I usually throw a small radius on the top edge to help curl the chip, say .1875-.250 back starting at the tip, and maybe a .1875 radius. I just use the edge of the bench grinder to do this. If you are doing a really deep cut, run the tool back so only 1" sticks out. When you bottom out extend it another 1", etc. This will help to cut down vibration, and help the rigidity. With HSS your chips need to stay original color, not getting any colors from heat. Also keep the cut well lubed with oil, or coolant as you make the cut. I was doing some parting at work Friday. Speed was around 400 on a 1" steel bar, continuous oil flow, and a steady feed rate. The chips should curl up into little rolls. As you feed it into the part it should be cutting smoothly. If it is ringing, either slow the speed down, or increase your feed rate to load the tool. I have parted some parts as slow as 80 rpm, so you just need to play with the speeds, and feeds to find what is optimum for your setup.

Do you have a time machine? All your pictures were taken in 2008. :P

It is a bit high $$$ in my estimation for that vintage. I have a newer (60's?)16" G&E that is in great shape which I picked up for $350 at a machine shop auction. It doesn't have a universal table, which can come in very handy at times. I also don't see an outboard table support. Hard to tell condition without actually running it, and looking it over in person. The side door will give you access to internal gearing inorder to inspect it. As with any machine tool you want the least backlash as possible in the screws, and ways. Tooling is basic HSS toolbits. They are nice for roughing down rough material like castings, and forgings. Dovetails are also easily done with less expensive tooling. When doing internal work a jack is put against the clapper box to keep it from moving. He doesn't mention the size of that unit. I also don't see it marked on the tags. Mine is a 16" which means it can machine a 16" cube. Bigger items can be done with offset tooling, and other creative ways of holding the part. Some shops still seek out shapers for big internal keyways, as they can usually buy a shaper for what one large keyway broach would cost. A 16" shaper runs around 3,500#. A friend just walked away fromm a 24" hydraulic shaper that was given to him a few years ago. The last one I saw, sold at an auction a few months ago , was a 20" Cincinatti. It was newer than that one by a few decades, and it fetched around $500. Look up shapers under used machinery dealers, and you will see that they generally go pretty cheap. A lot of times they are just scrapped, due to the low demand.

What are you using for the pattern material on the spinning lathe? All of the ones I have seen were birch, or maple.

Unless you are parting off at high speed,doing production, or cutting hardened materials, you probably don't need the carbide insert style of parting tool. Most of the parting I do at work is done with the HSS blade type of parting tool. I have some thin brazed carbides that I use for some instances. You chunk a HSS blade, and all you do is resharpen it. You chunk an insert,and you toss it in the carbide scrap can. Most of the ones I have seen broken cannot be flipped around, as there is nothing left to hold onto. I have HSS blade parting tools that I have had for over 20 years, and they still have a lot more life left in them.

Drums are cheap around here. All of mine were free from work. There is a food company up the road in Utah that sells them by the pallet load for $4 ea. Most of the time, folks are happy to have someone haul them off because the scrapyards won't touch them, unless they are cut up, or crushed. I just make sure they are totally empty before I pick any up. As for making my own coal, I don't think I have that much time to wait. Charcoal on the other hand- possibly, but I can get coal for $120 a ton. If I need charcoal I can always clean up after the high school has their bonfire. Another option for you is get a couple of sea containers, and roof between them. Not only do you get a covered area, you also get inside storage. Check for a Ritchie Brothers auction in your area. Why the lease purchase? Why not just buy it now? Too many things could go wrong between now, and the final sale.

I did the opposite, walls with no roof. I still have to weld the back wall up, still figuring out how I want to do the drums for that one. I don't have to worry about snow, or rain much here. Wind on the other hand....seen a few days with winds 40/50/60mph. Here are a couple of shots of the 55gal drum smithy. The first is the exterior, and the second shows how the drums can be used for storage. Later I plan on adding some shelves inside the drums to help separate the items better.

Frosty, the big problem here in the desert is the heat. I have had green bananas go over ripe in what seemed like just a couple of days. I have a bunch of them in the freezer, and when I get my 12qt Hobart back from my neighbor I will be doing a banana bread bake-a-rama. I have even tried storing them in the basement, but they still get ripe really fast. For my banana bread I use the basic recipe from Better Homes and Gardens then add cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and have also tried cardamom, and black pepper(which actually works good). German Pfeffernusse cookies have black pepper in them-one of my faves. I have had great reviews of this non-standard banana bread. I don't measure the spices, just toss enough of each into get it a darker colored dough. Probably in the realm of the amount of cinnamon used(but not more than) for each spice. Play with it till you like how it tastes. We went from 100's to 70's-80's with rain really fast this year. Just had a huge electrical storm this week-cool stuff to watch. I came home to lightning, and woke up to lightning the next morning. I hate the rain, but we do need it. Lake Mead is down 130', the lowest since 1937. I may have to try one of those banana racks myself. Aquamanlr, haven't forgot ya, just haven't had the scheduling right to run past your place in Las Vegas.

Don't trash the bad ones recycle them into something else, get all blacksmithy on them Try piercing them hot,and making rings, use them as clappers in sleigh bells, play around melting them, sell them to the local kids as high performance shot for their slingshots--ummm, you may want to scratch that idea, but you get the idea. If it don't work out sell them as scrap. This may help some. Take a tap with a sharp point on the tip, put it into the chuck, and line up on where you want to drill the bead. Lock the vise down, and bring the tap down hard enough to center punch the bead. Replace with drill, and it will be lined up from the start. One thing I have seen is cheap bits with Titanium lipstick. The main thing I would look for is Made in USA. When you put a cheap bit next to a good quality one you will see the difference. My shop teacher showed us some bits from a big box store, then proceeded to bend them in half with some pliers. I wouldn't be too concerned with any coatings for this job. HSS is an alloy(s) used for drill bits, lathe tools, milling cutters, etc. It can get extremely hard with heat treating, and holds its hardness even when extremely hot. I don't have my Machinery handbook handy, but it probably has chrome, vanadium, etc to take the heat.

It's OK, drill bits are like Doritos. Use all you want, they'll make more Even with a center punch you can get off center on a sphere. If you have a vise on the drill you can put a block in it, then take a 1/4" fender washer that has a 2-3 holes in it around the outer edge. Drill, and tap the lower block so that you can run a 10-32 screw through the washer and into the block. Then spot the block centered on the washer with a 1/4"-5/16" drill Once done it would clamp the ball between the washer, and the block in the same place under the drill chuck each time. Then I would use a center drill to put a pilot dimple on the ball, before drilling. When done loosen the 3 10-32's and pull the completed ball out. When you put the next one in it should still be aligned on center.

I have a cut down 55 gallon drum full of free gray wood ashes straight out of the woodstove. When I need to anneal a part, or cool a cast iron repair, I would just stir the ashes up, and pop the piece in the ashes.

Took a look at the Enco flier at work today, and they have Acme threaded rods, and nuts on a special. Are you sure the original was cast, or was it machined from a forging? I was going to suggest 7018 if it was due to it's ability to hold chrome-moly's to other materials. You already did the post heat which is good, as 4140 can get brittle at the weld.

How adjustable for HZ are the machines that you are considering? Generally speaking smaller parts run higher HZ than heavy sections. IIRC the induction furnace we ran at the foundry was only around 400HZ, and we were melting 25Kg at a shot. There are units out there now in the MHz ranges for tiny parts. Another big factor is the coil,and the coupling effect that you can get to the part being heated. Part of my duties at work is setting up the zone annealer we have. Pretty sure it is the 25KW unit, we had 3 at one time. Our parts run through a horseshoe shaped coil held over a rotating wheel/fixture. It doesn't take much movement up, or down to really affect the heating time, at a set output. The width of the coil opening also makes a big difference on some parts. The closer fit the better. You have to be able to get the part well into the fields generated by the coil. Too far away, and more power is needed to project the fields out farther to reach. That can lead to overheating of the system because the coil can't dump the heat fast enough. We run the coil water through a chiller to maintain temp.

I have worked with copper, and the shop I am the tool maker for now goes through literally tons of copper a month. One thing no one asked is how well are they being held. It has to remain solid with no moving around, holding it by hand, or not snug in a vise will cause breakage. Sharp vs dull or 0-rake. I have only flattened the edge when drilling brass, copper no. I have never had a drill grab in copper, but instead gall up with chips. For brass, and hand feeding, you grind the cutting edge vertically so that it is parallel with the shank. That way it scrapes instead of hooking. I wouldn't use WD-40, use a motor oil/trans fluid, cutting oil,etc if you have it available. Being a thicker viscosity it will hang in the hole better. The drills we run in the screw machines are razor sharp, and they get pulled at the slightest hint of dulling. We run solid in house ground carbide spade form drills, and HSS twist drills. Drills will last a lot longer cutting the berrylium alloys than copper. The copper will dull carbide faster than you would expect. For your application I would only use HSS drills, carbide will snap very easy if side loaded at all. Dulling them will also make you push harder causing breakage. Just peck the holes IE; drill till you see a small chip form than pull it out of the hole. Do not try for the long twisties, even if it seems to be going well. The other thing to watch is the breakout on the back-prime time to grab, and break. You may want to consider soldering them to a block, or make a sacrificial backer of some kind to eliminate the rounded breakout of the sphere. Each bead should use a new spot to breakout into. Are you using a center drill/ pilot drill, or center punch? If you don't have a straight start you are doomed from the beginning. Drilling a sphere, or any round stock without a starter is not recommended. Also use quality bits, not the cheapest ones at the big box store. Speed- it depends on how well you can feed it, run-out of the spindle, and the drill bit. There is no set speed. Play with speed, and feed till it runs good, but 400 is way too slow, but 700 may run like a dream.1000 may gall up faster than you can clear the chips. But whatever you do keep the bit lubed at all times. Feed-as mentioned before use a pecking cycle to get through these. If you are using a standard home drill press, do not use the handle in the the usual way. For small bits I will run the spindle down by gripping the center hub, not the long handles. By doing this I have less leverage, and less chance of bending a bit. Keep us updated, and did I mention to keep the bit lubed?

Sask Mark, I too am my own worst critic, but one thing I have learned is that the really good guys also know how to hide their mistakes better None of us are perfect, although some of us come very close B)

Found this cruising the net on www.ksl.com. go to the classifieds and search for anvil. Here is a pic he sent me, and more details. 24.5" h 8.5" w 3.5" base 8"x10" 142 with wood block has # 0n the base o 1859 3 and nc on the one side. There is a round hole and a sq hole on the top off to one side. And what is this worth I have had a lot of calls on it "Lowell Koplin" <lkoplin@naiutah.com> Looks like it wouldn't have been too bad if it hadn't lost 1/2 of the top plate.

Hmmm, I had always just called them fullers.

I like the clean simple lines. What is a cheese fuller?

Hey Phil, it was all skill with Dad, no tricks. His first job was with Sibley(sp?)lumber in Detroit. The first day was spent unloading a boxcar full of planks, sizing by eye. I asked him one day how far the TV was from where we were at the table. He looked, and said 24'. I measured it with a tape measure @ 24' 4". He also showed me how to measure down to a thou, or two using a standard 6" machinist's scale. Not that hard once you get the basics down. Besides being a machinist he was also known for the beautiful wood carvings he did. He was a highly skilled craftsman in many mediums. My Dad was an amazing man, in many ways, and he left a huge hole in my life when he passed.

Nothing wrong with a small knife. I use my old Schrade pocketknife for a LOT of work; opening boxes, cutting letters open, skinning various road kill for tanning practice, cutting lunch items up, wood carving, and a lot more. I use my knife just about every day. I can't say the same for the large sheath knives I have which stay in the dresser drawer. BTW the file work is very nice. Personally I think it looks great, but I would probably use only various radii, no sharp corners in order to avoid stress risers. Overall I really like the design, and I am sure that your dad will treasure it.

To check for rebound a ball bearing is dropped, and you watch to see how close the bearing bounces up to the starting point. The higher the better. Cast iron will sound dull, with ,or with out a plate. I didn't see how big it is, but most Fishers have a couple of bolt/spike holes between the feet for mounting. It looked kind of rough to me to, and my first thought was a copy, but it could just be how it is. My Fisher is 260#