Inside Doc's Machine Shop

[DocsMachine]

Got word back from the owner that he was in fact going to reanodize, and wanted the plugs as smooth as possible.

So, into the stripper she went...



And after cleanup, here's a close-up showing how close they were.



The rest just took a little patient care with a couple fine needle files, taking care not to scratch or gouge anything, and working both down to the matching slight curves.



Finally, a couple light passes with some 800-grit, blends them together nicely.



And that's pretty much as 'invisible' as an eye repair gets.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Couple random pics as I empty off my camera cards:

The setup in my Nichols horizontal mill (that I rebuilt from a rusty junker) used to cut the slots in my Flashpoint tips:



I have a digital indexer, which makes this kind of thing a touch quicker, but that was set up on another machine at the time.

And here's an interesting shot from the beginning of an MCB'ers project:



Hope to have that one finished and out the door this week!

Doc.

[Frmrspec]

What digital indexer? I found a couple models I really liked on eBay, then hit refresh and never found them again..

[DocsMachine]

It's an early Haas indexer, built off a Hardinge manual indexer. Haas' first product, as I understand it. Mine's old enough it still has a big stepper motor rather than the later servo motors, but it works perfectly, and is as tight and accurate as I can hope. My CNC mill can't operate a true 4th axis, but it's plug-and-play with an indexer like this.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Doc's Christmas Vacation, Day 2:

One minor project I've been meaning to do for way too long now, is set up my Haas digital indexer on the Arboga drill press. I have a number of parts runs, both already on the floor and in the works, that need radial drilling- air vents, "muzzle brake" type holes, etc. One of these days I'll get this thing set up in the CNC mill proper and do this kind of thing automatically, but for the time being, I still have product I need to get out the door.

I usually set this indexer up on one of the manual mills, but it's really just drill press work- and I have this really nice gear-head drill press with an X/Y positioning table that doesn't get anywhere near enough use.

So I've wanted to set it up on there, where I can leave it set up for a while. The problem with this is the table has no center T-slot:



Because of the channel where the leadscrew goes, what would usually be a center T-slot on a milling machine, is just a groove. In this case I could mount the indexer and it's tailstock to either the fore or aft slot, but that uses up quite a bit of the table's limited travel- and besides, my OCD says they need to be centered.



The fix, however, is pretty easy, just a chunk of aluminum plate as an adapter. I've had a chunk laying around for this exact use, for... longer then I care to think. So I got that slab out, and bandsawed it in half. That got set up in the mill and both long edges milled straight.



I started drilling some holes- this was all designed on the fly, by the way - and realized I was going to need a bunch of threaded holes, to be able to adjust the spacing between the indexer and the tailstock, to accommodate different length parts. That led to the realization- hey, I'm slow -that the two parts didn't necessarily need to be bolted to the same adapter plate.

And, I remembered one of the other adapters I wanted to make- one to mount a 4" Kurt-style vise to the table.

So, I shifted my plans a bit, drilled a few holes in other locations...



And bandsawed that in half.



That meant I only needed to drill and tap two pairs of holes in the indexer's baseplate- one more or less centered, the other shifted to an extreme side to allow maximum length.



Et voila!



I need more bolts the right length, and some washers, but just for a mock-up, we're doin' good so far.

I then cut a fresh piece from the other half of that plate, milled it square, and drilled six holes and tapped two.



That will set the tailstock up like this:



I'll have to pick up the rest of the bolts and washers I need when I make my next town run, but this should work just fine. I'll need to set up a small shelf or table for the indexer controller, but I can use a stool just to get through the current projects.

Oh, and the other sawed-off bit?



Mounts a little 4" Kurt-style vise in the same way, which will make the drill a little more convenient to use on a typical day-to-day basis. I'll have to take that spider handle off, though, as it interferes with the table's crank, but that's no big.

Not a bad way to spend the evening. [checks one item off of 387-entry list]

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Doc's Christmas Vacation, Day 3: Ah, the sweet sting of abject failure.

Most of today was spent running the typical Monday errands- picking up and dropping off of mail, a little grocery shopping (I needed more salsa) and of course stopping off at the hardware store to get the bolts I needed.

I'd hoped to finish up the indexer setup this evening, and start punching out some of the parts, but life, as they say, had other plans.

First thing I did was... well I had to do something bout the rusty handle of the indexer collet closer:



That's how I got it, and I've been meaning to do something about it, so no better time. (I'd probably have to turn in my Procrastinator's Club membership card... but they never got around to sending me one. )

The usual bit of green Scotchbrite, a little WD-40, and a measure of elbow grease...



Then, once I realized that the quill spider was going to hit the indexer body- I put it on that side so the handle faces the operator- I reversed the setup, and using the new bolts and washers, well, bolted it all down.



Now, this particular job takes a small, stiff center drill, but from previous experience on the mill setups, I knew the regular drill chuck can't get close enough to the collet face to reach. But fortunately, I had bought, a [ahem] number of years ago, an MT3 holder that takes ER-16 collets. This was the first such need for that particular tool, so I set it up and...

It won't fit either.



The hole needs to be drilled in that narrowed band, and you can see that neither one can reach. That knurled collar is just a thread protector for the spindle, but even removing that won't let the drill reach. Only way I can do it is with the collar off and the centerdrill sticking further out from the collet than I'd like. (ER's don't like having less than 2/3rds or so of the collet body clamping on the shank- much less than that and the inner portion can close, reducing contact to the outer end.)

What did I use on the mills? An R8 holder that takes the much-smaller ER-11 collets. A little fact that I totally spaced when ordering the MT unit.

So, I'm dinked before I can even start. The time, of course, hasn't been wasted, I just need to order the proper tooling- although at this time of year, it's likely to be the middle of January before I actually get it.

But, as I'm running dangerously low on finished product, I need to drill at least a small handful of these- I have a bin of about 200 to do. Which means I'll have to set the indexer up on one of the mills tomorrow, and punch those out, and at some point after Xmas, I'll order the tooling I need.

One other troublesome bit is the quill depth stop:



Which, in all the time I've had this drill (well over a decade) I've never needed the depth stop. I was trying to use that to set up the... er, setup, and found out it works as a solid stop only slightly better than warm Silly Putty. Using just the little T-handle (and no tools) I can't tighten it enough to hold. I can easily cause it to slide on the rod.

I could throw a wrench on there, but I'm thinking I might need a more reliable clamp. A nut on a threaded rod would be ideal, but I'd have to partially dismantle of the spindle to get the mount off. I may try just making a longer clamp, with two bolts rather than just the one and maybe a heavier wall so it doesn't 'stretch' as much....

Which of course means that even if I'd had the right ER holder, I probably wouldn't have been able to do the job tonight anyway.

Ah, the joys of trying to run a small machine shop... deep in the back woods of Left Armpit, Alaska, and on a shoestring so knotted and frayed it makes dental floss look like bridge cable.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Doc's Christmas Vacation, Day 4, Xmas Eve!

As planned, I cleaned off the table of the big Exacto mill, and set up the indexer and tailstock on it.



... I really need to paint that tailstock.

And, found out I was once again mistaken- which makes what, a total of three times in my entire life? Four at the outside? The holder I used previously in the mills was, in fact, an ER-16, but this one uses a "low profile" nut:



That, just barely, gave me the clearance, but unfortunately the nuts are not interchangeable between the two holders. I'll have to see if I can find an MT3/ER-16 with a low-profile nut... If such a thing is even made.

Another option I thought of was to get one of the extended nose "emergency" collets, and machine it to hold the part further away from the spindle face. Less than half an inch would be plenty, in order to use the existing holder ER in the drill press.

Anyway, for the moment, I need to get some parts cut. Recent sales have depleted my inventory of this bolt down to about half a dozen, and I ran these things on the Omniturn more than three months ago! So, with the indexer and tailstock set up, the ER holder given a freshly-sharpened centerdrill, said drill centered over the part, and the indexer control properly programmed, it was time to poke some holes.

Part in place, tailstock snugged- the aluminum bit 'adapts' the tip of the tailstock to the larger bolt hole- and the spindle started.



With the depth-stop (much more rigid on this machine) set, it's a simple matter of simply pulling down on the quill feed 'til it stops, and then let up. The centerdrill is both stubby enough to not wander as it drills, and also lightly countersinks the hole.



Press the button on the indexer, which rotates the part 90 degrees...



And drill again.



Lather, rise, repeat.



A few minutes with that setup gets me a handful of completed parts- this was the last operation for this particular piece- to give me a bit more buffer in inventory, and the rest I'll run as time permits, between now and the end of the year.

Yeah, shop time isn't exactly the height of Christmas festivity, but hey, it's my thing. And certainly not the first time I've ever worked on a holiday...

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Doc's Christmas Vacation, Day 6!

I've been talking with a buddy of mine about the use of his Scotchman "cold saw". It's basically a slowish-speed metal-cutting chop saw, with a built-in flood coolant system. Ideal for some of my uses, where I need to chop up long bars of raw stock into smaller bits to feed into the machines.

For aluminum, I use the DoAll bandsaw, but in this case, an upcoming jobs needs stainless steel.



This particular unit hasn't been used in a while, as he hasn't had 3-phase since they moved into this shop a number of years ago.

We're making an arrangement where I'll get the thing running, in exchange for being able to use it on occasion- so to that end, and with a looming need to chop some stuff, I brought over a spare KB VFD, and test-wired it.

It's not really "spare", I bought it for the Arboga drill I was just playing with- it's running on an undersized VFD at the moment- but haven't yet had a chance to mount and install it.

One worry was that the big switch at the top was loose and dangly:



It's a 2-speed 3-phase motor, so I was somewhat worried somebody had started disconnecting things- upon closer inspection, thankfully that wasn't the case. Presumably the last user had simply removed the switch just to disconnect the power cable. I was able to plug my VFD right in to the L1-L2-L3 terminals, and she lit right up.

So now I'll have to figure out where to mount the VFD- probably just bolt it to the side, the interior is mostly coolant reservoir. Then set up some new controls, probably the same as the aforementioned Arboga, which also has a 2-speed motor. The original switch was low-off-high, with the VFD, it'll need to be just low-high, and only switched when the VFD is off. (That is, not energizing the motor.)

It also need a pull handle- which, with the machine being Swedish, means metric threads. And all my manual machines are of course imperial.

And... the blade that's on it is thrashed beyond being able to be resharpened, so that'll need to be replaced, too.

But, today's exploratory was just to see if it even worked- which it does- before we start throwing money at it.

(Some of) the rest of the day was spent drilling and reaming another small batch of these barrel tips...





And with the bores done, I lit up the CNC-converted Logan and turned the ODs between centers, to true them up.



At some point this weekend, I'll run those through the other CNC, to get the last of that stuff out of the way. I need to set up some new tools in that machine, but needed to finish off that the current tool set needed to do, first.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Doc's Christmas Vacation, Days 7, 8 and 9!

Been kind of all over the place, trying to get everything done before my vacation time dries up. One important thing is, I've managed to reduce my to-do list from 347 items to just 512! Progress!

Anyway, to catch up on at least two of the bits- we've ordered a couple of blades for the Scotchman, and I've at least got the switch wired and a cable pigtail run.



The trick now is to figure out how best to mount the VFD, and where to put the new stop/start buttons. Easiest and simplest is to just bolt the VFD to the side of the cabinet, and then bolt a utility box to the switch cover.

Back in the turning front, I kept cycling the parts through the Logan CNC...



Eventually getting them all turned to size.

As I said, I still had the tooling set up in the Omni, so since I need to move on to other parts on that, I needed to get these cut and done.







And done!



And while those were running, I swept off the big turret lathe, and swapped back from the 3-jaw to the collet setup.



And started rough-drilling some stainless blanks.



Why do that on the turret? The Omni doesn't have the rigidity to drive that big a spade bit, which means I'd have to drill it in stages with a conventional twist drill- probably five steps before I could bore it. In the turret, I can ram that drill in, making a nominally 5/8" bore in stainless steel, in one pass, in a little over a minute.

Until I get the Scotchman saw up and running, I only have sixty or so blanks, but that's enough to bother running through the turning center. After I got the first batch drilled...



I swapped collets and re-set a two-tool block in the Omni...



And started processing those.



With all the other things I'm trying to get done, I'll only have a chance to do a few short runs, but even still, I should have this batch ready for the mill by Wednesday or so.

Wish me luck!

Doc.

[jeramiej]

Doc,

The “Duke” version III. Revival time !

[DocsMachine]

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce my *Tenth* Lathe!



It's a bit of a fixer-upper, sure, but whereas most of you might see missing important parts and broken castings...



I, of course, with my practiced eye can see the vast potential lurking in there. A mere several thousand dollars, a few thousand man-hours, and she'll be as bright as a new nickel in the wellwater again.



... Before you all finish sharpening the torches and lighting your pitchforks, yes, I am pulling your collective legs rather hard.

The truth of the matter is that this poor beast is a parts machine. Through a great deal of luck and some good connections, I was put in touch with a semi-local fellow who had this, which is a virtual twin to my big Springfield. Same swing, same bed length, same features- and a serial number just 47 newer than mine!



The owner bought it a few years back, and after some examination and consulting experts, it was determined it was just too far gone. Too many parts missing, too many Broken pieces, too much wear. Yeah, it could be saved, but you'd put a lot of time and parts into it- and the owner needed a working machine more than ne needed a heavy project.

To that end, he bought a different machine- a Polish made lathe that was in much better shape. And that meant this one's getting scrapped.

Luckily, word made it through the grapevine to me, and by juggling a few schedules, I had the opportunity to drive up, with help, and grab what parts I could before the rest goes off to the great Scrapyard in the Sky.

The main bit I was after was the taper attachment. Longtime readers that watched the older rebuild posts about my Springfield, may recall that mine had a taper attachment, but it wasn't the correct taper attachment. Mine's off an older Lodge & Shipley, and some previous owner made some adapter plates to make it work.

This parts machine has the complete attachment, including the shoe! (Although it appears to be missing the gib for said shoe.)



That alone would have made it worth the trip, but since I had more or less free reign to salvage, I also got the threading dial, which mine didn't have...



The original-style oil pump... (yes, it's all there.)



A period-correct "War Department Finish" tag (which I wasn't able to grab, but hopefully I can get later...)



And a handful of other cool bits!



I didn't take the tailstock or the chucks (the latter would have cost extra, and I already paid a little more than I wanted to) but I got an original compound (the one on my machine was repurposed, I think off a newer Leblond) with a cross slide and gib, a Springfield carriage stop (the one I have I think came off a Morei-Seki) and treasure of treasures, the tool-tray arm!



That's the thing with the board full of cylinders. That arm bolts to the back of the bed at the tailstock end, and usually holds some sort of tray or rack to hold common tools, oil cans, etc. In this case, some previous owner had a setup that held 2J collets, probably for a handwheel assembly like my 3J chuck. The collets were unfortunately very rusty- like mine, the machine had been stored poorly, outdoors for a period of time- and I don't have anything that takes 2J.

But, I also got one of the factory locking blocks for the tailstock (readers may recall I made my own to replace a missing one) the single-tooth 'dog clutch' assembly (mine's badly worn- this one's a little better) and an original steady rest! (Missing one of the fingers, but that's fixable.)

Again, I'd have been happy with just the complete taper attachment, but the rest is icing on the cake!

I will, of course, in my copious free time, at some point need to start cleaning, painting and installing some of these bits, but fortunately nothing will really take a great deal of work. A little sad to see a once-good machine junked, but I'm happy I was able to finally find some of the missing, original parts.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

You normally-sharp-eyed folks missed something big (comparatively ) in the previous set of pics. The parts machine's tailstock actually still had the original dauber!



For those of you woefully underinformed about the vagaries of antique machine tools, back in the early days of machine tools, one often used a "dead" center to support a long shaft. Basically just a piece of steel with a 60 degree point in it. There was a 'black art' to using these- too loose, and the shaft could push away by cutting pressure, and the accuracy would be lost, and too tight, and the tip of the center could overheat from friction.

To help with this, of course they used a lubricant- and for a long while there, one of the best "extreme pressure" lubes was a grease made with "white lead", or lead carbonate. And, to make it easy to apply and use, almost every lathe of that period, had a small well drilled into the tailstock housing, with a small plug called a dauber in there.

Pop it out, apply a little white lead to the part, put the dauber back.

Thing is, its a small and fiddly bit, and frequently lost. And of course white lead started being phased out in the 50s, and replaced with "live" centers, that is, ones with ball bearings, that don't need external lube.

This one, with all the time that has passed since this machine was made, was still there.



You can still see the traces of what I'll assume to be some of that white lead.



A small dollop of paint stripper got the two or three layers of paint off the thing...



And a ride through one of the other lathes....



And a slip of 320 grit, got most of the rust and tarnish off.



There's still some deepish pitting that won't easily sand out, but that's no big.



And voila!



Now, of course I am unlikely to ever actually use the thing- they invented live centers for a reason - this is pure OCD-assuagement. But hey, it was there, why not grab it?

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Organizing my Carbides!

Last weekend I got caught with my proverbial pants down. I was running some parts through my CNC turning center, and the internal threading tool started to show wear. No biggie, I thought, I have a couple packs of them...! Er, no, I don't. I had several packs of external threading tips- the 'points', er, point the wrong way.

Turns out I had no extra inserts for the internal tool. And of course the point that just wore out was the last of the three on that insert.

Nothing for it but to order more, and go do something else while I wait- thankfully this job isn't a particularly time-crucial one... But, one of the things I'd put on my To-Do list for 2025 was to organize my inserts a little better. I'd initially considered consolidating them at a single point in the shop, but after some thought, decided to keep some version of what I already had- two drawers near the manual machines, and one drawer near the CNC, with the inserts segregated to fit each machine.

The drawer for the manual machines was easy- it's one drawer in a Lista style cabinet (possibly a Vidmar, I don't honestly know) and I'd forgotten that I had some separator/dividers that came with it. I dug a few of those out and just randomly threw together a section that separates the packets of inserts:



Again, that's just a rough first try, and basically just jumbled. I need to sort out the inserts by type and size, soak those old labels off and print some new ones, and generally just jog things around a bit 'til it feels right.

The tool rollaway fro the turning center is a different story:



That drawer used to be a bit more organized, but I've been running this machine a lot since last fall things have gotten a bit jumbled. The right-hand side was more or less the drop zone for inserts and wrenches, so I scraped some of the crud away, and laid the packs out to get a rough idea what I was looking at.



Taking a few rudimentary dimensions, I got out some scrap cardboard and whipped up a quick tray.



Which looked like it'd work nicely in that position.



I cut and glued in a few dividers, kind of randomly spaced, making six pockets for inserts and one for wrenches.



Roughly like so.



The tray is deep enough to stack three packs per pocket, which should be plenty, all things considered. The two drawbacks of this design are first and foremost, the pockets are deep and narrow enough it's tough to grab the box. Second, that's as far as the drawer comes out, so the rearmost pocket is almost inaccessible.

So, onward to V2.0!

Considering for a moment, the walls between the pockets simply need a cutaway- a standard feature on things like silverware organizers. I won't worry too much about the rearmost pocket, and just put the least-used inserts in that one.

But, I thought while I'm at it, why not a few extra pockets for drill bits, taps, used inserts, screws, and so on. So I started on another tray, a few inches wider.



That got some partial dividers...



And then the other half...



And then the central "wall" to divide the two rows.



That fits in the same drawer, and takes up a bit more than a quarter of the space. It gives me six pockets for inserts (potentially a total of 18 packs) a pocket for the Torx wrenches, one for the regular Allens, and six more for 'whatever'.



The cutaway dividers make it easy to reach even the bottom-most pack:



Now, while I'm sure that lightweight laminated cardboard organizers are in fact the future, for now I need to figure out how to make this in a sturdier material.

Any ideas? I have a buddy that might be able to 3D print the whole thing in one go... Or I was thinking of making it out of some thin birch plywood. Either via traditional woodworking (table saw, scroll saw) or cutting it out with a laser.

The laser also offers the option of something like clear acrylic, which could be cut, slipped together, and then solvent-welded fairly easily.

I don't have a sheetmetal brake fine enough for this sort of detail work... And other ideas?

Doc.

[Cal440]

Doc you even make cut out cardboard look professional! Maybe you could coat the cardboard with something to strengthen it and make it last? If you can't find someone nearer, I do have a box and pan brake I'd be happy to bend up some trays for you but it would be shipped from Michigan.

[DocsMachine]

A sheetmetal version of this would be interesting, but awfully complex. I actually have a spotwelder, and with the right parts, I could go that route... I even know (in a vague way) a few aircraft rebuilders, that might be able to be conveinced to help me rivet it.

That's getting a bit carried away, though. I'd personally prefer to make it up in the thin birch ply, but just from a time constraint- and this isn't exactly a showpiece- I may just have my buddy 3D print it.
Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Picked up a quarter-sheet of some 1/4" Birch ply from Homey-Dee today. That's enough to make half a dozen of these things.

My buddy and I are going to schedule some time in the next week or two to use his wood shop. If nothing else, I'll want to use his tablesaw to make some straight, square bottom and side parts- and I can do the rest of the shaping on a scrollsaw.

In the meantime, I took a little time this afternoon and did some more organizing to the Lista drawer:



I'm still going to consider this "in flux", and it's open to change, but that's the bulk of my collection right there. (Save for the half-dozen over in the Omni cabinet.)

Points of note: The box marked "inserts" at the top right is a relic of my days taking the classes over at the community college machine shop. The teacher there had a coffee can full of used- and some new- inserts, and he let me rummage through for some usable ones.

I picked out several dozen triangular ones- TPG flavor or thereabouts- and a few others, and those kicked off my use of carbides, over 20 years ago. I still pick through it on rare occasions, but they're so obsolete these days I think I only have one boring bar that even uses some of them.

The front corner of course is the collection of Torx and hex wrenches- and I'm thinking about making a stand, or even just a drilled block, to hold those upright.

The round can to the left has my collection of used and broken inserts. Carbide can be recycled, of course, and once I get a couple more pounds, I'll probably send it all in. (That can's about two and a half pounds now. )

And in front of that can- and a few in the other two rows- are some older oddball inserts, usually some solid stuff, no center hole, and none of which I have a holder for. These usually came in with bulk tool buys, or piles of tools that came with the other machines and the like. Probably ought to throw some of that up on eBay, or even just off to the recycler as well.

Anyway, may not be 'perfect' - if there even is such a thing- but it's better than before. If I can get the CNC cabinet tray done, I can check two things off the to-do list.

Doc.

[russc]

I started using the gridfinity system for organizing my tools. It's fairly popular in the 3D printing hobby space. There are some things I don't like about it, like the 42mm spacing being chosen as a Hitchhiker's Guide joke (but it's not a natural fit for anything, metric or imperial), and I don't bother putting magnets into it (cool points wankery). Overall though, it's a neat system that is easily customizable. There's a guy who made a Fusion 360 plugin that creates the bases for you, so I just use that to make a blank canvas and build my custom storage on top of it. Plenty of other stuff like hand tool dividers and assorted bins can be found ready to print online.

[The Hobbit]

Now I feel like I need a 3d printer to organize my toolbox.

[superman]

This is something i have been meaning to try and figure out, but the last thing i need is another project. lol

[DocsMachine]

Yep, been following the Gridfinity stuff for a while. It has it's pluses, definitely, but I'm hobbled a bit by not having my own 3D printer...

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

I was running more of that stainless today, and if I haven't mentioned it before, it ended up with about a four-minute cycle time, maybe closer to four and a half. That helps the inserts live longer, and cuts down on the smoke.

Anyway, while those were running, and since it's fairly warm out there (high thirties) I decided to throw some paint stripper at some of the new Springfield parts. I wanted to do the tool arm, the threading dial and the carriage stop, but that crap non-meth paint stripper couldn't peel the sticker off a banana.

It softened the paint somewhat, which made it possible to scrape it with a razor blade, but it didn't wrinkle-and-loosen like the good stuff, so it can basically just be pressure-washed off.

I gave up on the bigger pieces, 'til I can buy a can of better stripper. I had some from Homey-Dee I used last year, which seemed to work well despite being the non-meth formula, but I think I used up that quart can already. That or I put it away somewhere safe.

The carriage stop had flat faces and relatively smooth castings, so that, at least, I was able to scrape reasonably clean.



As noted earlier, the machine had spent some time out in the weather, and hadn't been well-maintained even before that. I had to use a little... persuasion to get the barrel unscrewed from the body.



The barrel was already slightly bent when I got it, and the knob had been manhandled by somebody with pliers once or twice, so both of those will probably have to be remade.



But, after a little of the stripper, some razor blade action and a bit of Scotchbrite, at least the castings came out nicely.



And of course that was as far as I was able to go this evening. It's definitely one of those jobs I'll just have to keep pecking away at... The tool arm will be easy if I can get some good stripper- that one won't be much past strip, prime and repaint. (Though I'm still not certain I still have any of that particular color left on hand.)

I don't yet know what the threading dial will take, it's frozen solid, too. And the steady rest... that one will wait for spring. It needs more of a proper fix and rebuild, along with the whole taper attachment.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

Finally! I've been fighting with these damned parts off and on for almost two months!



I really need to get to the indexer set up and start figuring out how to run these in the CNC mill. That's why I have the dang thing!

But, that said, while I still need to wash 'em all through the ultrasonics, and get 'em packaged up, that gets me roughly a year's worth of product back in stock, and I can move on to the next project!

Doc.