Who has machine tools?!?

[XEMON]

I'm worried about you ... Are you starting to machine paintball tanks?

But in all seriousness, it looks sweet!
Any specific job waiting for for it?

[DocsMachine]

And DONE!

In August of 2013 I hauled this junker home...



After it had spent at least a decade out in the Alaska weather, and had been rather badly mistreated by a legion of previous owners.

As of today, we can officially declare this Monster project DONE!



She's 99.5% complete and 100% at-will operational. Those chips in the pan aren't just set dressing.

And for those that might have a hard time judging scale, that's a 10" 3-jaw chuck, and the tailstock drill chuck is a Jacobs 20N, capable of holding up to an inch shank drill.

She'll swing 18-1/2" and fifty-six long, weighs about three tons and has a ten-horse 3-phase motor. And it is damn near good as new again- better, in some cases.

Doc.

[Jellyghost]

Thanks Flounder. I am not sure (but I have cheap blades to practice upon), but I think I can bore it out using my drill press. I think I can line it up with a bit that matches the current hole, and then clamp everything down before switching to a larger bit. Lets see how it goes. It should save quite a bit because I have this big cache of blades looking for a saw.

[XEMON]

Nice piece 👍
That will make lots of chips

[Flounder]

Some higher end blade manufacturers used to offer to bore blades out to a larger hole. You might find a sharpening shop that can offer the service as well. A quick Google search shows a few different 3/4 arbor blades on eBay and Amazon as well

[Flounder]

I a have a new project to work on now. Step one is get it off the trailer. Most of the missing pieces are in the back of the truck. Will need to source a few things to get her up and running but excited about this new project, a special thanks to one of our members here who get me involved with this deal.

[Jellyghost]

I was just given a 60+ year old table saw. It appears to be a great saw, but the arbor is no longer a standard width. A standard arbor is about 5/8ths of an inch, and this arbor is 6/8ths of an inch.
Do you have suggestions for widening the blade hole or turning down the arbor? I have a drill press. I do not have a lathe or a relationship with a local machine shop. Thanks!
This may become my dedicated Dado saw.

[XEMON]

If for some reason I could only have one machine, it'd likely be a lathe. You can get "milling attachments" to let you do limited flatwork and slotting and the like.

thanks, have you ever used one of those 90deg vice on the tool post?

[DocsMachine]

If you can have only one, lathe or mill, small full size/medium table to, which one would you want and why?

-It depends on what you're needing to do. If it's work on a paintball gun, I'd say a lathe, as so much of our stuff is round. Hammers, bolts, barrel threads, feed necks, etc. If you want to mill a 'Cocker body or make a grip frame, then you'll need a mill.

If for some reason I could only have one machine, it'd likely be a lathe. You can get "milling attachments" to let you do limited flatwork and slotting and the like.

Any idea how you make a gunstock on there?

-A ShopSmith is not a single machine. Chances are the used the bandsaw portion to cut out the rough shape, the tablesaw to slice some of the waste off to help make it round, the router/shaper attachment to inlet the barrel trough, the drill press to inlet the magazine well, and the disc sander to do some of the rough smoothing.

He could have also used a dado blade in the tablesaw for the inletting, and used the bandsaw for the initial rounding, etc.

Lots of ways to skin that particular cat.

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

What's gonna be the inogural parts?

-Parts?!? Are you mad?!? Actually get this thing dirty with chips and cutting oil and swarf? That'd be like asking your supermodel girlfriend to wear a burlap sack and a luchador mask.

Doc.

[XEMON]

Awesome!
What's gonna be the inogural parts?

[XEMON]

-Like a 3-in-1 machine? Simply put, I wouldn't have one unless for some reason I absolutely had to.

I have always recommended getting two separate machines- even when space is limited, a small desktop mill and a mini-lathe are often far more capable than a combo machine.

Doc.

thanks, that's what I was thought 😅

My drill press is a table top, and it live under my work bench, between my tool box and my OA set, I just pull it out and sit on the floor when I need to drill ...
My mini lathe is in an old TV cabinet ...

I thought about getting a table top mill and putting it where my tool box is and move the TB where the welder is, but then I need to move the argon tank too ... And where does the welder goes? ...

If you can have only one, lathe or mill, small full size/medium table to, which one would you want and why?

Also, my wife has a Shop Smith her grandpa bought in 56 new, he was making gunstock on it. Unfortunately all the tooling got lost in the last 40 years. Any idea how you make a gunstock on there?

[DocsMachine]

That ratty old antique I've been wasting time on is finally done!



As in 100% done, and fully operational. It's been placed, wired, filled with oil and given a preliminary levelling. I have a metric buttload of tools for it, and hope to run my first production batch through it this weekend.

Who else out there has machine tools? Don't be shy, let's see 'em!

Doc.

[DocsMachine]

I already know the answer, but do you have any experience with a combo?

-Like a 3-in-1 machine? Simply put, I wouldn't have one unless for some reason I absolutely had to.

The main issue is that it'll always be set up for the wrong thing. You need to mill something? It'd set up as a lathe. Need to turn something? It'd set up as a mill. You'll spend a LOT of time just switching from one to the other.

Second, the mill head is always very limited. There's minimal "daylight" between the spindle nose and the 'mill' table- a drill, a drill chuck and a vise eat up a lot of that daylight in a big hurry.

On the flip side of that, there's always a limit to how close the spindle can get to the table- some guys with combo machines fab up risers to raise the vise for small parts.

Add on to that that the 'mill' table tends to be very small, the lathe rarely has back gears or a quickchange threading box, etc. and basically those machines are too limited to be really useful.

I have always recommended getting two separate machines- even when space is limited, a small desktop mill and a mini-lathe are often far more capable than a combo machine.

Doc.

[XEMON]

That's kind of how I feel about my mini cnc ... It's an awesome lathe but it takes me 1/2h to prep the part, 1/2+h to program it for a job that I can make in 15-20 minutes on a regular lathe ...
That's exactly why I would love to find a larger manual lathe to complement the mini cnc ...

A mill would be nice too ... But I definitely do NOT have the room for both ...

I already know the answer, but do you have any experience with a combo?