After a one month hiatus due to a number of reasons (typical of home shop machining), Max and Justin are joined by the King of 16″ South Bend lathes: Tom Utley. But nobody in the hobby calls him that. He is King Tutley. Tom, an engineer by day, is best know in this hobby for his time (over the last 3 years!) and dedication in taking a clapped out second world war 16″ South Bend lathe and returning it to better than new condition. Some of the interesting topics:
- Tom talks about the bench grinders he has been working on that will soon be up for sale. If you are interested in getting a properly restored Baldor bench grinder be sure to get in touch with Tom!
- We talk about paint. Is 2 part epoxies worth the trouble for machine tools?
- Previously a woodworker Tom has moved into the metal side of things. The people are generally more friendly, albeit slightly less normal.
- Why don’t we encourage more to work with their hands? All three of us share our frustrations with a general society that no longer values craft work. Shop work is good for the soul!
- A well documented page on Tom’s journey: http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/south-bend-lathes/1943-south-bend-16-x-60-lathe-resurrection-299300/
- Chemical Etching. Tom has done a fantastic job with all the brass name and label plates on his South Bend:
- Photo resist etching. More popular with watchmaking types, Max talks a bit about his journey into photo resist etching:
- Variable Frequency drives. Tom has put a great deal of effort into the VFD controls, enclosure, and wiring has installed on his lathe. It is one of the best executed projects of such nature on the web:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxVLWTiW7E
- Huanyang VFDs: a fine German made product?
- The Guillocheur Video: https://youtu.be/uN-zN8OLh_w
- Of course would the show be a show without mentioning Stefan?
And much more! You can listen to it directly here:
or you can download it directly.
Many many thanks to Tom for coming on the show and sharing some of his story. Tom is very active on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kingtutley/ We also encouraged Tom to more actively tell his story on Youtube. Everyone subscribe to his Youtube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfhJT5GO9B0QwUo007XMsGQ
Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521
Max’s website: The Joy of Precision and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdMt_havo3BxZJscvRCOGcw Max’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyofprecision/
Stefan Gotteswinter (our occasional host!) website: http://www.gtwr.de/ and also his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl Stefan’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/
Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/
thecogwheel 
Ah, another round trip to work with my buds!
I just have to write back on many subjects! First, I totally feel the “pushed into management” thing, and being frustrated by it. I get twitchy if I don’t get my hand dirty regularly. I’ve been forced into management twice in my career, and managed to fight my way back to doing technical work. There is some level of appreciation for the highly technically skilled folks and some level of paying for it, but I would be making quite a bit more money if I had gone to the dark side (or, perhaps, the clean and boring side). Early in my career I actually had an HR person tell us that “the technical career ladder is broken”. Pretty shocking to get an honest answer there! As I advanced the HR folks also worked on the ladder, and now its possible to follow it all the way up. Or, at least almost all the way up. No clue how they pick the “Chief Scientist”. I’m reasonably clear what I need to do in order to join the next layer down.
OK, enough of that work stuff, on to the fun stuff!
So, toner transfer. The weird thing about toner transfer is it actually works BETTER with small traces. When I was building audio amplifiers I always had trouble with the big, high current traces. The little tiny signal traces always worked great. Paint pens are another way to touch up. As far as I can tell, the faster your etch the less you have to worry about pinholes/holidays in your coating. I’ve had pretty good luck with electrochemical etching also. Its done with salt water and electricity, and doesn’t involve nasty chemicals. You do have to make electrical contact with the part, which can be limiting. I ran across a description where the guy was making reed valves for pulse jets out of stainless steel shim stock.
I am totally with all of you on raising your machine tools! My mill is almost 6″ off the floor, and the lathe is even higher! You want to get your main handwheels up to the point that your elbow is about a 90 degree angle.
Oh, and Rockwell is the best mill for a home shop 😉
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Thanks Rod. Some sound advice and handy tips. We won’t debate the mill here, but the Rockwell is a close second :).
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I just rewatched Tonys video on the Schaublin 13 and I think you are right that he is in Europe. The Schaublin is connected with a CEE type 3-Phase Plug and a Schuko type plug for the DRO. The DRO is a Heidenhain which is the dominant German manufacturer for these things as far as I know. Also the smaller one of the gas bottles of his torch is grey with a red sholder and a big “N” printed on ist. This is the color coding according to european norm EN 1089-3, the “N” stands for “new” since this norm replaced all national norms in 2006 and there was a long transitional period between old and new color codings. The larger bottle corresponds to the EN 1089-3 color coding for oxygen
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