Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 14 – Phillipsed

When one Phillips isn’t enough. Recorded in between years as Stefan would say, Max invites his brother Thayer and his father Fred on to join in an end of year discussion with our new semi regular co-host Stefan Gotteswinter! In this episode we talk about:

Fred’s shop that Thayer works out of. Fred has a really nice Rockwell mill (one of our all time home shop favourites) and a Southbend Heavy 13.
We talk about gunsmithing in the United States, Germany and Canada
Live free or die!
CAD and Stefan’s embrace of Autodesk Fusion.
Stefan machined some really nice Torx screws using his Deckel pantograph.
Justin is busy making Christmas presents.
Stefan wants to get a CNC lathe in 2018.
Max is hoping to finish his Trent pinion mill.
Both Max and Justin are hoping to get back to semi regular posting on Youtube.
And finally cars. Max is hoping to get some German iron.

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Many thanks to Fred and Thayer for joining in!

Many many thanks also to Stefan for coming back on and agreeing to become our third co-host! We hope to get Stefan on much more frequently in 2018. You can find his website here: http://gtwr.de/ Stefan also has one of the best machining Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl.On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

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/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

A final note regarding the live stream with Robin Renzetti and Stefan Gotteswinter. We are still hoping to do this in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more announcements!

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 13 – Have You Checked Your Oil?

After over a one month hiatus, Max and Justin are back with episode 13!

Some of the things we talk about include:

Max has had limited time in the shop. What does work always get in the way of what we want to do?
Justin purchased a sub $200 USD digital read out from eBay. He calls it the Shenzhen DRO. And so far it has been pretty good.
Justin’s new lathe – a Standard Modern 12×30 Utilathe. It was terribly dirty.
Which leads us into maintenance. Why do so many people neglect equipment?
Max goes into the wonderfully simple cone style plain bearings. Keep it clean and adjusted!
Bearing preload
How do you keep track of all those oil points?
The importance of way oil
Chuck lube. Let the debate begin. Max and Justin like getting sprayed with oil apparently.
A live stream episode with Stefan Gotteswinter and Robin Renzetti? Let us know your thoughts!

All that and a few tangents (would it be a show without a few?)

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

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/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

Not Now, Dear

I’m sure every wife feels it. The pang of guilt when we say “no” to our husbands. It happened to me the other night, as Justin and I were laying in bed. He rolled to his side, and looked at me with hopeful, almost expectant eyes. A gentle smile was on his lips. After he’d asked the question, I sighed and closed my eyes as the wave of guilt washed over me. “I’m sorry,” I said, “but I don’t think now is the right time to buy another machine tool for the shop.”

I could tell he was disappointed, so I tried valiantly to support my response with reason so I didn’t appear too callous. I reminded him that in the past 10 months, he’d purchased a Schaublin lathe, a Craftex mill, and a surface grinder, not to mention the various tooling additions needed to operate them. He’d also been generously gifted a tool and cutter grinder, and while that hadn’t cost any money, the time to drag these machines home and set them up for use was more than a small investment of precious hours. I also suggested that the point of owning these machines was not offer them a humble home in our garage, but rather to make something with them.

As Justin conceded that I might have a small point to support my argument, I opened my eyes. Surprised to see him getting dressed, I asked where he was going. “To make some chips,” he replied, as though it should be obvious. “These machines had better start earning their keep.”

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 12 – ABOM79!!!

In this appropriately large episode Max and Justin talk shop with the great machinist and skilled Youtuber Adam Booth (ABOM79)!

Some of the things we talk about include:

Adam’s amazing work ethic
Behind the scenes of a successful Youtuber: hard work and dedication
Adam’s love and respect for his followers and fans
Pride and Ownership: Adam tells everyone to do their job, whatever it may be, to the best of his or her ability
Working for someone and working for yourself
The giant shaper and its new home
Adam’s future plans for his shop and equipment
Beer. Don’t tell us you’re surprised!
Why this show is so long

All that and much more!

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

A very grateful thanks goes out to Adam for agreeing to take some time out of his very busy schedule and join us on the show. You can find Adam on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Abom79 and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abom79

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/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

Fixing a Mill Drill Stand

If you listen to the podcast you already know that I purchased a Rong Fu Mill Drill. While some people have issues with the round column, the mill drill is a significant step up in machine capacity and machining performance when compared to the X2 mini mill.

For those unfamiliar, the Rong Fu Mill Drill looks to be a heavily modified drill press. There are several size variations, but most utilize a R8 tapered spindle with provisions for a draw bar. The dovetail table has a relatively large travel of about 450 mm (over 17″) and 200 mm (just under 8″).

While there is much debate on the origins of the Taiwanese mill drills that started showing up in the 1970s, the most probable explanation is they are simply rather crude copies of the Fehlmann mill drill machines. Fehlmann is a Swiss machine tool manufacturer and they still build a number of mill drill machines, although I suspect you if have to ask the price you cannot afford them. Besides the very similar appearance, the main reason I think the Rong Fu mill drills are copies of the Fehlmann is primarily because of the tapered gibs on the Rong Fu table. Fehlmann being a Swiss machine tool company in and of itself is another telling reason why they were copied.

Round column mills are not just limited to two companies. Emco also manufactured several round column mills around the same time as Rong Fu started. A German company also manufactured a nice home shop mill drill branded as Ixion around the same time or slightly before the Rong Fus started flooding the home shop market.

The Rong Fu mill drill I purchased came with the typical flimsy tuna can stand that is oh so common on import machine tools. I did not purchase the machine new and the previous owner was selling the stand with it, otherwise I would have passed on the stand and just built one. Initially I was going to weld up a new stand out of 2×2 steel tubing, but then I thought could I just dump a bunch of concrete in the bottom and kill 2 birds with one stone; adding weight and rigidity? That and I find concrete a very useful engineering material in the home shop from previous antics.

And that’s exactly what I did. For less than $75 and one day’s home shop work, which is less than what the material alone would have cost for a tubing stand, I now have a rigid machine tool stand.

I’ll be posting further on the mill drill as I use it, but so far it has been a great addition to the shop.

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 11 – Shop of the Future

In this episode Max and Justin decide to prognosticate about what the home machining shop of the future looks like. 50 or 100 years down the road is it going to be full of modified CNC machines, or will the electronics on those machines render them scrap and only the old school manual machines still be in use? We talk about

Max’s sea foam green stamping fixture
Max is working on a new TV stand for the house
Justin finished his tailstock tap and die holder
A new mill drill for Justin’s shop. Did he make the Rong choice?
The Dodge Omni and Shelby GLHS
Do all VW owners hate Honda owners?
Max’s hatred for all things Digifant
Laser bandsaws
Motivated millennials: will they keep CNC machines going?
Are we living in an golden era for home shop machining?
Will the cheap tooling end?

All that and much much more!

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/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/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 10 – Practitioner of the Mechanical Arts

In this episode Max and Justin talk with the great Robin Renzetti, Practitioner of the Mechanical Arts (Robin – we hope you have that on your business card!). We talk about:

Robin’s gifted ability of machining and all things mechanical
Robin’s resume. A model of a helicopter rotor head. And yes, he made very piece in his spare time!
A little bit about Robin’s shop
Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy
Turcite and gluing it with Loctite Black Max 380
Other Loctite products
Moore pattern scraping
Scraper sharpening
Spindle design & bearings
Import collet tricks
ER vs 5C style collets on work holding – make sure when using ER collets as work holding collets the stock sticks through the entire collet!
Pot collet runout and Robin’s pot collet setup:
Jaw chuck repeatability
Jacobs taper size
# screw size formula
Mapp gas turbo torch and silver soldering
Lathe file body oil
HSS belt sander backer

All that and much more for over 2 hours of listening!

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Many thanks goes out to Robin for taking the time to be on the show. Be sure to give him a follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinrenzetti/ and also subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ROBRENZ

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/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/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 9 – We Are Finished!

In this episode Max and Justin talk about finishing and both agree that they are terrible at actually finishing projects. In fact, it is amazing that this podcast is still being recorded and not sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust waiting for completion. It did actually sit for about a week until Justin managed to finish the editing! In this episode:

Justin finishes his toolpost for the Schaublin 102 and now is onto making proprietary arbors for the tailstock. Why do watchmaking lathes seem to always use proprietary tooling? (Max’s Rivett is no exception)
Max made a quick and dirty ER11 collet holder for the Hagar mill. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHO_IefxoA8
Stefan Gotteswinter is mentioned numerous times.
We talk about the cool planetary backgear setup on the tiny Craftsmen 109 lathe, its only redeeming feature.
Max’s hand wheel for his Rivett:
http://joyofprecision.com/post/124430721351/replacement-cross-feed-handle-for-the-rivett-8

http://joyofprecision.com/post/124431412156/replacement-cross-feed-handle-for-the-rivett-8

http://joyofprecision.com/post/124431554281/replacement-cross-feed-handle-for-the-rivett-8
The escapement matching tool was also in 3 parts:

http://joyofprecision.com/post/61980632919/my-latest-tool-making-project-is-an-escapement

http://joyofprecision.com/post/63220596732/here-is-the-latest-update-on-my-home-made

http://joyofprecision.com/post/63755099441/made-a-custom-storage-box-for-my-home-made
As usual after about an hour into it we finally get to the topic du jour: finishing. We look at all sorts of angles but find ourselves looking forward to the next podcast guest!
Lathe files: https://www.amazon.com/Nicholson-Hand-American-Pattern-Rectangular/dp/B006P2XGDU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502337709&sr=8-1&keywords=lathe+file and https://www.amazon.com/Bahco-104-12-3-Smooth-Lathe-12-Inch/dp/B007YR9J2W/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1502337709&sr=8-5&keywords=lathe+file
The Beetles conspiracy theory. You need your tin foil hat for this part.

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/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/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

Shop Made Quick Change Toolpost

A few weeks ago now I finished a quick change toolpost for the Schaublin.

The design is based on Andy Lofquist’s MLA-23 toolpost. Andy is the man behind the wonderful Metal Lathe Accessories kits (http://www.statecollegecentral.com/metallathe/). While I’ve never ordered any kits from Andy, I’m told that they are very high quality and are exceptionally thought out.

After quickly considering a Tripan toolpost and changing my mind after I saw the prices on those I ordered a set of drawings for the MLA-23 toolpost. The original design is for 9″-12″ swing lathes. The Schaublin is an 8″ swing lathe. After drawing up the original toolpost in Fusion and drawing up the Schaublin cross slide it was evident that it was too big. I decided to design a scaled down version, making some changes along the way.

The largest change is in the dovetail size and the shape of the body itself. I wanted something that would match the Schaublin’s size, but also look, so I manufactured the body out of round material instead of square. The toolpost is optimized for 1/4″ HSS tools, but 5/16″ will fit.

The internal workings are that of the MLA-23 toolpost. The design is exceptionally rigid and works very well. It is also a wonderfully simple in design. Part of the reason I really like this design is for its simplicity. I believe the best design is one that doesn’t allow you to take anything away. This design, in my opinion, is one of those designs.

Some people don’t like that the toolpost doesn’t repeat in angle position – that is once you loosen the locking handle you completely loose the rotational position of the toolpost. This is a downfall of the design if you truly need rotational position repeatability. When I work in the shop I’m constantly moving the toolpost around to allow for tool clearance. So much so that I made a handle for my Aloris clone on my 10×18 lathe a number of months ago. I do have provisions in the design to allow for graduations on the base to allow for visual rotational positioning. We’ll see if I add it.

The build was interesting and fun. I learned a number of things along the way including how to cut dovetails on the shaper. It took a bit of time, but it reaffirmed the very useful nature of having a shaper in the shop. Instead of waiting for a dovetail cutter I could grind up a simple tool and cut nice dovetails, at any angle, and get a super finish. I’m told you can build the entire toolpost with a lathe, but there is a fair bit of milling work so even a mini mill would be a huge help.

Since the design borrows heavily from Andy’s design I don’t want to release drawings. What I’m planning on doing is forwarding a set of drawings to Andy to include with his prints if he is interested. So if you want to build the smaller version, which is a perfect size for the mini lathe, send me an email and I’ll try to get you a set of drawings.

I made a build video of the entire toolpost in montage style format as well.

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 8 – G’Day Mate

In this episode Max and Justin take a trip down under, and back to the future, and talk with John Creasey, an avid home shop machinist from Australia. As usual the discussion topics vary considerably, but we do talk a bit of machining. In this episode you’ll find:

John and Justin get a little teary eyed over the Queen. Don’t worry – we don’t break out in God Save the Queen
Australian politics: the laws of mathematics are no match for the Australian government!
John lets us know he has 2 Myfords. His first was purchased by his father when he was 16. Let’s here it for great Dads!
Electric cars, VW Vanagons, and taking things apart when we were kids
We talk about scouting, ripping out hard drives, and rip apart day
Stefan is mentioned numerous times
Did Max forget to empty his shop dehumidifier?
Arduinos in the home shop: Edu Puertas (stop motion) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdEtDnvVeoqlKzpquM7IsNA and the Arduino lead screw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaBK9teKUaA

All that and much much more.

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Many many thanks goes to John for getting up early to join us. John’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creaseyjohn/. Be sure to subscribe to John’s Youtube channel (check you his amazing chess set build): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwfr0K9NJKIgxOqYr5TTeJg. John also put together the Youtube Machinists Facebook group.

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/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

Schaublin 102 is Making Chips!

Although I’ve talked about it with Max on the podcast, I’ve never announced on the blog that I picked up a made in Switzerland Schaublin 102. 102 is the turning radius in millimeters (about 4 inches). The lathe was in pieces, but in very workable condition. I dragged it home and it sat for a few months until I found the time to get to working on it.

This week I finally managed to get the 102 making chips. It took some work mostly in the drive area. I didn’t have access to the proper voltage to drive the existing motor so I decided to replace the original Schaublin motor with new 3/4 HP Baldor that I picked up a year ago for $50. I also wanted to keep the mechanical variable speed drive working. I could have got the old motor rewound, and I might do that some day, but the $800 that I was quoted was a bit rich.

After modelling up the existing motor in Fusion I designed up a pulley to fit the Baldor, spacers to place the new motor in the same location as the old one and a motor mounting plate. I used old school methods to make up a plate to mount the VFD and associated electrical components.

I made a montage type video of all the work:

I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Here is an animated gif showing a test cut that I did with the lathe:

Aside from making up the required parts, I spent a fair bit of time cleaning out the bed, cross slide, tailstock and the interesting air – oil lubricating unit for the spindle bearings. I also have several hours fishing the air – oil lubrication lines back into place in the headstock.

I’ve never used a plain turning lathe before, and quite frankly until I did I thought they were a bit of a joke. In the past no carriage or leadscrew caused me to immediately write off plain turning lathes as useless machines. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, as I used my import lathe more (which has a carriage and leadscrew) I realized that I do 80% of my work without such features. If you have the chance to pickup a plain turning lathe in good condition, jump at it! Many people devalue such machines and as such you can sometimes get a very good deal on a lathe that is exceptionally capable – and a joy to use.

Next up is a proper toolpost for the lathe, a backing plate for a Buck 6 jaw chuck I picked up, and probably a faceplate. That is unless I manage to pick this stuff up used somewhere. I really don’t count on that happening though. Parts and associated tooling for Schaublins usually demand high prices.

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 7 – Work Holding

In a first for us we manage to get an episode recorded, edited, and posted in about 2 weeks! Don’t worry we didn’t skimp on the quantity of the recording – this episode is a long as the rest of them (note nothing was said about quality!). In this episode we talk about work holding and tool holding in general. Apologies for our voices – we both were recovering from colds. Highlights include:

- Max gets his turret finished just in time for Emma’s tool making competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe3ACUzET7Y Check out the pile of chips on the watchmaker’s lathe:
- Justin is inching (what is the metric equivalent?) towards getting the Schaublin 102 up and running.
- Someone opens a beverage. Identify the time and send Justin an email: justin@thecogwheel.net to claim your prize!
- Justin is recording in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm.
- 2 Jaw independent chuck? We talk about one:
- Justin and Max are big fans of ER collets. Maritool is a great source for production quality stuff at reasonable prices.
- Stefan Gotteswinter gets his mention.
- Use your 3D printer, or a 3D printing service to make soft jaws for your vise! Or a fixture setup for your face plate.
- Clamping nuts – we don’t know what they are called but Max made up a set of them. Identify them, send Justin and email justin@thecogwheel.net and claim your prize!
- Max thinks Justin should build some die holders with driving squares in them like these ones:

All that and much much more.

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/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/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

Happy 150th Canada!

What better way to celebrate a long week-end in the summer than by making a delicious dessert to share with family and friends. I attached a 1 1/2″ spade bit to my husband’s mini-mill this morning to mix the base for this strawberry cheese-cake trifle. The bundt pan for the angel food-cake fit perfectly in the heat-treating oven, and the strawberries were firm enough to slice on the bandsaw (wipe the blade down first!)

Happy Birthday Canada! (and Happy Independence Day to our American friends to the south on Tuesday!)

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 6 – All Scraped Up

Despite our terrible bantering in episode 2, Stefan Gotteswinter decides to come back on. Max and I think perhaps he might be suffering from poor judgement. In the longest episode to date we talk about:

Stefan’s 1200 km drive to take Richard King’s scraping class and he lets us know some of what he has learned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO9GW0tAOIQ
Push or pull scraping?
Justin still can’t get over Stefan having Japanese power tools. Isn’t there a law in Germany against this?
We talk about Bosch
We talk about machining titanium
Max is busy working on his turret for Emma’s tool making competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_VHt6j_xtw
We talk about bearings
And there might be some beer talk. Wrong podcast. Again.
Moore books: http://mooretool.com/publications.html
Mechanical and Metal Trades Handbook: http://www.europa-lehrmittel.de/t-1/mechanical_and_metal_trades_handbook-1271/ https://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Trades-Handbook-Ulrich-Fischer/dp/3808519134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495916760&sr=8-1&keywords=3808519134

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/home-shop-machinists-podcast/id1180854521

Many many thanks to Stefan for coming back on. You can find his website here: http://gtwr.de/ Stefan also has one of the best machining Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/user/syyl.On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefan_gtwr/

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/

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel Justin’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel/

Pentel P209 Teardown

wrTie has begun!

To start off my titanium mechanical pencil build, called wrTie, I decided to teardown a number of different mechanical pencils for inspiration and design ideas. I find the mechanisms in mechanical pencils very interesting. I also find the manufacturing processes that are used exceptionally interesting.

Here is a teardown video of my favourite mass produced mechanical pencil: the Pentel P209 (0.9 mm version). The Pentel P20x series (there are 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9 mm models) has been around for a long time. It is exceptionally well made given the price point it is hitting and the parts involved. There are 12 parts in total, including 5 fully machined parts. A number of the parts require plating. There are 2 parts that are molded out of plastic. And then it has to be assembled! You can buy a Pentel P209 for less than $5 in the United States and less than $7 in Canada. That’s actually pretty crazy considering this pencil contains machined parts and even more so once you consider that Pentel is probably selling it to it’s retailers for less than half of what they are retailed for.

https://youtu.be/tM4h61_BLKQ

The heart of the Pentel 200 series is a removable fully contained feeding cartridge. The cartridge features a number of machined components in the feeding mechanism. The components are probably massed produced on swiss style screw machines (a lathe but instead of the carriage moving the spindle moves in the Z direction – often called sliding headstock machines). These machines could be cam actuated screw machines or they could be CNC controlled units. CNC swiss style machines, like the ones produced by Star or Citizen, are really interesting machines. Here is a video of a Citizen L20, one of the more popular CNC swiss machine that you will find today:

The Pentel P209 cartridge has been used in a number of titanium mechanical pencil builds on Kickstarter. I can’t confirm it directly as I haven’t purchased one, but check out this project (you have to scroll about half way down and you’ll see a picture of what looks to be the Pentel cartridge: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cogent/titanium-mechanical-pencil-and-titanium-pen. Given the Pentel’s design, you could easily make a new mechanical pencil by machining a new outside body for the Pentel. I won’t be doing that because I think it is too easy!

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 5 – Cake Decorating and Hauling Iron

After getting confused as to what podcast they are recording, Max and Justin talk about hauling machine tools home. Of course the stories keep getting better and more ostentatious the more they are told. We also talk about:

Max’s work on his Trent Pinion mill
Change gears on the lathe – you don’t need that 127 tooth to cut metric threads all the time. Max finds a really well done gear calculator on the internet: http://geargenerator.com
Justin gets a Delta Rockwell surface grinder for the home shop and tells the story about dragging it home in his father in law’s truck
Max can’t be outdone: 7 Hjorths, an overloaded van, pouring rain and a flat tire
Any other Hjorth owners out there? Send us some info!
High speed grinding attachments
Decorating cakes perhaps using This Old Tony’s nice rotary table (Max’s wife probably isn’t interested though) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny5Xxwwpkxs
We go through the now not so latest March / April 2017 Home Shop Machinist Magazine (our favorite magazine by far!) http://www.homeshopmachinist.net/marchapril17/
Hazard Fraught Tools: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Hazard+Fraught+tools
Brian Rupnow’s flathead engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np2N5ZxtKu
Motores Patelo Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/yesuswilder10/videos
You don’t need to have great equipment to make great stuff
Durabar
Would it be an episode without mentioning Stefan? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsYMC0vcaBQ

You can listen to it directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/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

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel

Swarf in the Laundry

If you live with someone engaged in the home-shop machining hobby, and you are responsible for any domestic duties involving clothing, you have no doubt found swarf in the laundry. Just the other day, I shook out one of my husband’s sweaters he had worn in the shop, and a cute metal corkscrew resembling a tiny clock spring (no, my husband’s chips don’t always come off in perfect “9’s”) bounced on to the floor. Our children thought it was cool. We then examined a knit sweater that had been worn in the shop and noted several metal chips embedded in the weaves. The next 15 minutes were spent scouring the house for magnets to see if we could pick-up the sweater. It didn’t work, but the exercise ranked higher than our children’s 1 hour allotted TV time for the day.

I could start to nag at my husband for all the chips he is tracking in to the house via socks, sweaters and hair, but have thought better of it. I have observed that the machining hobby has provided an interesting (and even productive) outlet for my husband’s creative energies and stress, while also providing many learning opportunities for our children, and even myself.

The video documentation of this hobby and its results via YouTube has also provided interesting learning opportunities for our family. Its cute to watch the children excitedly bring other family members and friends to the computer screen to show them what Daddy is working on in the shop right now. Our son has even started making his own videos with his V-Tech video camera of his Lego constructions. This has been a great lesson to my husband and I to never underestimate the impact you’re having on those little eyes watching you.

Yes, it would be nice if I could park my car in the garage and Band-Aids weren’t a standard weekly grocery item. But for all its benefits, I guess I’ll put up with the swarf in the laundry.

Megan is the wife of Justin. She has the pleasure and the pain of dealing with a manufacturing gearhead on a daily basis.

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 4 – From Grass Cutting to Space

Max and Justin invite Dan Sherman on for some general shop talk. We started talking about what is going on in the shop but in true home shop machinist fashion this episode heads off on several slightly off topic tangents. Within this episode:

Welding and machining, is it a left brain right brain sort of thing?
Justin gets a Schaublin 102 for the home shop!
Max trams his mini mill with epoxy. Would this be an episode without mentioning Stefan? Tramming a mill with epoxy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Qs-J2swIc
Max’s pinion mill is coming along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPUKtlsjPRA
Dan is building camera mounts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RtZOJ7f2LE
We all wonder what normal people do with all their time since they don’t fix anything and don’t spend all their free time in the shop. We are really starting to sound like old farts.
Bench grinder balancing with a cellphone? Dan is interested and Justin has a shameless plug to his blog: https://thecogwheel.net/2016/07/06/bench-grinder-balancing-with-a-smart-phone/
The Davenport screw machine. Yes, you can still buy one! http://davenportmachine.com/
Check out the documentary Moon Machines on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTu8nanTJo7GvulBxz9JT9JcXeXimM1Vr) and When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085E40F4/
We also talk reel mowers, grass cutting, steel, surfers helping with the space program, the SR71 Blackbird, Koenigsegg and probably some stuff in between.

You can listen to the episode directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Special thanks to Dan for joining us. Dan’s website: https://www.dans-hobbies.com/ Be sure to subscribe to Dan’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrnAb5KKg47gsiyfDxo-JJg

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/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

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel

Home Shop Machinists Podcast – Episode 3 – 10 Tools

If you are depressed about what is in the news just listen to this podcast and you won’t have a chance to listen to the news again! In the longest episode to date Max and Justin talk about 10 tools that we find essential to our shops. Buried within this episode:

As usual Justin forgets to edit something out that Max says
Max tells us more about his Trent Pinion Mill that arrived from the UK via some sort of beaming machine
Gearotic and Max’s Orrery build (say that without sounding intoxicated!)
Why the Brits put the carriage wheel on the right side of the carriage
Maintenance on cars, 3D printers, and terrible instructions
Max tells a joke
Fecal material on cell phone screens
The 10 tools in the shop that we find useful … which turned out to be 8
Plus a whole lot more punishment.

Some pictures of what we talked about:

Max’s Tiny Albrecht Drill Chuck:

albrecht_small_chuck The Brown and Sharp Cut Knurl Tool:

bs_cut_knurler

Links in this episode:

The Trent Pinion Mill Kit: http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/Trent_Pinion_Mill.html
Gearotic: http://www.gear2motion.com/
Ken Toonz’s Orrery Build: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWktMyQDMMIbU5ZfDh2zmejOL8bs-MulN
Stefan’s amazing turn your surface grinder into a cylindrical grinder tool: http://gtwr.de/projects/pro_cylindricalgrind/index.html
Dan Gelbart’s Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/dgelbart/videos

You can listen to the episode directly here:

or you can download it directly.

Subscribe in iTunes (and please rate us!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/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

Justin’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thecogwheel

Stay tuned for the next episode – it shouldn’t be too far away!

DIY Swarf ‘Cyclone’ Separator

I spent 30 minutes on a Friday evening making up something that has been on my project list for awhile. I made a swarf separator to go in front of the vacuum. Often these are called dust cyclones, or particulate cyclones, or separators of some sort. I made a video of how I constructed it (which took longer than actually making the separator):

The design is very simple. The pail itself was from someone with a pool – it was used to hold bromine (I love re-purposing stuff!). I’ve been saving the pail for this for awhile because it has a nice tight fitting lid. I cut 2 holes in the top for some 1 1/2″ threaded ABS couplings and a 1 1/2″ to 1 1/4″ bushing found at a local hardware store. One coupling was male threaded and the other was female threaded. The 1 7/8 Ridgid vacuum hose fit well onto these couplings after I turned them to fit. A long 1 1/2″ ABS elbow was used to direct the dirty suction flow along the side of the container. The ‘clean’ air comes out the centre and into the vacuum.

I immediately tried it by cleaning up the lathe. It worked very well for metal chips. I’m not sure how well this design would work with saw dust – something I’m bound to try out at some point. I don’t do that much work with wood, and when I do it generally is general construction – which usually happens outdoors.

I was considering purchasing a Dust Deputy – a purchased cyclone attachment for standard vacuums. They are $60 for just the cyclone (still requires a pail with a lid) or $135 for a cyclone, pail, lid and hose. Lee Valley also has their Veritas cyclone lids for larger containers for about $50, but I prefer the 5 gallon pail size.

I have about $30 into the project including the hose (the most expensive part of the project), which isn’t too bad at all. Now I won’t fill expensive vacuum bags up with metal chips anymore, and I can keep the vacuum bag for filtration of fine particulate like grinding dust.

I didn’t make drawings for this project because I thought it was very simple. If you really would like something, send me an email and I’ll try to do something up.