Good Steel From Car Parts?

Laser printer fusion rollers are nice 12" 5/8 to 3/4 round stock and are a replaceable wear part. Your local office machine repair shop should have buckets of them. They do have a silicone covering but it comes off with a razor knife. There are a number of smaller shafts as well that can be salvaged out of discarded printers.
 
John_Dennis said:
Laser printer fusion rollers are nice 12" 5/8 to 3/4 round stock and are a replaceable wear part. Your local office machine repair shop should have buckets of them. They do have a silicone covering but it comes off with a razor knife. There are a number of smaller shafts as well that can be salvaged out of discarded printers.
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That is such a good point! I actually sort of know a guy (my sister's best-friend's husband, so just an acquaintance, really, but I'm friends with his wife anyway) who repairs commercial printers and copiers for a living. I should send them a message. :)
 
I made most of my MT3 mill tooling from a car axle. Initially it was too hard to turn easily so I annealed it in the fireplace - just put it on the grate, had a nice fire, and the next morning it cut nicely. The axle wasn't quite long enough for all the tools so the leftmost end mill holder in the picture has the axle spline.

John

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MillTooling2.jpg

MillTooling2.jpg

MillTooling2.jpg

MillTooling2.jpg

MillTooling2.jpg
 
My brother is a high-end automotive repair technician. It occurred to me that instead of digging through that pile of junk parts at work I could just ask him to keep an eye out for me. On Thursday I gave him a short list of the types of parts I had in mind. On Sunday we had a big family party at our sister's house and he drove up my wife's car that he'd had for a week to replace the AC system. When we went to leave I opened up the rear hatch to load up all of our stuff and found at least one of everything I had mentioned, and a large, cast aluminum control arm or something (he's the expert here, not me), perfect for melting down and casting my own stuff.

Time to make some parts. I think I'll start with a spider for the back of the headstock to help support the shaft when the time comes to turn it. :)
 
My brother brought me a couple more parts. This one is, I think, 4140. And it is way too interesting for me to want to cut it up. I want to use it for something really interesting, but I'm not sure what. Ideas?

How about an industrial-grade spinning top? :)
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