# Clever Things We Do In Our Shops



## WayneP

Throwing this out there to all the guys who have little "tricks" that make our machining life easier and quicker. Here's my contribution and I hope you guys will chip in (pun) and tell us yours! 

Here goes! 

1) Most all my work is on small stuff. I drill a lot of small holes and tap a lot of them too. I have made up a simple small block of wood and I have drilled a set of three holes for each screw size #2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10. For each screw size there's a hole that holds the tap, the tap drill,  and the clearance hole drill. Whenever I need to drill a hole for a screw one reach to one spot gets me what I need and quick!

2) Since a lot of the holes mentioned above are done in the mill and the mill most often has a 3/8" collet in it (sound familiar??) I fit all the commonly used drill bits with a 3/8" sleeve on it. I take 3/8" diameter brass stock, drill it with the drill as required in the lathe and loctite the drill bit shank into the sleeve (loctite loves brass). So when I need to use the drills they all fit in the same collet...I never have to pause to fit different holders for drills and milling cutters etc. Oh....one other thing...I took a dremel mini drill chuck and fitted a 3/8 shank on it too so it also fits into the 3/8" collet in the mill and I can fit all the other small drill bits I might want to use...works pretty slick.

Wayne


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## WayneP

Okay, here's another one:

I do a lot of work on my mill with the help of a rotary table. Of course its also useful to have a vise on the table as well for x-y square-type work, so I put the rotary at one end of the mill table and the vise at the other. Its a pain to crank from one end to the other (maybe some day I'll put a feed motor on it) to change work styles but the bigger pain is re-zeroing the dro every time I switch from the rotary to the vise and back. I use those inexpensive dro's that look like digital caliper readouts that run on batteries (hope you know the type I mean). What I do is put two pickups (and hence two readouts) on the same encoding bar so that there is a readout (and hence a zero) for the rotary and the other for the vise.  


Anybody else have any bright ideas to share?


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## JR49

Wayne, you've got a great idea here, certainly hope people start responding with more tips.  Unfortunately, I  haven't been machining nearly long enough to have developed any useful tips to share, however, I will be watching with great interest.  Thanks,  JR49


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## Paul in OKC

Do a lot of vise work on my mill. Drilled and tapped a 1/4-20 hole just behind the hard jaw on the side of the vise. Use a piece of 1/4 x 1" about 3" long, drill a hole in one end to bolt onto the vise and you have a  stop. You can drill and tap the flat part and use all thread for an adjustable stop as well.


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## kvt

Use small pill bottles to store small screws etc.  Also use them to store extra small taps etc.


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## Techie1961

When I was doing a lot of die construction, we used a lot of socket head cap screws and they were pretty much always in counterbored holes. Since most pieces that I was attaching were nominal (ie 1.5" or 2") the thread engagement was tricky. For the most part, maximum thread strength in steel is 1.5 times the thread diameter. If you attach a 2" piece with a 2" screw and you counterbore 3/8" for a 3/8" screw so it is flush, you only have 1 times the thread diameter engaged. If you go to the next size screw (ie 2.25") you will have 5/8" engaged which is fairly deep for a blind hole to be tapped.

Long story finished. What I always do is counterbore 1.5 times the thread diameter. You then end up with 1.5 times the diameter engaged. The head is recessed more but you have a strong assembly. No math and easy to do, so a 3/8" screw is 9/16" deep.


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## fixit

I use foam egg packages with the tops cut off set inside a drawer for small parts bins. Works good parts are very visible & easy yo pick out when needed. seem to be durable used them in two big drawers bout 2 years now.


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## Billh50

fixit said:


> I use foam egg packages with the tops cut off set inside a drawer for small parts bins. Works good parts are very visible & easy yo pick out when needed. seem to be durable used them in two big drawers bout 2 years now.


Place I worked at used the large ones for small parts. Made it easy to pick out and count parts.


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## cathead

When threading a shaft with a die, I make the threads and then turn the die around(starting end out) and
run it on again to complete the bottom threads that are only partially cut.  I don't know if this is an approved
procedure but it works for me.  If you cut a significant groove at the bottom of the threaded area is would
of course be unnecessary.


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## WayneP

cathead said:


> When threading a rod with a die, I make the threads and then turn the die around(starting end out) and
> run it on again to complete the bottom threads that are only partially cut.  I don't know if this is an approved
> procedure but it works for me.  If you cut a significant groove at the bottom of the threaded area is would
> of course be unnecessary.



Hi Cathead....I don't know if its approved either but I do the same thing, reversing the die to get as many full threads as I can up against a shoulder, then cut a relief groove to remove the few partial threads remaining. It works well.


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## Paul in OKC

WayneP said:


> Hi Cathead....I don't know if its approved either but I do the same thing, reversing the die to get as many full threads as I can up against a shoulder, then cut a relief groove to remove the few partial threads remaining. It works well.



Ditto on that one!


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## Techie1961

This isn't really machine shop related but a bit more on the plumbing side. I've had to do quite a bit of fitting cleaning in my days and I'm always looking for some way to do things better and faster. So, if you have a few fittings to do and nipples as well, this is a trick for prepping them prior to soldering.

Get some fitting brushes and cut off the handles with a hacksaw, bolt cutter, whatever. If you are doing the fittings, mount this in a drill and you'll be cleaning them up faster than you ever have an likely doing a better job. Taking this further, I had to find a way to do nipples up to about a foot or more quickly.

Mount the same size fitting brush in the drill and head on over to the grinder or belt sander. Spin it while grinding the diameter down. Keep trying it with a piece of copper pipe until you can push it on without too much force. Now when you need to do some nipples, you just slide it over the brush and spin it on the drill. Takes about 3 seconds to clean it up and ready for assembly.

Put a bit of paint on the smaller brush so you know at a glance which one to grab. Use an old brush for the smaller pipe brush. I know that they make external brushes for the ends of nipples but I prefer this an they're cheaper and don't wear out since you're using emery.


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## toolroom

Wow, great idea. Thanks for sharing. And I thought Plumbers only knew two things... Poop flows downhill, and Payday's on Friday!
toolroom


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## epanzella

Tap some holes in a piece of black pipe and use it as a spider for holding oddly shaped parts on end.


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## jim18655

toolroom said:


> Wow, great idea. Thanks for sharing. And I thought Plumbers only knew two things... Poop flows downhill, and Payday's on Friday!
> toolroom


Don't forget "Hot is on the left."


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## Techie1961

epanzella said:


> Tap some holes in a piece of black pipe and use it as a spider for holding oddly shaped parts on end.



That's a pretty cool idea!


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## Techie1961

I read on another forum after posting this that one guy had done something similar in the past and cut himself pretty bad on the end of the pipe. When I do it, I keep my other fingers away and use only my first finger and thumb and make sure I am only touching the emery cloth.



Techie1961 said:


> This isn't really machine shop related but a bit more on the plumbing side. I've had to do quite a bit of fitting cleaning in my days and I'm always looking for some way to do things better and faster. So, if you have a few fittings to do and nipples as well, this is a trick for prepping them prior to soldering.
> 
> Get some fitting brushes and cut off the handles with a hacksaw, bolt cutter, whatever. If you are doing the fittings, mount this in a drill and you'll be cleaning them up faster than you ever have an likely doing a better job. Taking this further, I had to find a way to do nipples up to about a foot or more quickly.
> 
> Mount the same size fitting brush in the drill and head on over to the grinder or belt sander. Spin it while grinding the diameter down. Keep trying it with a piece of copper pipe until you can push it on without too much force. Now when you need to do some nipples, you just slide it over the brush and spin it on the drill. Takes about 3 seconds to clean it up and ready for assembly.
> 
> Put a bit of paint on the smaller brush so you know at a glance which one to grab. Use an old brush for the smaller pipe brush. I know that they make external brushes for the ends of nipples but I prefer this an they're cheaper and don't wear out since you're using emery.


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## Deerslayer

Techie1961 said:


> This isn't really machine shop related but a bit more on the plumbing side. I've had to do quite a bit of fitting cleaning in my days and I'm always looking for some way to do things better and faster. So, if you have a few fittings to do and nipples as well, this is a trick for prepping them prior to soldering.
> 
> Get some fitting brushes and cut off the handles with a hacksaw, bolt cutter, whatever. If you are doing the fittings, mount this in a drill and you'll be cleaning them up faster than you ever have an likely doing a better job. Taking this further, I had to find a way to do nipples up to about a foot or more quickly.
> 
> Mount the same size fitting brush in the drill and head on over to the grinder or belt sander. Spin it while grinding the diameter down. Keep trying it with a piece of copper pipe until you can push it on without too much force. Now when you need to do some nipples, you just slide it over the brush and spin it on the drill. Takes about 3 seconds to clean it up and ready for assembly.
> 
> Put a bit of paint on the smaller brush so you know at a glance which one to grab. Use an old brush for the smaller pipe brush. I know that they make external brushes for the ends of nipples but I prefer this an they're cheaper and don't wear out since you're using emery.



Just need to get rid of the no korode , that stuff is awful,IMHO.


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## cathead

When working on wiring on a VFD or 3 phase motor, Take a photo of the wiring so you can 
refer to it later if needed..  This is also handy if disassembling a complicated mechanical
thing to know better how it reassembles.    





jim18655 said:


> Don't forget "Hot is on the left."


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## 4GSR

Deerslayer said:


> Just need to get rid of the no korode , that stuff is awful,IMHO.



Be nice now!!!


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## jim18655

Keep your calculator in a zip-lock sandwich bag. It keeps it clean and the chips out of the buttons.
When removing small springs and clips that can fly across the room or into another dimension and never be seen again work inside of a large clear plastic bag if you can get the part in one.


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## intjonmiller

cathead said:


> When working on wiring on a VFD or 3 phase motor, Take a photo of the wiring so you can
> refer to it later if needed..  This is also handy if disassembling a complicated mechanical
> thing to know better how it reassembles.


I started doing that as soon as I had a digital camera. Without any mechanical training I did a complete teardown, rebuild and restore/customize project of a 25 year-old motorcycle because I took detailed photos from multiple angles before removing each part. Printing them out in color (just cheap-ish color copy grade paper prints) would have really helped the reassembly process. They were not so clear as black-and-white prints so I ended up at the computer looking things up too often. 

Ever since then I've taken photos as soon as I think I might need to disassemble something, just in case I forget later. There is basically zero per-shot cost with digital photography (barring running out of room for the files).


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## TOOLMASTER

tape your pocket, your wife will thank you


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## Charles Spencer

Gee, I was looking for dumb ass things we do in our shops.

I'm way more qualified in that area.


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## Deerslayer

cathead said:


> When working on wiring on a VFD or 3 phase motor, Take a photo of the wiring so you can
> refer to it later if needed..  This is also handy if disassembling a complicated mechanical
> thing to know better how it reassembles.



My cell is full of various pics of things I recently disassembled or wired, I do this often.


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## Deerslayer

4gsr said:


> Be nice now!!!



I don't mean it as a deragotory comment. It's called no Korrode yet it seems to corrode everything. It fluxes good just corrodes  copper more than other fluxes if not wiped very clean. Even though it's not water soluble Oatey #5 works great as a flux and doesn't corrode as bad if not wiped.


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## planeflyer21

TOOLMASTER said:


> tape your pocket, your wife will thank you
> 
> View attachment 121193



Along these same line, have a pair of shop shoes and a pair of everywhere else shoes.  Keeps chips out of the house.


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## WayneP

Ok here's another one......

One of my lathes is an old South Bend 9", my first lathe, and I used to do everything on it until I bought a 12" lathe a couple of years ago. Its a great lathe but I always had trouble turning larger diameter parts (4 and 5" diameter aluminum) because the leather flat belt would slip with all but the lightest cuts. It would take hours to remove the amount of material required to make the parts I wanted. I bought a "better" belt but although it was stronger than the old leather belt it still didn't have the grip, even with higher tension. Hmmm.....how to improve grip? I thought about converting all the pulleys to V but that would be a ton of work. So I put 3M rubber tape (got it at Home Depot) on all the flat pulleys, two wraps on each. WOW!! The machine was suddenly transformed  into a workhorse! I could get the parts machined much quicker 'cause now I could take decent cuts. A side benefit was the machine ran quieter...no more click click of the belt joint. The tape lasts for a few months, maybe more or less depending on the workload, and sometimes it seems to attract chips that get imbedded in the rubber, but it only takes a few minutes to cut the old off and put two new wraps on. This one simple idea made a big change in my little shop.

Wayne


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## WayneP

epanzella said:


> Tap some holes in a piece of black pipe and use it as a spider for holding oddly shaped parts on end.
> 
> View attachment 121125
> View attachment 121126
> View attachment 121127


Hi Epanzella

I have to confess.....I didn't understand your post right away, I had to look at the pics a few times to get your meaning...but now I do...BRILLIANT! Great idea, I'll remember this one 

Wayne


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## LEEQ

toolroom said:


> Wow, great idea. Thanks for sharing. And I thought Plumbers only knew two things... Poop flows downhill, and Payday's on Friday!
> toolroom


Three, don't chew your fingernails is a biggie


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## TOOLMASTER

wood working vice isn't just for wood..this has been my go to vise for 25+ years


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## Billh50

Just to keep that small can of cutting oil from hitting the floor all the time. I glued a magnet from an old speaker to the bottom. Now it stays on the miller table where I put it.


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## Badspellar

I use the small magnetic dish from Harbor Freight to hold my SpillMaster.


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## cathead

Periodically check to see if you lathe is in need of leveling.  I just checked mine
and it needed a bit of adjustment.


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## British Steel

When boring hardened parts (the bore for the stud through a QC toolpost when you're fitting it for instance) the hard skin resists the boring tool enough to give a "bottle necked" bore - before you start, take a facing cut out from the bore for 1/8", 1/8" deep or so to get down to the softer underlying metal and hey presto, the boring tool will cut a cylindrical bore that fits the topslide stud!


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## atlas ten

Load up your small end mills in empty shell holders.


Jack

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk


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## Cadillac STS

For tapping I bought a bunch of glass test tubes with rubber stoppers.  

Put each tap in a tube with the correct drills and a paper label.  So when I need to tap something I have everything I need already in one place.  

It also keeps the right size drills only used for tapping and not dulled on something else.

Same with some smaller drill bits and reamers for precise drilling


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## juiceclone

+++ on the smartphone use..."pix worth a thousand words"   there are also useful "apps"  
"army knife for android" my most used..has scale, level, unit converter, magnifier, etc.
    having a level in your pocket is sooo handy


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## cathead

jim18655 said:


> Don't forget "Hot is on the left."



Hot is on the right at my house.  I built it and am sinister handed...   So there!


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## strantor

Not *machinist* specific, but I'm sure most of us have a compressor at home and if you sand/soda blast, airbrush, or blow off things that you don't want to be rusty later, you could benefit from this...

I installed an "intercooler" on my compressor after I started soda blasting. This hot, humid SE TX air holds a lot of water, and something about being [compressed & heated] and subsequently [expanded and cooled] causes the water to separate out at the nozzle (I won't attempt to explain why, I suck at technical explanation and I'm not sure I fully understand it myself). So instead of "soda blasting" I was more "mud blasting."

I researched DIY solutions and most I found were along the lines of the "Franzinator." But I didn't like those solutions because I didn't already have just a lot of large dia black Iron pipe laying around.
Also a lot of these , which are mounted in walls/roof of your shop and therefore immobilize your compressor.

What I did have laying around was a used A/C condenser for my old pickup. I had replaced it because the bottom line where the orifice tube goes was bent. I mounted it on my compressor between the compressor head and the tank, that way it separates the water before it ever gets to the tank.






You can see in the pictures some black mess where the tubes come out of the compressor head and where they go into the tank. That is Birchwood Casey Sight Black; I use it to get accurate temperatures with my Flir thermal imager. That's another shop tip, if you use a thermal imager or non-contact thermometer, they are calibrated to read temp off a flat black surface and don't read accurately on other surfaces, especially shiny surfaces. The Sight Black dries almost instantly, wipes right off (better with alcohol), and is a much better/cleaner alternative to spray painting things (although it does still make a bit of a mess).

The intercooler (confirmed by thermal imager) cools air coming out of the compressor from 350 deg F to 85 def F (ambient 83F) before entering the tank, without any cooling fan except the one already mounted on the compressor motor. The water falls to the bottom of the copper tube lattice where there is a bleed off valve. The compressor is still mobile (I use it outside a lot) as the cooler is mounted to the rolling unit and not to the shop wall.

As with most of "brilliant" ideas, I found out later that I was not the first; many have done it before me, and here's an example.


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## T Bredehoft

I keep a supply of used plastic sandwich bags. (No mayonnaise sandwiches.) When using a magnetic base on a machined surface, (lathe, mill table, etc.,) put the folded sandwich bag under the magnet. It's thin enough to allow the magnet to be solid, but won't scratch the table or way.


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## Frank Ford

Here's a link to my list of 407 Shop Tips:
http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/ShopTips/tiplist.html


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## kd4gij

Hide from the better half.


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## RHayes

Adding some wood knobs to this chuck key makes it so much nicer to use.


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## wawoodman

jim18655 said:


> Don't forget "Hot is on the left."



The way I learned the plumbers' code:
Hot's on the left.
Cold's on the right.
S**t won't run uphill.
Don't bite your nails.


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## GK1918

Whats the old saying   "laws are made to be broken"  ?


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## TOOLMASTER

lol


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## TOOLMASTER

got my fan on a remote switch by the bench....easy to turn off when i tig


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## hman

GK1918 said:


> Whats the old saying   "laws are made to be broken"  ?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 132927


Durn!  Never knew it would be that easy to accurize a 3-jaw chuck!  Looks like it should be good for a tenth or so.


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## hman

Badspellar said:


> I use the small magnetic dish from Harbor Freight to hold my SpillMaster.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 121419


Great idea.  And here's a MUCH less expensive alternative to the Spillmaster ...
http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/product/productDet.jsp?productItemID=1,689,949,371,896,043&ASSORTMENT<>ast_id=1408474395181113&bmUID=1470350943394
A set of 10 cups, assorted top colors is $12 plus $5 shipping.  Cups have screw tops and hinged lids.  I just got my set, and I think they'll work *very* well!


Note - photo shows colored paints inside the cups.  The bottoms are clear.


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## TOOLMASTER

came across these yesterday ...seemed like it might make a good oil bottle...

https://www.menards.com/main/home-d...30353699-c-12188.htm?tid=-2384754887249350663


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## Andre

Contact solution bottles made from HDPE are chemical resistant to a high degree and work as good oil bottles.

When closing paint or stain cans put a rag over to top of the lid so stain doesn't splash on your shirt.

When putting oil down a hole being drilled, let to oil drip off the drill into the hole. No oily mess over the hole to collect chips


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## Reeltor

This idea has been around for decades--After opening a new can of paint or stain take a finishing nail (I use an ice pick) to put holes in the recess that seals the lid.  Any paint that gets in the recess will drip back into the can.  Don't forget the rag on top of the can when tapping it on.


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## Andre

A board with holes drilled, and mounted horizontally is great for screwdriver storage. Even better, make it into a drawer with a ball bearing slide.

Using an oilstone on aluminum can provide a very good, matte surface. To prevent loading the stone, an thus scratching the surface, flood the area in a thin solvent or oil. WD 40 works well.

A toolpost mounted drill chuck really speeds up your work, and allows for very fast "pecking". When you set it on center, turn the leadscrew the opposite direction slightly so the cross slide can float slightly and find perfect center.

Paste was is great at stopping rust on machine surfaces. Wipe it on, wait five minutes, then buff it all off. 

Sent from my XT1053 using Tapatalk


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## FOMOGO

Andre said:


> Paste was is great at stopping rust on machine surfaces. Wipe it on, wait five minutes, then buff it all off.



  Sorry didn't read it right, the first time. Mike


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## Andre

FOMOGO said:


> Sorry didn't read it right, the first time. Mike


I meant to say paste "Wax".


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## KBeitz

I'm always looking in yard sales for old cement bits. They will drill a hole 
through hardened steel with not problem. It's a very cheap way to drill a 
hole in something really hard besides cement.


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