2017 - The Original "What Did You Buy Today?" Mega Thread

[British Steel]

Be glad it is only the socket. My whole lathe is blue....
Your socket would blend in perfectly. The upside is it was painted over without removing any gunk. Makes it quite easy to get most of the paint off again
Good find though!
Peter

Quite right, anyone knows it should be firetruck red....

When they painted over the gunk did they use an old carpet or. like they did on mine, did they use a dead dog?

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[WoodBee]

When they painted over the gunk did they use an old carpet or. like they did on mine, did they use a dead dog?

Dave H. (the other one)

What, they killed a dog to paint your lathe
I hope they at least got the hairs out of the paint

 

[BGHansen]

Had a package show up from Shars; 24" single axis stainless steel scale/DRO that's headed to my Bridgeport. My other vertical mill has a TPACtools 4-axis DRO on it and I've become accustomed to using the heck out of the Z-axis scale. If facing off something, I mic the thickness to start with, run the table until the tool just about touches, then drop the spindle until the tool just touches. Then set the Z-axis to the thickness of the material and make passes until I'm close to the final thickness. Do a re-measurement and make the last pass.

My Bridgeport has a circa 1984 Anilam 2-axis CNC set up with no Z-axis scale, so, Shars got some business. Appears to be a couple of different scales out there; this one ran just over $100 with shipping. Shars also sells one for about half that price. I couldn't see any obvious differences, but went with the more expensive one anyhow. It's supposed to be accurate within 0.002" in the 24" range, and is IP54 certified for dust and water penetration. I don't know how the technology works as it doesn't have a rack/pinion like a caliper, or a glass scale. It says the scale is embedded in the stainless steel scale. I know the quill scale on my Jet mill has a friction wheel that runs on the scale.

I'll mount the scale to the side of the column, but won't get it installed until another order shows up. Ordered a Z-axis power feed for the Bridgeport also. Hence, no Z-axis scale until that arrives and is installed. Have only owned the Bridgeport for 2 weeks and am already complaining about cranking the table up/down. The unit comes with mounting brackets for hooking the sliding reader to the knee, but I'll fab up my own once the Z-power feed shows up. It does let you set the scale to any number so I'll be able to use it like my TPAC DRO although the digit setting is a little cumbersome.

Oh, love the instruction sheet. Wish me luck on installing my "Digital Scale with Steel Deam".

Bruce

 

[GoceKU]

Today after work i got a call from one of the machinery dealers that i visited earlier in the week, telling me he has acquired an pristine machine in my price range, i turned around and was there in half an hour, and straight from the door i was disappointed, it was only a small horizontal mill with so much play in the side screw that was skipping and the table look like it was used like a target on the firing range, the seller quickly figure out what mistake he has made so he gifted me those two end mills and on my way back i stopped by a hardware shop and bought one more blow gun, two garages on blow gun makes for a lot of walking.

 

[darkzero]

Got me a practically brand new set of Mitutoyo gauge blocks for an awesome price! $1400 new, paid $350 shipped.

View attachment 241904

Ebay flash sale. My Mitu set is too nice to be used for everything so I got me a beater set. Made in China but brand new, grade AS-2. The Mitu set is AS-1. Pretty nice for only $65 shipped!

 

[darkzero]

I already have sets of the Cobras & Pliers Wrenches. I like them so much I got a set of the Minis during Zoro's last 25% off flash sale. I love Knipex!

 

[retrojoe]

Worked out a deal with a gentleman who was trying to get rid of the last of his father's estate. 269 arbor-mount cutters and enough inserts to last me a few lifetimes. A lot of the arbor-mount cutters are much, much too big for me but the agreement was I took them all for 1 price. He had some LARGE end mills as well but I didn't want to deal with more tools I couldn't use myself. Now I need to track down holders for the inserts; I could only find 1 parting holder.

His father was a machine repairman for Rockwell/Allen-Bradley as well as a mechanic. When he died his home-shop had two mills and 5 lathes. It's taken his son 5 years to sell through the last of his stuff.

 

[GoceKU]

Retrojoe, that a lot of cutters and inserts, you'll be spoiled for choice.

 

[retrojoe]

Retrojoe, that a lot of cutters and inserts, you'll be spoiled for choice.

The largest cutter is 10" in diameter with a 1.5" arbor. My poor little Atlas mill can only handle 4" dia cutters. I'll try to unload the largest of them and save anything about 6" and smaller. I know I'll get a larger mill at some point but I just can't fathom needing a 10" x 1" tool (that's intended for aluminum only at that). Glancing at ebay it looks like I'm not the only one; these might take a while to move.

 

[FOMOGO]

Those cutters all appear to be in excellent, or new condition. Really nice score. Mike