Sold some Erector sets and parts on eBay, so had some money burning a hole in my pocket. Time for some early Christmas shopping for me! Picked up a couple of keyless chucks (1/32” – ½”) with 3MT arbors from All Industrial Tool. These should speed up tool changes when swapping between center drills, drills and countersinks for some of my projects. There were around $23 each shipped.
Some of my projects require relatively precise hole punching in sheet metal. I typically make a guide block out of CRS or aluminum and oversize ream the holes for transfer punching to the blanks. My transfer punch sets purchased 30 years ago is missing a few, so got another import set off eBay. Paid about $12 including shipping.
Picked up an RPM meter/gauge for checking spindle speeds. Not sure how it works inside, but you put one of the end-effectors on the spindle you want to measure and push a button. The RPM needle starts moving up the scale and stops after a few seconds, then read the number. I know, ancient technology when Hall Effect sensors and read outs give instantaneous RPM’s for under $15. Got this one off eBay for $15 including shipping.
Picked up an incomplete set of counter bores made by 21st Century Manufacturing. Think they’ll be pretty good, company’s web site is
www.reamer.com. I was a bit surprised to see they’re based out of South Dakota; I would not have expected a lot of manufacturing from that region. I’ll probably replace the missing ones with imports. I typed
www.reamer.com into my browser but was redirected to
www.alvordpok.com in PA. Looks like the missing counter bores would cost more each than I paid for this set ($30).
Real impulse buy off eBay. Picked up a Quill Master for $200 delivered off eBay. These also had a small right angle attachment available (QRA) that unfortunately the seller didn’t have. Don’t have a use for it right now, so it’ll go on the shelf until the need arises. From what I’ve read these are used for small end mill work; has built in 50% speed increase to get the small end mills up to smoking hot RPM’s. I’m always up for another project, see the QRA attachments going for $300 - $750 on eBay. They never sell at that price, but that’s what seller’s ask. So, if the need arises, I’ll probably adapt a Dremel right angle attachment. This one came with a 3/16” collet. I believe I read someplace they had a 1/8” collet too. Might be a POTD to make a 1/8” collet, I have a lot of 1/8” shank end mills.
Lastly (for now . . .) is a Thermolyne 2025 muffle furnace. This one takes 110V, heats up to 2000 F which can be maintained for 3 hours or 1800 F indefinitely. The furnace chamber is about 4” x 4” x 9” deep. I make a half-dozen or so punches and dies a year and flame hardened with an oxyacetylene torch, then temper with a Thermolyne hot plate. Paid $200 from a CL listing for this one. I’m curious how accurate the temp dial is on the front. Most of the Thermolyne furnaces have a temp gauge and a separate pot for adjusting the temperature. I bought this one because they’re graduated together. I haven’t taken it up to 1500 F for hardening of tool steel, but noted it took about 15 minutes to get up to 500 F. The chamber is a bit small, so no Bowie knife jobs with this one. Probably another retirement project in a few years to make a larger furnace, there are a couple of really good threads here from members building their own.
Bruce