2019 POTD Thread Archive

[tmenyc]

Greg,
got it in one. The key to how fountain pens work, any pen, really, is both holding the ink and letting it go. You clearly need both to have even flow when you want it and a reservoir that is safe inside and not on your clothes. The solution to the problem goes back to the earliest 1900s, and was refined into its modern form by around 1925. The solution is having ink travel through a very narrow corridor, a couple of hundredths of an inch down to 2-3 thou by the time it got to the nib. The first feeds were solid, flowing ink only through the space between nib and feed. Slits cut into them both managed ink flow and provided more ink. Modern feeds are larger in all three dimensions and have east-west slits, usually 2 or more north-south channels, and often a long channel cut the entire length, all for this purpose, although the greater size is also to support today's larger nibs.

Although my work and tastes are all in vintage, I'm a huge fan of hand-made fountain pens, and there are some magnificent craftsmen out there. Look up newtonpens.com , chesapeakepen.com, and scriptoriumpens.com . Shawn Newton now has a CNC in addition to a more manual lathe, but the others are one-by-one.

Tim

 

[MozamPete]

Repurposed an old towel rail into a hammer rack on the end of my workbench.

 

[Boswell]

Repurposed an old towel rail

what a great way to store hammers

 

[Chuck K]

I started working on a lathe bench this weekend. I have a SB model A that has been sitting on a skid since I got it a long time ago. I bought it thinking it was a parts machine, but after playing around with it I found out that it's a decent lathe. It needs a bench and a tail stock. I'll find the tail stock. I decided after digging around that I had enough material to piece together a bench. I had 2 pieces of 1/4 plate, some short pieces of square tube, some angle and a pile of drawers left over from some Lyon shelving. I got a lot of it cut up and tacked together. Unfortunately my tig welder refused to work. All I get is a high frequency spark. So I rolled out the old Lincoln stick welder. The challenge is ending up with something that is halfway square and straight. That and finding the time to finish it now that I started.

I spent some time this weekend working on a tail stock for my 9A. I did some trading for a Boxford tail stock that needed some repair. The camshaft and handle was missing and the end of the screw was pretty chewed up. I made the repairs and mounted it on the bed. Dialing it in will have to wait until I'm done with the bench so I can level it out. I took a cut the way it sits and it was off by 0.003 front to back. I can't seem to upload photos today. It says the file is too big for the server. Never had that happen before.

 

[Chuck K]

I spent some time this weekend working on a tail stock for my 9A. I did some trading for a Boxford tail stock that needed some repair. The camshaft and handle was missing and the end of the screw was pretty chewed up. I made the repairs and mounted it on the bed. Dialing it in will have to wait until I'm done with the bench so I can level it out. I took a cut the way it sits and it was off by 0.003 front to back. I can't seem to upload photos today. It says the file is too big for the server. Never had that happen before. View attachment 300515

I spent some time this weekend working on a tail stock for my 9A. I did some trading for a Boxford tail stock that needed some repair. The camshaft and handle was missing and the end of the screw was pretty chewed up. I made the repairs and mounted it on the bed. Dialing it in will have to wait until I'm done with the bench so I can level it out. I took a cut the way it sits and it was off by 0.003 front to back. I can't seem to upload photos today. It says the file is too big for the server. Never had that happen before. View attachment 300515

I spent some time this weekend working on a tail stock for my 9A. I did some trading for a Boxford tail stock that needed some repair. The camshaft and handle was missing and the end of the screw was pretty chewed up. I made the repairs and mounted it on the bed. Dialing it in will have to wait until I'm done with the bench so I can level it out. I took a cut the way it sits and it was off by 0.003 front to back. I can't seem to upload photos today. It says the file is too big for the server. Never had that happen before. View attachment 300515

This is a smaller file size.

 

[stioc]

Made a ring out of stainless steel, the SS slug in the background. It's really quite small, 2.5mm wide and 1.2mm thick which includes the convex contour on the outside.

 

[rwm]

I parted out an old ultrasound machine today. It was amazing well constructed like a piece of aerospace equipment. I got lots of switches, cables and fasteners. I have this awesome aluminum rolling chassis left over:



Not sure what exactly to do with it! Is has about 10 bays for computer cards. It's about 3 x 3 x 2'. I hate to cut is up plus the panels have lots of holes in them so they would not be great for stock. Any thoughts?

Robert

 

[GoceKU]

Today i wanted to get started on the task of drilling the wheel spacers for the little niva, not having a decent drill press or a mill i had to get creative, started with chucking the MT2 drill in my lathes chuck and grabbing it by the handel in my tool holder, then i check it with a dial indicator and started spot drilling the already marked holes, i'm using the lathe as a giant drill stand.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

I parted out an old ultrasound machine today. It was amazing well constructed like a piece of aerospace equipment. I got lots of switches, cables and fasteners. I have this awesome aluminum rolling chassis left over:

View attachment 300531

Not sure what exactly to do with it! Is has about 10 bays for computer cards. It's about 3 x 3 x 2'. I hate to cut is up plus the panels have lots of holes in them so they would not be great for stock. Any thoughts?

Robert

I'd buy some roller drawer slides off Amazon, pull out the bits from the left and right cavities, reinforce the frame a bit (close the back?) and fit a bunch of drawers to it. It would make a fantastic rolling tool chest.

View attachment 300591

I do that all the time on my lathe - I made a small drill chuck holder that runs it its own bearings with flats at the non-chuck end to attach a cordless drill to. I use the lathe like a super spacer (it has 60 holes in the bull gear and a locking pin in the headstock) to drill end on and from the side. I made it more as a proof of principle before making more QCTP blocks, but I've used it alot, most recently to do:

 

[jdedmon91]

Today’s project, a replacement shifter support bracket for a Honda dirt track car. The rubber one busted


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