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TOOLMASTER
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wood working vice isn't just for wood..this has been my go to vise for 25+ years
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Clever Things We Do In Our Shops
- Thread starter WayneP
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- Joined
- Aug 17, 2015
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- 29
I use the small magnetic dish from Harbor Freight to hold my SpillMaster.
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British Steel
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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!
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2012
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- 1,255
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
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
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2014
- Messages
- 208
+++ 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
"army knife for android" my most used..has scale, level, unit converter, magnifier, etc.
having a level in your pocket is sooo handy
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2013
- Messages
- 2,534
So there!
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2012
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- 1,387
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.
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.