Post em up!

lathes, mills, drills, anything that turns steel into swarf

Sprintcyclist wrote on May 21^st, 2022 at 3:59pm:


What about wood working stuff? I'm not a wood workers arsehole!

Hah - one good 'metal working' things I learnt over the past few years was how to put new bearings on properly.
In brief, put the shaft in a -20 freezer or better for a few hours. Put the bearing in a 60 degree oven for a few hours.
They will slide together with hand pressure.

Am 60 years old, so it was good to learn this.

Some of our stuff is mechanically complex. To get it together really nicely is greatly satisfying.
Some of our things I have to do in stages.
There are multiple housings and bearings.
Heat some on stage 1, assemble that part with only hand pressure.
Cool that full assembly for stage 2, assemble it with the heated next stage with hand pressure.

For a $20K apparatus, it is good to be careful.
I can spend another hour.

Sprintcyclist wrote on May 21^st, 2022 at 4:48pm:


we use 316L for our process pipework and 304 for framing and non contact pipes like airlines and conduits, I find it far easier to weld than crappy old mild steel due to the quality and cleanliness when tig welding.

I was just saying to my colleague the other day how things would be more difficult not to be able to go out to the Shed and weld something up.

It's a valuable skill even if you just had a cheap stick welder for non structural repairs.

I've been teaching a neighbour of mine a few farms up how to weld, from no idea at all to doing reasonable quality welds in the flat position didn't take long and it's allowed him to make his own gates and do a few repairs here and there.

Bias_2012 wrote on May 21^st, 2022 at 8:53pm:


What make of lathe?

I have a couple of ward turret lathe and 2 Wilson center lathes all circa1950s

Lovely to use and well made.

Jim Lahey wrote on May 21^st, 2022 at 9:20pm:


That's amazing. 70 years old and lovely to use.
How good is that? Must be a pleasure to turn it on.

Jim Lahey wrote on May 21^st, 2022 at 9:31pm:


English steel is very good. I like sharpening knives and have sharpened knives from different countries.

English is very good. Better than German.
Japanese is the best. So good it needs a different whetstone and a different angle.

Brazilian steel can be very good too, about as good as English, maybe not quite so good.

German is overrated.
Japanese is in a different class.

Jovial Monk wrote on May 24^th, 2022 at 5:13pm:


Sounds like a flyball governor on a steam engine...

never heard of a drill like that.

maybe a punch with 2 flywheels driving a crank?

i saw a mechanical hacksaw.
It ran on a slow motor, rotating wheel, back and forward, back and forward.
It had a biggish weight on the hacksaw frame to put some downward pressure on it.

For some reason, it impressed me.
You could put it on a big boring job and go off to do some weeding.

6x6 hacksaw

Jim Lahey wrote on May 24^th, 2022 at 8:07pm:



you must have a bloody big shed

First bub?

Jim Lahey wrote on May 26^th, 2022 at 7:16pm:


Your first one? Congrats

Boy is your world going to change

John Smith wrote on May 26^th, 2022 at 7:29pm:


Yeah tell me about it! Having a little girl:)

Back to the Hacksaw, I bought it for 160 bucks from the local tafe as they are obsolete and have been replaced by bandsaws in most areas.

Its perfect for me as I can cut hydraulic cylinder tube and other heavy sections which would have been impractical in a cold saw.

Its certainly paid for itself many times over, although blades are not that common so I usually order 5 at a time from England.