Recent content by Mickey_D

I bought about 15 tons of aluminum and stainless this year and Trident has the best prices that I have found. Call the Houston branch at 713-462-2410 and find out who your area rep is and have them come by. Build a relationship with them and you will get good prices.

I have a pair of cold saws, an Eisele and one with no name tag, and cutting hollow tube is loud and more work than you think. Cold saws are awesome for small tube and solids, cutting down bolts and threaded rod, and small very accurate cuts, but big stuff *****. I do all of the big cuts on the...

The Kennedy boxes are really nice and are standard with old school drawer slides which are good if you move your box around a lot and sometimes it ends up not sitting quite level. It kind of ***** when you open the lock drawer on a box and all of the sudden 11 others start opening on their own...

Before you buy an Ingersoll, look at the country of origin on the pump and motor. I had their SS3 Tractor Supply model a couple of years ago (my other compressor died on a Saturday and I needed a new one right then) and it was a total POS that was made in India. In a year and a half it went...

If you are buying new get a Quincy.

The Syncrowave is a really good machine, just try to get one with a water cooled torch vs. an air cooled one. I would stay away from the econotig - it is better than nothing but an order of magnitude beneath a syncrowave.

Nu Era boxes are the toughest ones that I have found. Way tougher than Vidmar and Lista, only downside is that they are insanely heavy. I would not even try to mount them on wheels, just weld them down to some 2"x 8" square tubing so that they are easier to move around with a fork lift. Fully...

If maintained, a Champion R15 is a 50,000 hours between overhaul pump. They are easy to work on and parts are readily available. Good luck getting a tenth of that out of a Cobalt.

Most of the consumer grade Ingersol (like the ones from TSC) pumps are actually made in India. I went through a couple of pumps and a motor in 2 years on mine. Try to find a decent used Champion, Quincy, or other real compressor and you will be much happier.

Kalamazoo VT18 Tilt frame metal cutting bandsaw. Powerfeed, cuts 45 degrees left and right (as well as any thing in between, 18"x 20" @ 90 degrees, adjustable blade speeds, coolant, left and right catch wings (not pictured). Tilt frame saws work by clamping the stock in the vise and engaging the...

I started out about 6 years ago with an ancient Bridgeport BOSS 5 in the garage as a big toy, next thing I am making contract prototype parts, and now I have a 2K foot shop and 3 full machining centers running contract parts with a 6 week backlog. I only work about 60 hours a week but it is a...

Most of the Carolina stuff is low end chicom junk sold out of the back of trucks with some sort of strange story. I would not buy any of their stuff, either new or used (also sold under the name of Titan Industrial) after seeing some of the horror stories on the web. Buy used new or used...

I have several friends that have them and they are good machines for prototype/low volume parts. CNCZone.com and homeshopmachinist.net are good places to check the reviews and ask questions. What cam system are you going to get? They offer a good deal on sprutcam but it has a steep learning...

I have a 15" VS floor model and love it. Took 10 years to find it and had to buy a whole shop out to get it but it was worth it. I use it almost every day and it is just a pleasure to run.

Ceramic tile looks great and is pretty durable, but don't even think of running a decent sized hard tire forklift over it. I looked at some shop space that had some tile in it and the forklift had really done a job on a tiled entryway (it had been some type of showroom in the past). I would...