Recent content by theastronaut

McMaster wanted $41 each for non-hardened 1 3/8" stainless balls, the cheaper version was hardened 440c at $18 each but I was worried I couldn't drill/tap/machine those as easily. The ebay ones were pre-drilled/tapped were around $40 shipped... not a hard decision.

"Threaded stainless ball" will pull up a ton of them, they have them all sizes up to around 60mm with different thread size options for each diameter. These shipped from china, couldn't find anything reasonably priced in the US, took about two weeks to get them.

The handle ends came in today, they're 33mm stainless pre-drilled/tapped I found on eBay. I chucked them in the lathe to turn a flat to match the diameter of the handle, used a long stud screwed in to make sure the threaded bore was level. Drilled and tapped the handle. Threaded...

Got the spindle bored to fit the new handle last night. I worked up to match the OD of the handle with the boring head, then switched to honing it so I could sneak up on the clearance and have a better surface finish. This hundredths scale has been handy for checking the rough size quickly...

Dust is 100% contained (no airborne dust to get in places other than the ways), sandpaper lasts longer, easier to clean up… no downsides.

Thanks! I used the glass cleaner shown in one of the pics to keep the bar/paper wet so there was no dust, it foams up and does a good job of suspending the grit. I do have a cover I normally use when sanding dry though.

Hopefully! :ROFLMAO:

Been hung up on other projects lately, but finally got around to ordering a bar of 440c stainless for the handle. I bought 1"x36" so I'd have enough for this vise and my 606M2, the handle on that one is pretty beat and the spindle bore for the handle is very loose. I got this for "cheap" on...

Literally like driving a go kart on the street. It will pull over 1g on the cheapest of cheap all season tires in 35* weather and over 1.4g on 100tw tires, and changes direction faster than anything else. I've never measured braking Gs but it's violent on sticky tires from 80-0. Supercar...

This one is a three in one- the vintage camper shell, aluminum trailer, and showroom condition Festiva were all FB marketplace finds. Found my taco cart on marketplace back in 2015. Probably my all time favorite find was my '89 Festiva. I got it for the (at the time) crazy high price...

The jaws shelves weren't parallel to the base, and needed to be matched to each other. I clamped it in the mill and found that the static jaw shelf was around .055" lower on one side than the other- noticeable by the very narrow machined strip on the far side and wide strip on the near side...

I do my own, caster isn't adjustable on my car so that makes it easier, although I do have an old Ammco magnetic camber/caster gauge that fits the hubs perfectly for when I install adjustable camber/caster plates. I use an angle app on my phone for camber and toe plates/tape measure for toe. I...

I started roughing in the soft jaws tonight using 1.5" square aluminum bar I already had, and figured out how to add serrations with the boring head. I started to chop it in half on the bandsaw then figured I could mill the center out first to create the stepped top lip and have a lot less to...

I just looked up the needle roller thrust bearing specs on McMaster Carr, it's only good to 4600 lbs dynamic load but 21,600 lbs static. Would vise spindle rpm in the single digits count closer to static or dynamic? Fireball vises use a roller bearing and make around 30k lbs at the jaws but I...

Took a little thinking to figure out how to measure the height of the nut relative the slide. Settled on using an adjustable parallel in between the slide surface and the area of the spindle shaft that goes through the dynamic jaw, and used the notches on a Starrett precision level to see when...