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-Supposedly a very clever way to transport them, but introduced a slew of issues no one foresaw. Could have been all worked out with later iterations, but the flip side is that method really only worked with a car of the Vega's dimensions. Try that with an Impala or 1500. :) Doc.

-Technically both. 'Normal' paintballs are technically ".68 caliber", but there's .50 cal, .43, .40 and there used to be a .63. 68 is by far the most prevalent, .50 is used for "low impact" paintball games (typically for young kids) and the rest are used for basically airsoft type games or...

Quickie project from this morning, but first, my take on a meme, from breakfast: :green: Buddy of mine has a couple of the typical Asian minimills- one's a Little Machine Shop, the other I think... like a Busy Bee? Either way, they're square column mills, that raise and lower the head on a...

Finally made a tool that I've been needing for years; a sliding adjustable fence for my bandsaw. I use said saw a lot, with one of the primary uses being to slice up sticks of bar stock into smaller chunks to feed into the machines. For years I've measured and marked with a Sharpie, but this...

Several people have mentioned Caswell- have you tried their electroless nickel? You might be able to scuff/prep the original surface, then just dunk 'em in the electroless solution for a bit and get a fresh layer over the original. I don't know if that'll work, but I've plated a bunch of small...

Paul's got it- that's a Craftsman bed, carriage and cross slide. The column I'd bet money was taken from a small Jig Borer, similar to a Linley, or a drill press with a travelling quill support. The "head" is 100% shop made, and I'd bet a paycheck that collet was handmade to match. The whole...

I say this as a guy with considerable experience resurrecting machines that others would have thrown away: It's dead, Jim. :) Part it out and put the money towards some other lathe. Doc.

-Thing is, none of the listings I checked (well, on eBay) said anything about spring rate or strength. The only difference was whether it was 25mm wide (which the old one was) or 30mm (which I don't think would fit.) And looking at the photos, they all seem to have about the same turn count, so...

Mill's back up to full speed! The new spring came in Friday, and I took a moment this afternoon to slip 'er in place. But first, I had to get rid of the old one: I set it up in the outside vise, and used a chunk of aluminum rod as a drift to tap it out. That way, when it inevitably exploded...

Probably wouldn't need to make one from scratch, there's a lot of clocksprings you can get just off the shelf, if not being able to adapt something from another mill. Heck, I'd be surprised if something like that from a Bridgeport wasn't damn near a drop-in. BP has been making these things...

To use a bit of old vernacular, that's bitchin'! :) Doc.

Well ****- like others have said, they don't make things like they used to. :) Longtime readers will know that my main machine in the shop is my Grizzly mill- a Bridgeport clone I bought back in 2002. I've used this thing close to every day since then, putting many, many thousands of hours on...

I can't find an exact pic, but I'd wager that's the cutter holder/insert for one of those old engine boring bars that bolt to the block. Here's an example of some specific to older Van Norman machines. Doc.

I've always liked how people will misuse a product, and then blame the product. :) WD-40 is great at what it's meant for. As a penetrating oil, a light solvent and light but temporary lubricant. It's widely available and inexpensive... but it doesn't do everything. Sure, it's not great as a...

I'll guarantee you it's cast iron. No trace of a hard face, so it's for light jewellry or pewter work. Doc.

Years ago, I had to rob the VFD off of my Arboga drill press, after the old one blew out in my Logan lathe. I later bodged a temporary fix (likely going on it's fifth year :) ) by just stabbing in a spare WEG. Problem was, that was only good to 1 HP, and at the high setting, the drill was a...

That is definitely a unique one. It's 90% lathe-shaped, but there's just enough weirdness there to make me think it was possibly custom-built for some specific purpose. A few bits make me think it was built- as in, it's a 'Frankenstein', made from the parts of other machines. Most telling...

I'd love to have a functional CMM. :) But even if it was free, the cost of getting it shipped up here would be... shall we say, a tad prohibitive. :) Doc.

A close call for Christmas, but Santa delivers! (And, a good illustration of why Doc is so hard to buy for. :) ) I'd actually ordered two different 1-1/4" boring bars back when I got the rusty one- but that one came Priorty, and this one came, I'm guessing, by dogsled, presumably pulled by...

As we were talking about big boring bars earlier, during one such conversation, I idly checked eBay and almost immediately ran across a combo deal in my price range. A Kennametal CNMG 1-1/4" diameter boring bar, with a hard-to-find Aloris CXA tool block that takes 1-1/4" bars. (Aloris only...