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It used to be common- though maybe not so much up here in Alaska- to get gas cylinders with a Nazi eagle symbol. The Army brought back tons of them from Europe, and as they used similar specs as ours, a lot of them got into the exchange stream. And as the steel cylinders essentially don't wear...

Ever see a "camelback" drill press? That "tree" casting was turned on a lathe to machine the column round so the table could ride up and down on it. :D Doc.

'Couple of things: One, there's no such thing as a cheap one. There's no "drill doctor" for endmills. A lot of the cheaper units you'll find- $1500-$2000- are primarily intended for sharpening engraving cutters- single lip points. You can get attachments to do endmills and the like, but the...

-It can be said I receive a certain amount of money each month, in wildly varying yet largely unimpressive amounts, yes. :) I'd imagine what I make is little more than a rounding error to some of you, but at the same time, it's kept the lights on (well, mostly :) ) for a quarter-century so far...

-Yep, it starts with an off-the-shelf heavywall tubing. As I said earlier, this is a product a larger company developed and marketed for the sport many years ago, and I'll bet three months' paycheck they used the exact same inexpensive, readily-available material. They just handled it...

Since nobody's paying me to work on my car, every now and then I have to do some actual payin' work. :) Or at least "hope to eventually get paid" work, often as not. Out of the 20-odd bins of parts I have scattered randomly about the shop, I've recently emptied four... and filled two more. :)...

-Heh. You realize that's like asking how to use a drone to video the girl in the second floor bedroom while she's **********. Yeah, people have done it, but frankly, those people are assholes, and make the legit users look bad. One, what you're asking is probably illegal. "Harassment" in your...

-They're not, at least not anymore. The market was a lot bigger prior to the '08 recession, but that took the proverbial wind out of the market's sails. And since then, the sport has started seeing a lot more competition from things like airsoft, laser-tag, those new "Orbees" guns, and just...

Tallied up all the bins, boxes and baskets in which I have my various parts, either in the process of, or about to be fed through the CNCs. The shop is littered with them, and with everything that's been going on, I have to admit I've been kind of losing track of some of them. But, wrangled 'em...

And now, the thrilling conclusion! After getting a few other tasks for the day taken care of, I threw the wheels and wood on, and gave it a try under the machine: Naturally, it fit nicely- almost like it was meant to be there. :) I could have had the top deck a couple inches lower, but I...

For those that have been wondering just what the heck this thing is, it's a tool cart. One specially sized to fit under the big Warner & Swasey turret lathe. It'll effectively be a "drawer"- rolled out from under the machine to access the collets, rolled back under to keep it out of the way...

Okay, the car project is still stalled, waiting for parts. The floor pans should be here sometime this week, and the shifter parts next week. I just got the console mounting kit in today, but unfortunately it's supposed to rain lightly off and on most of the week. Welcome to Alaska. :) But, in...

Today's bite at the elephant: Cut two more pieces of square tubing, and milled the ends flat n' square: And those got TIG'd into what will become the bottom frame: Which was pretty much the sum total of what I could do for the frame, until I can get more material. The only other thing I...

The Thing begins! :) Alaska's absurdly short summer has started, and I have several projects I've been wanting to get done. Unfortunately, jamming the shop full of machine tools means that some things need to be done outside, whether for reasons of space, or dirtiness (welding, grinding) or...

Finally got that insert caddy/tray thingie from a month and a half ago done! Buddy of mine helped me with the woodworking- he has actual woodworking tools- and was kind enough to... er, critique some of my design choices. :) Suffice it to say that I am not conversant in how a wood project like...

By request: Making a super-minimalist paintball barrel. :) We start by bandsawing off some heavywall aluminum tubing: This gets faced square at one end, and both IDs deburred: Boot up the homebrew CNC, which was already configured for a straight OD turn between centers, and cut the OD...

-The missing compound, as noted, isn't a big issue. Unless you're trying for a "restoration" type repair, it's comparatively east to find and adapt a workable compound. You can also go without a compound- YouTube is full of people deleting the compound from all manner of machines, to add a bit...

-It's part of a 3-piece barrel system for paintball guns, called a "Freak Barrel". There's a tip (the black thing with holes in the previous photo) which can come in different lengths, styles and colors, an insert (a thinwall tube that comes in different bore sizes) and in this case, a back...

A month of brass! This one'll be a bit scattershot, it's a project I've been working on basically just as time permits, for a little over a month now. I didn't always get pics, so bear with me. :) Back in March, a reader asked if anyone had made a brass 'Freak' barrel back. To the best of my...

Sorry, only rich people get to be 'eccentric'. I'm not rich, therefore I'm just crazy. :) Doc.