Latest Delivery

[PixMan]

Welcome, Vinny. Great book, good reading for when you can't be machining.

Do us and yourself a favor and post an intro in the section near the top where most of us do that. We'll beg for shop photos and thank you for them! ;)

[Mayhem]

These arrived today:

   

Guess which thread will get an update on Sunday

[f350ca]

Following up on uther peoples stuff.
Got the Hamilton tapping machine cleaned up. 
Decided to give it a good going over. Tore it down and sand blasted the castings and the old electric motor I found in stock. Rattle can paint job and some buffing on the shinny parts. One bad bearing I found for $3.99 at the parts store and its up and going. Almost, need to find a key for that tiny chuck.

Runs smooth as silk.
And the mule makes a great work bench (Steve will be proud, no horizontal flat surface left unused) 

[PixMan]

Awesome!!

That thing looks GREAT! I love how the horizontal surfaces are cluttered with belts, tools, 3-in-1 Oil, and various bits & bobs.

The tapping machine looks fairly good too.

[PixMan]

There was a guy over on the Practicallyamachinist website looking for a 9/16-18UNF tap, so I hit eBay to see what was there for him and found 3 of these for $12.00 each + $3.00 for shipping. One of the few sizes I don't (think) I have and it's a "general purpose" spiral point 4 flute HSS-E (5% cobalt) tap, so I bought one. Nice looking tap with a current list price of $52.60, so worth the 15 bucks to me!




Got some other goodies coming too, at even better discounts!

[EdK]

(03-12-2015, 04:06 PM)PixMan Wrote: ... Practicallyamachinist website ...

Good one.

Oh, and

Ed

[PixMan]

Thanks Ed! I may never have to use it, but like 1/2 (or more) of the tools in my shop...it's there if I should ever need it.

What until you see the other two items that will be showing up, and the prices I got them for!

[EdK]

You're definitely the master of bargains. What's your secret?

Ed

[PixMan]

(03-12-2015, 07:09 PM)EdK Wrote: You're definitely the master of bargains. What's your secret?  

Ed

 
No secret, really. What I do it use eBay's search function, and I have a couple of "saved searches".

First I select "shop by category" and select the "Business & Industrial" category, then click on Manufacturing and Metalworking". Since I'm shopping for cutting tools and holders, I refine by clicking on "Metalworking Tooling".

Now I go to the upper right side of that page where there's a big blue SEARCH button, but click next to that on the highlighted "advanced" word. There I type in one or more keywords, separated by commas. Just below that I might type in words to "exclude." The default section that gets searched is there by virtue of having gone to that section FIRST. To find the greatest deals, I sometimes leave that as "all categories" to find the stuff listed in the completely wrong section by sellers who have no clue what they're selling.

For example, let's say I need a couple of chucking reamers. In the search line I type in "reamer, reamers, chucking reamer, chucking reamers" and perhaps a few others. In the exclusions I'd put in "taper, adjustable, hand, bridge" and terms like that which would appear for reamers that I don't want to see. I do this for broader searches on brand names I want too, such as Walter, Titex, Prototyp (exclude protoype), Valenite, etc., where I might not want to see milling, drilling, etc.

On the same page I scroll down and select the options for seeing auctions only in the US and especially LOCATED in the US. Shipping from abroad is usually too expensive or takes too long.

Once I've clicked on "search" and it goes, you can change the listing priority by selecting "time ending soonest", "newly listed" (my two favorites) and then look for the green words above the first listing that state "follow this search", or if you already have it will read "save changes to your search". This saves time when you next log in and want to see what's new or cheap...or both. I find a number of dirt cheap "Buy It Now" tools that get "immediate attention!"

[Highpower]

Couple more items today. I am tired of Jerry rigging extensions and filler pieces to my tail stock when working with large tubing or pipe etc., and praying that it doesn't come loose.   So if finally picked up a bull nose live center.

   

The other thing that has given me heartburn over the years is the set of small expandable arbors that I find to be mostly useless.


  0960401-23.jpg (Size: 24.95 KB / Downloads: 78)

I say that because there is quite a gap between sizes, and it never fails that the size I need is always between two of the arbors. The set screw in the end only expands THAT END of the arbor, and unless it is a tight fit to the ID of your part to begin with you are spitting into the wind.
So the BBT delivered the solution to that problem today as well. Tapered arbors with 2 different size expanding sleeves per arbor, giving a size range of 1/2 inch to 2 inches and adjustable to within 0.001". No more wrapping the small arbors with tape, or making shims, or made to fit arbors.