• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.
  • Several Regions have held meetups already, but others are being planned or are evaluating the interest. The Calgary Area Meetup is set for Saturday July 12th at 10am. The signup thread is here! Arbutus has also explored interest in a Fraser Valley meetup but it seems members either missed his thread or had other plans. Let him know if you are interested in a meetup later in the year by posting here! Slowpoke is trying to pull together an Ottawa area meetup later this summer. No date has been selected yet, so let him know if you are interested here! We are not aware of any other meetups being planned this year. If you are interested in doing something in your area, let everyone know and make it happen! Meetups are a great way to make new machining friends and get hands on help in your area. Don’t be shy, sign up and come, or plan your own meetup!

Search results

  1. Tmate

    Easy Way to Install Sanding Discs

    This is an old trick, but some may not be aware of it. Sanding discs are almost impossible to install on a bench sander without the glue sticking to the plate while you are trying to slide it down. The answer is to lay a rule on the film side and cut half the film off. Then insert the half of...
  2. Tmate

    Matching Spacing of Existing Blind Holes

    How can you match the hole spacing of blind holes when you can't use a transfer punch? You could use dial calipers and do a bunch of math to determine the spacing or you could do this: In this case, I needed to fabricate a bracket to mount a magnetic scale reader head for a DRO to the back of...
  3. Tmate

    Cheap Tubing Notcher for your Lathe

    Here's a smaller version on a mini-lathe:
  4. Tmate

    Easy variable speed longitudinal feed for your mini lathe. No more changing gears

    A good while back I bought a Grizzly mini lathe, and like my old Atlas 6 incher, I had to switch the gears to adjust the feed rate. My solution for that is pictured below. I center drilled the lead screw with a 5/16" drill, then drilled and tapped a setscrew hole an inch or so from its end. I...
  5. Tmate

    Cheap Tubing Notcher for your Lathe

    A milling attachment is heavy and cumbersome, and there is always the chance of accidentally dropping it on the ways. I came up with this piece to cut notches in tubing without resorting to a milling attachment. Chuck up a hex shank hole saw, mount this little attachment, and you are good to...
  6. Tmate

    CNC Plasma Cutting When You Have No Space

    Maybe have the workbench be the frame for the plasma table, and set the 2 axis assembly on top when you want to use it. I did this on an early cantilevered machine I built -- see photo. The plasma dust is perhaps the biggest problem with these. A water table collects maybe 70% of it, but...
  7. Tmate

    CNC Plasma Cutting When You Have No Space

    Some shapes cut with my current table (middle photo above)
  8. Tmate

    DIY Riser Block for 6" x 26" Import Mills (Grizzly, Enco, Harbor Freight, etc.)

    H&W Machine sells a kit that uses solid bars across under the front and back of the machine, with leveling feet at the ends. My approach was similar, but I used 5" x 2" x 1/4" wall rectangular tubing with leveling feet that have integral casters. Since the machine is now 7" taller, I bought a 7"...
  9. Tmate

    CNC Plasma Cutting When You Have No Space

    While we would all like to have the space in our shop for a 4' x 8' or larger CNC plasma table, exhaust system, etc., many of us do not. Still, we should not deny ourselves such a fabulous, time saving process just because we don't have the ideal location for it. I solved this problem years ago...
  10. Tmate

    DIY Riser Block for 6" x 26" Import Mills (Grizzly, Enco, Harbor Freight, etc.)

    As it turns out, I scrapped the idea of the fabricated riser block for the 6x26 mill and bought a Bridgeport.
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