I tend to machine whatever I have on hand or can scrounge. I'd like to make a riser block to replace the compound slide. I figure something like a 2x2x2 cube of steel would be pretty close - I just got a 4-jaw chuck so I should be able to machine it to size on the lathe. But I have nothing like that lying around. Went on ebay and didn't find much. Started looking at the online metals places. Cube like that is pretty reasonably priced although the shipping tends to be high. If I'm going to fork out that cash to a specialty place, I figure I should know what I'm getting. One of the options is 1018 cold rolled. Seems like a good choice. A36 is a bit cheaper but just barely. Some other sites list other steel alloys. Is 1018 reasonably machineable? Is there something else I should be looking for?

My quest is not direct to a 7x12, however, it is close to EDM 😊 For next Christmas I have to connect many 2 mm iron strings together, in all directions. I can made 1 mm holes and screw or nail them together, I have done it on my protos. Soldering is also an alternative, however, not my favorite. The wires are in tension, so when I start soldering the second spot, the first (#¤%¤#) So I am asking for advice to shop a small “welder” for 2 mm iron wire. Only 500 “welding” connections. /johannes Mexico PS this subject is total new for me.

Has anyone else here used concentrated nitric acid to remove broken taps or drills from aluminum? I tried it for the first time on Friday and it works great. The theory behind this is complicated, but basically, CONCENTRATED nitric acid attacks steel but does not attack aluminum. (DILUTE nitric attacks both). I was intrigued by this idea when I first learned about it many years ago, so I bought a quart of 67.2% nitric acid.* But I never needed it until Friday because I'm very careful using taps and drills. But on Friday I broke off a #25 drill in one of the final steps of making a special tool holder for my minilathe. (It's designed to hold a single-edged razor blade dead vertical in the tool post). This was originally a piece of aluminum scrap, but I'd already done several operations on it with my shaper and mini-mill, so ruining it at that point would've been a real bummer. This seemed like a time to try the acid. So I washed off the part with Dawn dishwashing liquid, rinsed it well, and blew the hole dry with compressed air. I figured the acid shouldn't have to fight its way through oil to get to the metal and it also shouldn't get diluted because dilute nitric acid attacks aluminum as well as steel. (Both of these precautions may have been needless, but this was my first time so I was being careful). Then I used a plastic soda straw to dribble a few drops of the concentrated acid into the hole. Nothing seemed to happen for several minutes and I was getting impatient. So after 10 minutes or so, I used a sliver of the same plastic straw to poke around in the hole and feel if the broken drill was loose yet. No, the drill wasn't loose -- it was gone, transformed into black sludge. I rinsed the part off in cold water and the hole was perfect. I was ready to start drilling again. There are, of course, other ways to remove steel taps and drills from aluminum, but they all take hours or days. Concentrated nitric acid is fast! (And I don't even know HOW fast. I discovered that the broken drill was gone after about 10 minutes, but it may have dissolved long before that). Also, the tiny amount of acid you need means you could probably dribble it into a horizontal hole (in, say, a motorcycle engine case). As long as you flush the area with plenty of water afterwards, it should work fine. So I recommend this method, except for the problem I describe below. ‐--------------------------- *When I wrote, "so I bought a quart of 67.2% nitric acid" above, I didn't mention the main downside. You're not gonna find concentrated acid at Home Depot and similar places, and nitric acid is harder to get than most. I've bought hydrochloric (muriatic) acid without difficulty (this IS at Home Depot and Lowes). I also once bought a quart of 98% sulfuric acid at an industrial chemical supply house. It came in a heavy-duty polyethylene bottle shipped normally in a sturdy cardboard box. But 10 or 15 years ago when I ordered the quart of nitric acid from that same supply house, the shipping was $30, which was a lot back then. (This is one reason I bought a whole quart. I only needed a little, but the shipping dwarfed the cost of the acid, so I ordered the big bottle to eliminate the chance I'd ever have to pay that shipping again). But what I got for my $30 was impressive, and I don't think you could get it for anywhere near that price nowadays: FedEx called me on the delivery day to ensure that I was home. Then it sent a truck and driver directly to my house in Staten Island from their distribution center in New Jersey, and the truck carried the driver, the nitric acid and nothing else. (And when I signed for it, the guy gave it to me as if he were handing me a live grenade). The acid was also VERY, VERY carefully packed. My sulfuric acid had been shipped in a heavy-duty polyethylene bottle packed in a cardboard box. By contrast, the nitric came in a brown glass bottle, plastic-wrapped, then surrounded by plastic netting. This, in turn, was encased in form-fitted Styrofoam inside a wooden crate, the outside of which was plastered with dire warnings about letting it tip over or bump against anything. All this seemed excessive to me then. I majored in chemistry in college and I'm used to handling acids. But I later read that shipping companies have had serious problems with nitric acid in the past when bottles tipped over, clunked together or broke, resulting in disasters and even deaths. So the extreme caution FedEx used in my shipment may have been as much to keep slapdash employees alert as to warn me. But I can't imagine what this kind of shipping would cost nowadays, or how long it would take. So unless you live within driving distance of a chemical supplier or you have some other way to get it, obtaining nitric acid to dissolve taps and drills may be financially impractical. By contrast, USING nitric acid tto dissolve taps and drills isn't a big deal, if you're familiar with handling acids. Getting any strong acid your eyes would be catastrophic and nitric produces nasty fumes. But if you have proper eye protection and ventilation, spilling a little on your hand, etc., is no problem if you PROMPTLY wash it off, and you only use enough to fill the hole where the broken tap or drill is. So in short I'd say concentrated nitric acid is an excellent way to remove broken taps and drills -- if you can find some. There's a 17th century recipe for hare soup that allegedly began, "first catch your hare." The same thing is true here. If you want to remove broken taps and drills with nitric acid, first get your acid. After that, it's easy. Mike Taglieri

I use this sometimes when power tapping for maybe a # 10 & up https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tapping+with+a+whalstrom+chuck they work pretty good & their great if doing as bunch of repetitive drilling with different size bits . https://lostcreekmachine.com/product/drill-chuck-keyless-automatic-morse-taper-2-1-2%e2%80%b3-wahlstrom-a/ animal

Vid dropped this morning by Mr. Pete about Starrett being acquired. "ATHOL, MA, March 11, 2024 – The L.S. Starrett Company (“Starrett” or the “Company”) (NYSE: SCX) today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement in a go-private transaction with an affiliate of MiddleGround Capital (“MiddleGround”) in an all-cash transaction for $16.19 per share." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh6gUpTyhqA I don't know if it's necessarily as bad as the video makes it out to be. Could actually be good for the company. But it seems like tool companies don't have a history of being better after these sorts of transactions.

Hi Mike, May I make a comment please: The original subject had nothing to do with the 7x12 mini-lathe group name. That said, since this off-topic wasn't criticized, I (and others) felt free to diverge from the original thread. I'm so sorry as well but, in the future, I strongly suggest that the threads MUST be in line with the group name and I promise I'll hardly stick to the rule. Have a nice day. Regards On 16.03.24 13:00, Miket_NYC via groups.io wrote:

20 years ago I had no mill so had to use my lathe and a Aloris tool post and holder it work great . If did a lot would done more by using use tool holder and plate bolt to holder. I found this that may give some ideas. Dave

The Japanese was buying American before Dec 7 1941. This just sharing a machine tool photo

I have a nice Jacob chuck buy does not take small drill and do not want modify the one on drill press. So purchased one Walmart.

I made a knurld ring on my brass knob. but, as the result, something wrong with the knurld surface. it's not even crossing each other. How can i solve this ? i turned on my lathe with 240 RPM and fed with my hand.

Last week, I changed the undersized, crappy radiator in my kitchen for a bigger one that heats the room much better. This involved undoing big threaded components that may not have been touched in half a century. A tool that to some extent made the job possible was a 24" Crescent wrench I bought from Harbor Freight. It cost $33, which I thought was very reasonable considering the size. Here's a picture of my newly installed and painted radiator with the giant wrench on top of it. It may have been possible to get this plumbing apart with a small wrench and a cheater bar, but it wouldn't have been EASY, which it was with this wrench. (Also, taking heating equipment apart in the wintertime is a bit risky because if you screw up, the house may be cold for a long time). I can't say any of us will ever find something on a minilathe that needs a wrench this big, but I'll find other occasions to use it, and I bet you would too. Mike Taglieri

Here photo from How to Run a Lathe It shows two ways of threading. I have used both to me they work same.