Visited the scrape yard

[tinkerer]

I made my monthly trek to the recycler. I swap my coke cans for whatever I can find and this is what I walked out with. I know I need a milling machine to make use of most of it, but that could happen one day. I don't know if my lathe will even scratch some of these bolts.

[Darren]

Nice catch ...

I'd guess that big pin will be as hard as (put your own words here) and that block on the end with the hole in it might be cast steel  (tough). If it's cast iron then you have been lucky.

Both are machinable, just don't stick your best HSS cutter on them or you'll be  

Bolts are usually great to machine, well all mine have been so far  

[chuck foster]

nice find  , i have machined lot's of bolts, sometimes you get one that is kinda tough but most of them are ok.

i found a piece of what looked like brass but man oh man it was so hard i couldn't machine it at all..............took it back to the scrap yard.

chuck 

[tinkerer]

I am thinking the clevis pin will be like trying to machine a diamond with a peanut. That shiny bolt on the left may be tough too. I think the rest will be OK. I am really getting a bug to sell some of the woodworking tools and buy a mill.

[Bernd]

Tinkerer,

I'd get the mill and keep the wood working equipment. Maybe the routers could go. The mill is nothing more than a router made for metal. And I hear wood and metal working machines are interchangeable.       

[tinkerer]

Tinkerer,

I'd get the mill and keep the wood working equipment. Maybe the routers could go. The mill is nothing more than a router made for metal. And I hear wood and metal working machines are interchangeable.       

Now there is an idea. If I am thinking correctly, on a mill the table moves. If I mount my router verticle and build a table that would move in three directions, I would have a mill. I saw a table at the scrappy from a junked bridgeport, I should have gotten it. Sounds doable, but right now Alabama, Florida is the only thing I will be thinking about for the next three + hours.

[Darren]

You should have gotten the table for a source of quality cast iron .....

Buy a proper mill .... like most machines the more rigid they are the better. Cutting metal is not like cutting wood.

I think the suggestion was refering to a metal machine can cut wood just fine, though I'm not sure about that due to spindle speed limitations.

A wood cutting machine is unlikely to be happy cutting metal. Prob too fast for a start.

[Bernd]

A wood cutting machine is unlikely to be happy cutting metal. Prob too fast for a start.

Darren I've cut 1/2" aluminum on my table saw and a block of bronze. Can't find the pics right now. But it can be done.

Bernd

[tinkerer]

You should have gotten the table for a source of quality cast iron .....

Buy a proper mill .... like most machines the more rigid they are the better. Cutting metal is not like cutting wood.

I think the suggestion was refering to a metal machine can cut wood just fine, though I'm not sure about that due to spindle speed limitations.

A wood cutting machine is unlikely to be happy cutting metal. Prob too fast for a start.

I was just kidding about the router. I couldn't pick up the table from the bridgeport or I would have gotten it. I couldn't even pick up the chuck that was in the bin. I did get a huge knurling tool that I will never have a use for except the wheels may be able to be used.
BTW Alabama came through, Now just got to get Texas beat.