Not new to machining, but new to the site. Been working metal (for fun and a bit of profit here and there.
) going on 20 years now, but am always learning new stuff. I started out on my paternal grandfather's 6" Craftsman/Atlas lathe, eventually purchased an import mill/drill with a rotary table and have been gathering accessories ever since. Two years ago, I received a Central Machinery 13x40 (or somewhere thereabouts) lathe from my maternal grandfather. More recently, (and sadly, due to the death of my maternal grandfather) I have acquired a surface/T&C grinder, a foundry furnace, and a whole slew of accessories like 5c collet chuck, spin indexer, surface plate and assorted calipers, gauges, and indicators.
Anyhow, I've been browsing the site, and really liked how it presents itself and the huge variety of projects, so I signed up. In fact, the day I signed up, I found ArnoldB's post on a vice backstop, and I now have one of my very own....
The knobs are a result of having too much fun being able to take a part out of the lathe still in the 5c collet and put them on the spin indexer in the mill. Besides, my knurling still kind of sucks at the moment. Eventually, I'm going to make a scissor type knurler to solve that problem.
Something else I managed to accomplish was refurbishing this light.
It was in my grandfather's 'pile of rusty treasure', and I was able to grab them while I was helping my parents clean his place out. I can remember these very lights (there are two, still working on the other) in the same pile of stuff since I was ten years old. It's probably a very safe bet that these haven't shed any light on a subject in 50 years. For whatever reason, I felt compelled to bring them back to life, and a bit of wire wheeling, painting, and some new wiring and ceramic sockets, this light is now showing me the way around my surface plate. Nice part is, the articulating parts do move quite nicely, and I can even use it for extra light on the milling machine, or above the garage floor if I'm working on the motorcycle or whatever. Here's a pic of the swivel mechanism I hacked out...
Anyways, I wanted to say hey, and I look forward to some really great projects and conversations with everyone!
