What did you screw up today?

[Dan Dubeau]

I found your problem. You didn't beer up. I'm no good until I've got a beer in me to relax, then I'm decent until the beer effect overrides the relaxing effect and starts to become a negative thing.

I'm the same way. A beer helps to loosen up and not think too much. Always rusty coming off the couch after winter though, but I started showing signs of life near the end of the bucket. Was just nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful day.

Cenedd, now I know why my buddies always call me for a round

[Tom S]

What did I screw up today? My golf swing. Ducked out at lunch for the first bucket of range balls for the year, and it was terrible. Still looking forward to Sundays first round though, unless we're going into a full lockdown again

I found your problem. You didn't beer up. I'm no good until I've got a beer in me to relax, then I'm decent until the beer effect overrides the relaxing effect and starts to become a negative thing.

[Cenedd]

What you need to do Dan is take the right choice of buddy with you next time. With the right choice driving next to you, your swing will look fantastic! I'd volunteer but I'm miles away!

[Dan Dubeau]

What did I screw up today? My golf swing. Ducked out at lunch for the first bucket of range balls for the year, and it was terrible. Still looking forward to Sundays first round though, unless we're going into a full lockdown again

[Cenedd]

I'll be honest Mickey, I have absolutely no idea. I've only every threaded without one - usually with the half-nuts left engaged but for the right pitch thread, you can't miss and it makes things easier. I'll confess I'm a bit jealous of those who have the option though....I just need to make a metric one.
Might at least work well enough for prototyping so I can find out I don't like the positioning before I drill the holes!

[mickeyf]

I would not trust a magnet to hold gears for a thread dial. It would not have to slip much at all to be worse than useless.

[Cenedd]

I've not got a threading dial to be in the way.....although I did get as far as buying some gears that are the right pitch and number of teeth. I have a defective indicator arm and mini mag base that the supplier replaced and asked me to dispose of the faulty one. I'm thinking the mini mag base might make a good way of mounting to the carriage without drilling holes in it. Was wondering whether it might serve double duty and mount the gears for a thread dial too....but I'm getting well ahead of myself now

[thin-woodsman]

I was thinking of trying to redesign and see if I can get a digital scale in its place. Would give me more travel.

One of the always-on-the-back-burner projects I have is a pair of way-clamps for the lathe that double as removable DRO mounts for the Z-axis. Where the moving head of the DRO attaches is the open question - I've seen some mods to the threading dial that would work, but there are a lot of extra tapped holes in the cross-slide threading stop so something could be fixed there too. Or a couple of the screws on the apron could be replaced with longer ones that also hold down a mounting plate. Decisions, decision.

[Cenedd]

^25 quid fixes it.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/30mm-Long...YAAOSwHOZgHBvc

Yeah. I'd seen a similar option (25mm Vs the 30mm on that one) from Machine-DRO but I was trying not to drop £25. It just seems a lot for a 2mm dowel pin - as the rest is fine. I was thinking of trying to redesign and see if I can get a digital scale in its place. Would give me more travel. My lathe is cunningly designed with millimetre carriage wheel graduations that don't match up with what anyone else calls millimetres (and it's not imperial either) so maybe Sieg should get an entry here!

[tom_d]

I have a set of rules in my shop. These are my personal rules as well as for any visitors. One of them is If I take a vise off a machine, when I replace it I either tram it true of put it on crooked enough it is obvious. The crooked happens when I don't have time to tram it.

Yesterday I was about 4 hours into a rather precise part. I put it in the vise and set the DRO off a bore and proceeded to drill a series of holes relative to the bore. The holes are all perfect relative to the bore and 10 degrees or less off relative to the base of the part. It will work fine but it looks like CRAP.

My personal rule is that when a vise goes on to a machine table it's clamped down. I'm just too clumsy to take a chance with it sliding off and doing considerable damage. When it gets clamped down it gets indicated into position. Always. If I don't have the time to indicate it I don't have the time or need to put the vise on to the machine. Same goes for other things like dividing heads and indexers. On the machine and in position, or under the bench and out of the way.

[I make chips]

^25 quid fixes it.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/30mm-Long...YAAOSwHOZgHBvc

[Cenedd]

My turn! Now that didn't take long, did it!
was in the shop eyeing up some bits of scrapbinium to see if they could be bent to my lunatic whims. I cranked the handle to move the lathe carriage out of my way - to be honest, I can't even remember the exact reason why. One turn, crunch. I'd left a 25mm travel dial indicator locked on the way. Over-travelled before I saw what happened and sheared the pin clean off the stem. Not a quality brand one but still annoying.

Anyone know how they fix the pin into the shaft? Tried tapping it out using a 1.3mm drill bit I was prepared to break (and wasn't disappointed) and it didn't shift. Not sure if it's loctited in or press fit.
This is the pin that has a spring attached to return the plunger, by the way.

[Cenedd]

Parting seems to go like that. Absolutely fine for ages and then drama after drama for no discernable reason. I tend to use double-ended inserts but the problem is that if you break one, they become slightly too short for the holder so you can't really use the other end. The unbroken length of my HSS blade is only just long enough to reach the second screw once given a bit of stick-out. Really want a carbide insert blade in a holder that includes the QCTP dovetail in it...and doesn't cost more than fifty bucks

[J Tiers]

Busted my favorite cutoff tool on a piece of scrapbinium.

I had drilled it, threaded it internally, and even turned down most of it and knurled the remaining full diameter section of the OD, so I did not think it was going to be a problem. Only got about 3mm deep cutting it off before it grabbed the cutter and broke it. Yes, I had it aligned with the cross-feed, and on-center.

The cutoff tool was just a piece of 5/16" ground down HSS cutter, no big whoopee, but it is annoying, and now I'll have to make another one.

The part was a blanking cover to screw over the end of a male hydraulic fitting to keep dust and dirt off of it.

[challenger]

Took 4 hours to get back on the road. A full hour of which was putting the new belt on solo. Not an easy job on a dodge diesel 3500. Another hour was spent removing the melted rubber from the pulleys.
Working in my driveway isn't fun but working on my truck in the autozone lot sucked.
Must have tweaked the crank position sensor. I'm getting 2 CPS codes and the truck is a little slower to start.