What did you do today?

[Dan Dubeau]

Woke up yesterday morning and looked out the back window to see the wind had broken a badly rusted out crossmember on our "free" gazebo that was given to us last year for the no dough patio. I'd already fixed it a few weeks ago in another spot, but it seems I just relocated the weak point. Last time I just used some bed frame and did my best to sister it to the rusted out foil metal that was left. This time, not wanting to waste any good steel again I elected for more of the same. I didn't take any pics of the work, because quite frankly I don't want my name associated with it . I figure at this point I've got a few hours labour, a couple feet of welding wire, and an old bedframe into this "free" gazebo frame. Oh, and we bought a new top for it as the wind tore up the old 10 year old one in short order. If it wasn't for the new top, i'd just scrap the whole thing, but i'm committed to it now lol.

I had to tell that story to get to this one..... While cleaning up the bench afterwards I was looking at the scraps of salvaged bedframe and this piece screamed "make me into something useful". So I did. Ground off the rivets, and screwed it to the wall by the lathe for a quick and dirty file rack. Less than a minute. Don't always judge things for what they were, but for what they can be.

[J Tiers]

Dang... another scrounger and repurposer..... Do you find yourself saying "I'll not scrap it, that thing is perfectly good!"?

[Dan Dubeau]

Dang... another scrounger and repurposer..... Do you find yourself saying "I'll not scrap it, that thing is perfectly good!"?

I get pretty bad with that sometimes, until I run out of space and toss a bunch of stuff. The problem is I can look at something and think of something else I can use it for, or something I can make it into. I'm getting better at tossing stuff right away though, I've been cleaning up the shop all week and have a couple milk crates of scrap going to work with me tomorrow for the bin. Another 30 seconds of staring at that piece trying to figure out what to use it for and it would have been in the pile too.

[Arcane]

Today I helped a friend mount a couple of new Stock Car tire on rims and then his son did me an immense favour by crawling up into my garage attic and handing down a bunch of stuff I had stored up there. You've heard the old saying "Everything but the kitchen sink"? Well, I actually had a kitchen sink!

[mattthemuppet]

I had one of those bed frames I was waiting to take to the scrapyard, then my friend needed some angle to hold the B pillars of a Ford Coupe in position while he replaced the sills. Bed frame angle worked perfectly

[The Metal Butcher]

Drank beer and watched a movie with friends. No ragets.

[mattthemuppet]

melted a V belt on my bandsaw and broke the band that I put on this morning. Methinks I'm pushing it a bit too hard

[Bented]

I get pretty bad with that sometimes, until I run out of space and toss a bunch of stuff. The problem is I can look at something and think of something else I can use it for, or something I can make it into. I'm getting better at tossing stuff right away though, I've been cleaning up the shop all week and have a couple milk crates of scrap going to work with me tomorrow for the bin. Another 30 seconds of staring at that piece trying to figure out what to use it for and it would have been in the pile too.

My employer has thousands of tools for machines that we haven't had in 15 or more years, horizontal mill and vertical turret lathe tooling predominates.
You can't give this stuff away, modern shops haven't the old equipment or need to use it and most is entirely to large for a home shop user.
Ton by ton it makes its way to scrap. This is a slow process however.

[reggie_obe]

My employer has thousands of tools for machines that we haven't had in 15 or more years, horizontal mill and vertical turret lathe tooling predominates.
You can't give this stuff away, modern shops haven't the old equipment or need to use it and most is entirely to large for a home shop user.
Ton by ton it makes its way to scrap. This is a slow process however.

Damn....any Van Norman mill collets, arbors, supports, VN dividing heads?

[Bented]

Damn....any Van Norman mill collets, arbors, supports, VN dividing heads?

I have no knowledge of what a Van Norman mill is. However if it is simple 1 1/2" diameter keyed bore mill cutters above 4" then some may be useful to you, many of the arbors are CAT 50 tapers.
Did Van Norman use CAT 50 spindles?

[reggie_obe]

I have no knowledge of what a Van Norman mill is. However if it is simple 1 1/2" diameter keyed bore mill cutters above 4" then some may be useful to you, many of the arbors are CAT 50 tapers.
Did Van Norman use CAT 50 spindles?

No they didn't, two proprietary spindle tapers: 5V and 50V (in the larger mills).
NMTB40 or 50, Cat50 I'd have no trouble finding.

[Ironbearmarine]

Found a 14 inch bandsaw for wood for $40 the other day at our local curiosity shop. Its a heavy duty cast iron beast import. Apparently it got dropped and broke the mountings that hold the table in place. Took it home and pulled the table. There are a pair of hollow cams on the underside that pivot in cradles mounted to the saw frame. This allows the table to tilt. These cams are aluminum and one was shattered from impact. I thought i could fabricate one from 11 gauge sheet steel. I drew the parts in TinkerCad and cut them out on my cnc plasma cutter. I then made a bending die from some 4 inch bar stock for my HF bending machine. The photos will show what i mean. I welded up the parts and looks like this will work after welding on some mounting tabs and smoothing the surfaces.

[flathead4]

I have no knowledge of what a Van Norman mill is. However if it is simple 1 1/2" diameter keyed bore mill cutters above 4" then some may be useful to you, many of the arbors are CAT 50 tapers.
Did Van Norman use CAT 50 spindles?

Too bad you are not closer. I have Cat 50 taper horizontal and I'd love to have a pile of large cutters etc.

[Cenedd]

What do I win for 'sketchiest setup got away with' ? Fill level indicator holes were on the wrong side of the res once it was wall mounted. Blanking plugs in the originals, spot face, drill & tap and now it's on the correct side.





Wall mount was 3D printed from PETG....and helpfully not visible in any of these pics.
Third iteration of the nozzle mount seems to be the charm. The FogBuster case is by Clough42 but modified for metric screws. I first made a deviously designed mount that fit on top of a mini mag mount with the intention that it could be easily transferred to the lathe if I wanted to. Trouble was that the only place to mount it is the front and that just resulted in it spinning. Tried James' (Clough42) mount on the front and was very happy with it.....until I mounted a DTI and found it collided. This is the current design that pads it out away from the column for clearance and also adds a 10° angle to the Loc Line to help with that. Longer bolts arrived this morning to screw it onto pre-existing M5 holes in the front of the spindle.

[Dan Dubeau]

Found a 14 inch bandsaw for wood for $40 the other day at our local curiosity shop. Its a heavy duty cast iron beast import. Apparently it got dropped and broke the mountings that hold the table in place. Took it home and pulled the table. There are a pair of hollow cams on the underside that pivot in cradles mounted to the saw frame. This allows the table to tilt. These cams are aluminum and one was shattered from impact. I thought i could fabricate one from 11 gauge sheet steel. I drew the parts in TinkerCad and cut them out on my cnc plasma cutter. I then made a bending die from some 4 inch bar stock for my HF bending machine. The photos will show what i mean. I welded up the parts and looks like this will work after welding on some mounting tabs and smoothing the surfaces.

Great Job. Many years ago I had the same problem, but solved a different way by machining two halves from aluminum and mating them together. It's a nice feeling to bring a tool back to life. Well done. The trunions on my delta were a really thin zamac casting. They just crumbled from lifting it by the table.