Shop tips

[Storydude]

I ask the question...

What did man do to deserve such a thing?

All the things we did when we were 17-22 LOL

[scrapcan]

Well I know what you guys are talking about. My wife is a few years older than I am and I am into about year 2 of her personal summers and other interesting new happenings. I have been lucky though as she has yet to unloose the things others have spoken about.

And as far as the things we did as men during our 17-22 years, I am pretty sure the things i did were not even on par with causing this kind of havoc in a mens lives. Some of you guys must have been really bad to have caused this on man kind.

Back to the shop tips as we need to stay out of the way and the shop is a good place to be!

[PatMarlin]

All the things we did when we were 17-22 LOL

LOL

I would have to widen the range of that discription considerably. Tack about 3 years behind and 10 years ahead..

When you shed it in that light, I feel much better ..

[KCSO]

Working with my brother in law one day and he says let me use your knife. I toos him my Smith and Wesson custom folder (circa 1975) and next thing I know he's scraping an engine block with it! I ask why he didn't ask for the block scraper, he says, well your knife is sharper! I got my knife back and it looked like a cross cut saw.

[Bret4207]

Oh yeah, menopause, The Fun Family Game Everyone Gets To Suffer Through! Good lord, she was kinda skittish before, but now........wow.

[RayinNH]

When working in the shop on metal /gun related projects, caliper/verniers make excellent tweezers for pulling metal slivers. They close down to nothing unlike almost all tweezers on the market.

Metal banding, the kind heavy items are strapped down to pallets with, are good for keeping parallels apart in the milling or drill press vice. A piece 5"-6" long bent in the middle into a v and inserted between the parallels forces them against the vice jaws, keeping them put when brushing chips off of the tops of the parallels. Put the crotch of the v against one parallel and the two legs against the other side..Ray

[dudel]

Oh yeah, menopause, The Fun Family Game Everyone Gets To Suffer Through! Good lord, she was kinda skittish before, but now........wow.

Global warming is really caused by all those baby boomers having hot flashes.

We were able to cut the heat WAY back at our house during those years.

[PatMarlin]

My wife is still going nuts. We talked about divorce for the first time after 20 years and had a real fun weekend of fighting awhile back, then Mrs. Jekyll comes back like nothing ever happened...

[ricksplace]

That's why it's called MENopause. It's the men who suffer.

[blackbike]

Here`s ya a little tip. I hate 3 piece cleaning rods, allways bend at the joint. So I go to get a one peice brass rod,$40. bucks! for a 5/16 rod! Ain`no way i`m paying that for one.I just to cheap. So I spy my cuting torch rig in the corner, with a short peice of brazing laying there, BINGO. I go to the welding supply and get 5/16, 1/4,3/8 brazing rods for a few $. cut them for lenth for 22 rifle, 5/16, 30cal 1/4, 44,45 cal,3/8. The cut offs make knock out rods, brass punchs, and the list goes on. Add a brass knob from hardware store , on one end and fashtion jag on the other and your go to go. hope this helps. blackbike

[Casting Timmy]

When using machinery with a lot of backlash and play approach holes from the same direction when doing a drill pattern. If you keep moving the table left for the next hole and go to far, move the table back enough that the final approach to the hole is still moving the table left.

Convential milling will also have the advantage of putting the pressure against the leadscrew nut the same direction that it's already being applied to move the table into the cutter. Climb milling will suck the table into the cutter, so a table with a lot of backlash can break or overload your cutter. This same problem can be seen when drilling, especially into brass. The drill bit cutting edge can be slightly dulled or sometimes lock the handle and use the knee to drill through the material if you don;t want to dull the drill bit.

The same principal can be used on your lathe by runnign your compound all the way in, this way the tool bit can't get sucked into the metal and cause you problems.

Check your inserts often to make sure they're tight. Over tightened or loose screws on the inserts will lead to broken inserts, and then it will be broken tool holders and screws if not corrected.

When milling plastic, use an air nozzle to keep the end mill cool and the chips out of the way. It will keep material build up and melting from happening.

When turning a extremely small diameter long part on a lathe, cut to final depth in one pass. This keeps the tool pressure going towards the chuck where the part is thicker.

[jodum]

I hate looking for small parts that roll off the work bench. I bought a roll of the adhesive backed magnetic tape used on the back of ice box calendars and trinkets. I applied this stcky backed magnetic tape along the front edge of my work bench. Now, any small metal parts that roll off the bench are caught by this magnetic tape. Beats the heck out of crawling around on the floor looking for a part.

[Reverend Recoil]

Never loan your pocket knife.

The litle spring inside of tire valve stems often fit gun and trigger assemblies.

Cheap rubber door mats make good bench top pads.

Concrete/masonry nails are made of tough high-strength steel. They can be ground and shapped into drift puches and screw drivers.

A 1/4" drill chuck fitted to bolt and wooden file handle makes a good pin vise.

[deltaenterprizes]

That's why it's called MENopause. It's the men who suffer.

A gunsmith friend of mine that has now passed on called it " Mental pause"

[Casting Timmy]

If Loctite won;t hold for you there is a Permatex product called Teflon Thread Sealer. THey actually have a couple teflon thread sealers, but its the High Performance Thread Sealer Part NUmber 56521.

My two warnings are it only dries in the absence of air, so it's kind of like antisieze and jumps all over the place. You have it on your hands, cloths, and everywhere else if you don't watch it. The second warning is it does not care about oil on the threads and will lock that screw or bolt in place like it was welded.

When I worked at Permatex we had to regularly work on the steam pipes, we find out quickly how hard this would lock the pipe joints together. So we tried putting this onto the threads right after cutting them with lots of cutting fluid. We thought the oil woudl reduce the holding power, but it never would. So use it carefully as it will hold!!

The product was packaged at another plant, and my boss said the hopper had to be constintly turned and filled. If the product level got too deep in the hopper the lack of oxygen woudl lock the machine up solid. This is called an antiarobic, it will only cure in the absence of air.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Sounds like amazing stuff! How do you get it apart if you have to? Gas axe? HaHa!

We call the sort of stuff that works in the absence of oxygen, anerobic.

Some products on the market are plumb incredible. Sounds like a job for plastic gloves.

[TAMU74]

Today's engine break-in oil is different than in the past. The government has placed new limits on the zinc additive (ZDP) that motor oil can contain and the lack of it in the new oil in a new engine can lead to premature wear on metal surfaces that have not yet established a wear pattern. On a reciently rebuilt motor, not using the break-in oil three lobes on the camshaft were wiped out in less than 30 minutes of running. Even with using the moly cam lube during assembly. Just a few words of advice from a guy that had to buy a second cam and set of lifters and 5 quarts of break-in oil.

[Casting Timmy]

No heat to break it, just a lot of effort. You'll start to wonder if you're going to break something or loosen the part first at times.

You can buy a zinc additive to put in your oil. I think it's sad what stupidity our gov does in trying to make the world a better/ cleaner place. They will screw up 99% of something so the last 1% isn't doing something bad to the enviroment.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I can sort of understand the concept of tryng to cut down zinc in normal oil, but run-in oil should be exempt. I never buy new or rebuilt engines (hopefully), so I should scrape by, lol. My Nissan 4.2Ltr diesel has 222,000kms/ 133,000 miles and I figure it should be good for 500,00kms / 300,000 miles at least and I'm 64, so by the time it is getting a bit ordinary, I will be in my 70s and not upto driving such a big assed truck, lol. Should work out fine! Thats a river of oil changes by then though.

[xs hedspace]

My favorite bunch of tools is the assorted diamond dremel grinding bits that Harbor freight sells. These things cut ANYTHING. You can sharpen carbide saw blades with them, grind out broken taps(slowly), crown .22-.243 barrels with the cone shaped one, drill holes thru flat springs, etc. Those magnetic rubber strips from the craft stores---glue to a piece of thick leather for no mar vise jaws. BTW, you can replace the rechargable batteries in the Dremel pack with AA LI-ion size from the drug store, way cheaper. Battery type Dremel+diamond bit=great chainsaw sharpener. Fits the pocket, good for 3 sharpenings per charge.