Bob Blarney

Grainger is one of the most expensive places for buying anything if you don't have a high-volume corporate account. I would shop elsewhere, e.g. McMaster-Carr (mcmaster.com) . A casual search shows 3/8-16 LH thread rod at about $6.24 per 6 ft length. (By the way, I would use 1/4-20 rod, because each full turn of the handwheel would be 0.050") That said, I find it difficult to believe that the cost of the hardware parts would amount to several hundred dollars. Most of them could be found in a hardware store or scavenged, and the knobs & handwheels could be shopmade easily. MDF could be used for the base and arm, and likely would be better than plywood anyway because it is heavy, and at these dimensions it won't warp if varnished/shellaced. A little ingenuity goes a long way. It would also be helpful to go to the Sherline website (sherline.com) and read through some of the thoughts about precision and manual & methods of setup of their tools.

This is no biggie, but it could save a guy a lot of time when something tiny goes missing, or for capturing small pieces as they are cut off larger stock http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/ForFun/ScrewFinder/screwfinder.html By the way, Frank Ford is an expert guitar repairman who is also a trained machinist. You may find his site interesting. http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/hstpages.html

Hello, I thought this milling fixture for a Dremel tool might be of interest to builders. I haven't built one and so I can't attest to its precision. But if it were built with care it might be serviceable. The thin jam nuts on the lead screws should take up backlash. One thing that might be an improvement is to make adjustable gibs for the ways, such as are found on Sherline mills. Another possible improvement might be to install sintered bronze bushing/bearings or 8mm skatewheel bearings and threaded rod instead of the wooden bearing blocks, although the hard maple bearings should last a long time if they are soaked with oil. http://woodarchivist.com/1624-diy-milling-machine/ The rest of the site might be of interest to you as well.

Oh, as a note, here are inexpensive lumber sources for hobbyists in the US: Walmart stocks 'square dowels' in the crafting aisle. They appear to be nice clear 12" lengths of birch or maple in several cross-sectional sizes, and the price is right. Also, a trip to the paint dept at the Lowes home center will show 36" x 1.5" x 0.25" yard sticks of clear white pine for $1. It will be necessary to plane or sand off the ink printing, but then you'll have high quality straight-grained stock of ~ 3/16" thickness.

Hmm, a stovetop pressure cooker might give some interesting results for small pieces. Or wrap wood in a damp towel and give it ride on the microwave carousel.

Is that softwood (pine?) or hardwood? Softwoods often don't bend very well compared to hardwoods. But I'm not sure that soaking is necessary. I bend 150mm x 900mm x 2.5mm thick guitar sides dry, using a heating blank and form, at temps 250-350F. Also, some people make a trough from a piece of rain gutter, and then fill it with a solution of Downey fabric softener in very hot water. This will make wood pliable. It will stink for a while and raise the grain, but time and sanding will take care of those issues.

Here's just a quick note about using Dremel bits. For depth of cut, don't exceed 1/2 of the bit diameter in a single pass, because chip clearance problems and breakage are much more likely to occur. Other than that, I've always thought that Dremels were pretty weak. But for fashioning very small parts they may be acceptable. I've always wanted to try a Foredom shaft-driven tool or a pencil/micro air grinder. However, a quality 1/8" pencil air grinder is not inexpensive ($100s), and the cheap $27 grinder at Harbor Freight gets poor reviews from experienced persons.

Yes indeed, the price of eyes is still out of sight! When I'm roughing out a billet on the lathe, I wear a logger's mask & helmet until it's in the round. But after reading your story, I think that at least a rudimentary metal detector might be in my future.

I have an Optivisor and a couple of knockoffs, but the reading glasses are the most comfortable. There is another little MacGyver that maybe I shouldn't mention, but I will. My regular prescription eyeglass lenses meet the ANSI standards for impact shatter resistance, but they don't have any side or eyebrow protection. So one time I modded a pair of laboratory safety specs that fit over the prescription glasses but that were very cloudy. I put them on, stared at an object at my usual working distance, and then put a dot on the safety spec lens with a Sharpie, directly at my focused points of the visual field. Then I drilled 3/8" holes through the clouded safety specs. Then I could wear the glasses and peek through the holes to see what I was doing, and still had excellent eye protection. Maybe it was a suboptimal solution, but it was far better than nothing.

Good Advice there. If money is available, then it might be wise to order two pair - one for ordinary living, and one for modeling. Also for when I use power tools, I have some stick-on magnifiers for (semi-disposable) plastic safety goggles. When the goggles are finally scratched beyond usefulness, I can peel them off and put them on a new goggle.

If needed to accommodate a slight mismatch in diameters, a gasket can be cut from polyurethane foam from a craft store such as JoAnn, It comes in 2mm and 6mm thickness. Cut the material to the width needed and oversize in length, wrap it around the fitting, and then cut it on a long diagonal. A spot of glue or double-stick cellophane tape will hold it in place.

They look like an excellent value. I like angulated tips for most work, but some straight pairs are necessary. Make a habit of protecting the tip with a bit of plastic tubing, e.g. aquarium tubing, after every use, or get/make a storage rack. A drop to the floor can permanently damage a fine pair.

I bought the Foster-Grant Multi Focus and recommend them. They cost ~$35US, and the quality is acceptable if not very good.

Between you and me, I doubt a Ryobi 9" bandsaw would be capable of sawing 3.5" thick wood for very long. Also, while the blade may be 0.025" thick, cleaning up the sawn edges will take a lot of material off too. Ditto for the other saws. If you really would like to save money, maybe you should try a Japanese pullsaw like one of the Vaughn Bearsaws, followed by a sharp handplane on a shooting board. http://www.vaughanmfg.com/shopping/Departments/Bear-Saw-Hand-Saws.aspx As for finding high quality stock at a reasonable price, I trashpicked a 60 y/o frame & panel exterior house door. After stripping/sawing off some paint, I had plenty of seasoned, stable pine that is totally clear with perfectly straight and extremely fine grain. Until a few decades ago, doors were usually made from the finest grades of wood available.

Further searching revealed this site that may be of interest: http://www.allaboutvision.com/over40/work_bifocals.htm

I have several pairs of readers too, in different diopter strengths. But it seems that the one I need is never at hand. So I'm going to try these out.

Hi, now that I've reached a certain age, I find that presbyopia is becoming a nuisance when doing various kinds of fine work. i saw these multi-focus reading glasses that might be just the thing for my problems. Has anybody tried these, or will I be the first? They don't look too expensive for what they may offer. http://fostergrant.com/foster-grant-multifocus-reading-glasses/wes

mtaylor- "My latest fling with Mr. Murphey points out about being safe.... the water pump died in the middle of high power cut, this caused the tube to overheat and crack.. " Ooh, that must have been an event! As an old Navy Chief said, "Every safety rule is written in blood." I think a pressure switch might serve your needs for an emergency power cutoff - you could scavenge one from a clothes washer - they are basically pneumatic switches that need a pressure head (depth of water) on the order of 30cm of water. If the water level isn't high enough, then the power is cut off. jaager - most of my experimental work was with sharp knives, needles & thread, instead of hammers - I don't know nuffin' 'bout no farmecology. re: the use of 4" pipe, then you will need a much more powerful dust collector than a shopvac. On Bill Pentz' site, you will find a spreadsheet and other information that aids in estimating/calculating the needs. A practical way to tell if your system is underpowered is to open a pipe run and see if debris has collected in the pipe. By the way, if you use four inch Schedule 30 sewer pipe with storebought fittings (blast gates, etc.) then you will find that there is a mismatch in diameters. I found that 2mm thick closed-cell polyurethane foam from Joann Fabrics (crafting dept.) makes excellent gasket material. Also, for small installations such as home shops, it is unnecessary to run ground wires - this myth was exploded long ago - but the pipes may build up a static charge and attract dust and become stimulating. There are a few other shopvac / dust collection system nuggets: 1. You can use it to collect small parts as they are cut off - make a collection tube that fits the hose, and then place a piece of hardware cloth or window screen at the juncture of the hose and tube. Place the tube opening near the saw blade The piece will be sucked into the pipe and trapped against the screen. 2. You can use it to accurately measure relative humidity in the shop using a thermometer and RH tables. Observe the dry bulb temperature, then wrap the bulb with a cloth or paper towel soaked with room temperature water. Turn on the dust collector and hold the thermometer at the air intake until the temperature drop stabilizes. Then note the temperature & difference and look up the RH in published tables or nomograms. The large volume air drawn past the thermometer gives a better air sample to measure the average humidity in the shop. I don't know if this is important for shipmodeling, but for guitarbuilding the RH must be controlled, usually ~40-55% RH.

I'm not criticizing anybody. If what you have done works, then great. But I think a better understanding that an effective dust collection system is useful - a system wherein the components are matched for efficiency and maximum useful life. ca.shipwright - I think I know the style of Delta vac that you have - the motor is external and away from the impeller, right? jaager - as a former med school professor of cardiovascular physiology, I think you're referring to Poiseuille's Law, that describes laminar flow (of air, here, and ignoring the compressibility of air) as a function of pressure inside a tube. Flow is dependent on several factors: the length of the tube and pressure differential between the ends of the tube, the viscosity of the fluid (air, here), the fourth power of the radius, (and another physical constant or two, as I recall). Thus for a given material and length of tube at a constant pressure differential, the flow can be doubled by increasing the radius by ~20%. and that doubling the radius will increase the flow sixteenfold. Incidentally, neurohumoral control of blood vessels is vital to matching the limited pumping capacity of the heart to the needs of body tissues. Although cardiac output can be increased or decreased to some extent, the distribution of blood flow is determined by changing the caliber of arterial resistance vessels in particular organs, e.g. coronary blood flow, skeletal muscles blood flow during rest or exercise, and renal blood flow. mtaylor - i'm not familiar with your laser equipment, but the ones that I've seen don't produce embers that would ignite dust. But with the cooling water present, a wet/dry shopvac is a reasonable precaution. Come to think of it, I wonder if a dust cyclone such as the plastic Oneida Dust Deputy would also trap water. That would be an interesting experiment and if someone could try it, I would be very interested to hear the results. At the least, the cyclone would be cleaned.

The CFM rating (cubic feet of air per minute) of dust collector manufacturers gives only a rough idea of a unit's performance - think of it sort of like 'developed horsepower' of electric motors. When designing a dust collection system, the goal is to develop a flow rate at a velocity that will keep dust and chips in motion. Aside from leaks in pipes & blast gates, with every turn and foot of pipe there are airflow losses, According to Bill Pentz, a cyclone connected to a shop-vac with 2.5" tubing a will outperform a JET 1hp/650 cfm with a cyclone and 4" duct, and I can tell you from experience that's basically true. For the miniature machines that I've seen here, anything more than a shop-vac is probably unnecessary. That said, a well-designed duct system will prevent premature failure of a shop-vac. Shop-vacs are usually cooled by the air flowing through them, and many shop-vacs have a non-replaceable internal fuse that will burn out if the airflow through the vac is restricted, either to due undersized piping or clogged filters (that's why aside from convenience, a cyclone is a good idea). Thus, I think that while short lengths of 1" pipe are probably ok, I would go with 2-2.5" pipe, and keep the runs as short as is possible. To muffle the noise, one could put the vac inside an acoustically insulated box. I also suggest that a common box fan can be very useful. Make a box from cardboard or plywood that fits the drawing side of the fan, and place 2-3 furnace filters in it, starting with a coarse one for big particles and then a finer filter. This could be left to run pretty much continually while you're in the shop. Furthermore, in my shop the relative humidity drops very low during the winter months, and so I place a furnace filter on the intake side of the portable humidifier to catch dust before it gets inside.

Good advice, especially for my shop in the basement. At present I don't have GFI protection, but it is certainly a good idea But instead of a wallbox receptacle, I think I'll try to locate a GFI circuit breaker.

Hello, it seems that you're getting some good advice - everybody loves the idea of building a shop from the ground up. My Michigan basement shop grew haphazardly over 25 years as circumstances allowed, and there are things that I would have done sooner rather than later. Since my interests have been in larger items, and now guitars, I have full-size tools in my armamentarium -- usually quality >no-plastic< consumer tools from the 1950s. Electrical Power; a separate sub-panel for the tools is an excellent idea because it allows total shutoff when the shop is not in use. I ran 12-3-(with ground) wire through the shop so that I could have 20A at 120v or 240v at any location. The lights are on a separate circuit from the main house panel, and if you use LED lighting the wiring requirements are easily met. Electrical outlets for tools are essential, with a duplex receptacle at every tool location, and several spread out around the bench areas. A remote control for the dust collection system is very handy. Adequate lighting is critical - I'm replacing my fluorescents steadily with 4200 lumen/50W LED fixtures. At the benches for detaile work, I've measured it at 1500-2000 lux on the bench surface. Dust collection is all important. It is not the dust that you can see that is dangerous - it's the dust in the <3 micron range that can not be expelled from your lungs. I don't think you need the 1hp 650cfm Jet unit- as matter of fact it is underpowered for 4" ductwork. I think you should go with a 2.5" duct system - a shop-vac with a HEPA filter with an Oneida Dust Deputy cyclone preceding the vac. I made my own mini system that you can see here: http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3467 If you have the time, you might want to go to Bill Pentz's site to learn more than you want to know about dust collection systems: http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/

What was the wood species? Some exotics have resins or oils that can prevent bonding, and the usual maneuvers are to glue freshly cut/abraded surfaces and/or wipe with acetone to remove surface residues. A reversible wood glue that forms very tight rigid bonds is good old hot hide glue. One use for hide glue is to chip glass for decorative effects. After drying, chipping it off will result in a chip of the glass coming away with the glue.

If you like diamond stones, then this clearance sale at Constantines might interest you. If you can only buy one, then you might consider the medium or fine. I have a double-sided medium/fine DMT diamond stone. When I need something coarser or finer, I spritz them down with window cleaner (house or car), and then lay silicon carbide wet/dry paper and wet it down too. The paper will stay put on the DMT stone, and so I can take advantage of the stone's very flat plate. http://www.constantines.com/diamondstones.aspx

Chances are, that you'll find that wooden dowels are ovoid, not circular, and will change a tiny bit with the relative humidity.