Specialty Builds

Scraping in all bearing surfaces on my Wards/Logan 10"
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I've been working on my lathe off and on over the past several weeks or months, but I've been hesitant to start a thread documenting my progress (or lack thereof!) for fear of embarrassing myself. I'm increasingly confident that I'm going to end up with a very precise lathe rather than a very large pile of cast iron dust and tears, so I'm finally willing to share my progress. After creating...
KO-Lee Cutter/Grinder Revamp
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Perhaps you've seen this from other photos... It's a KO-Lee cutter grinder. It's a good platform and the table and all mechanisms are in excellent condition. I don't think this machine was used much in it's lifetime as there are very few signs of wear (hardly any at all really). The motor is the weak link. The bearings are going bad and vibration can be felt in the short shaft. The...
Restoring an old powered hacksaw
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Figured I'd share my restoration project! I've always found these old machines quite cool and when a neighbour offered me a defective one for free, I couldn't say no! :D This is the machine as I got it, it runs but won't lower the sawblade so you have to manually push it against the work piece, which becomes quite the challenge and dangerous as heck when it's moving back and forth. The...
9A project completed
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Some of you guys may remember this little crudball I acquired back in April... I had just completed the last project, the Seneca Falls #30 resto-mod,(project of the month) when this lathe found it's way to me via a friend of a friend. My friend, who is also a tool salesman, showed me a pic of this on his phone, which came from his friend, the seller, who now is a retired tool room...
Clausing 1771 Drill Press Restoration
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I picked up a Clausing variable speed drill press from a Craigslist ad. I offered the guy $200.00 and he accepted. The drill press was in decent overall condition, and had a new motor on it. I disassembled the machine and cleaned up and painted everything. Mechanically, it was in very good condition, and the only real repair work I did was to straighten a few of the handle arms. One...
New bike project.
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New project, a bike with a motor this time, I’ve been working on this for a while so done quite a bit so far. It’s been 20 years since I sat or worked on a bike, last one was a Triumph Bonny, they just cost too much these days so I settled for a 74 TX650 wreck and boy did it turn out to be a wreck. I have psoriatic arthritis so I’ve largely lost the use of my hands but I manage a few hours...
Mike's SCARA Robot
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Hi All, Some of you may have seen me write about how much I am interested in industrial robotics. I've been looking for an old robot to play with for 3-4 years now and one just happened to pop up! Many people are familiar with the 6 axis articulated robots that are often shown in factories (and I'd love one of those to play with) but what I happened across is a 4 axis SCARA (Selective...
1/6th scale 1890's 30ft navy steam cutter (live steam)
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this project started 10 years back when I found the plan book for navy boats 1900,, 2 years ago I came in contact with a full scale steam expert who had the engine and engineering plans.. the 30ftr and 1/6th scale was decided on because a Stuart Turner compound twin engine block is very very close in size.. brass lost wax castings have been completed to convert the ST engine kit to the navy...
Making Frank's Cranks
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Finally got around to taking some photos of my process as I make some of my string winding cranks. Here's one with a koa handle: These cranks feature a soft head made of low density polyethylene, an angle of 83-degrees to simulate wrist rotation, and a solid bearing in the handle. Interestingly, one of the first questions I get about them is, "How do you achieve that angle?" So, I'll start...
Oil Can #2
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I was greatly inspired by Hackmasters beautiful oil can clone. I decided to do a run of my own with a simpler design. It was suggested that I start a new thread here and not hijack the other thread. The plan was originally solid brass. I realized that the pump housing would add too much weight so I went with an aluminum pump housing. I was sort of emulating this original as posted by...
Small Bench Top Hydraulic Press (10 ton X 8")
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... for the small stuff (waiting on the Enerpac).
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