What Did You Buy Today?

[Winegrower]

You guys that make money off smashed cell phones are amazing, and I am very excited too, since I have a drawer full of old phones. Now all I have to do is smash them, and go shopping!

 

[Buffalo21]

I bought around 120 metric HSS end mills, in 2 and 4 flute styles, in 6, 8 and 10 mm size. The candy company is going out of business, and I bought up the end mills, drill bits and misc tooling, before the company gets rid of it in other ways.

 

[gr8legs]

Recent acquisitions in no particular order:

Set of Walton tap extractors - someone here mentioned them and they looked like a good thing to have around to ward off the demons of tap breakage:


And a neat-o engine ignition analyzer. It does most of what an engine oscilloscope like our long departed Marquette Dyna-Vision but you hold it in your hand; I figured I wanted one of these when I started looking at OBD 2 scanners and realized that the rigs I usually work on long predate OBD ports and seeing spark characteristics would be a big plus for troubleshooting. Cool little gadget!:

And to finish off a shop project of building some extension arms for the rolling jack on my 4-post hoist it turns out that 1 1/2" x 3" CRS bar stock is just a smidge too big to fit into the available space (but more about that in a separate post when I finish the arms) so rounding the corners a bit should provide clearance; hence my purchase of some used corner rounding end mills. Now to figure out how to describe them to the CNC so it puts the chamfer in the right place!:

 

[Buffalo21]

today, I went to the LWS to pick up a Metabo 18V cordless grinder, while I was there, I also ended up with a Milwaukee inspection camera and (2) 12v impact drivers, for an additional $75.

The Metabo cordless grinder is a replacement for a seriously dead unit, after about 5 yrs of severe abuse, the 40+ ft drop yesterday did not do it any good. It ran for about 5-6 minutes after the drop, I thought I was in the clear, then during the last 1/2” mounting stud trim job, there were actual flames shooting out of the air vents. It was laid to rest with all of the honors due and then today life goes on.

 

[gr8legs]

Several years ago whilst at my semi-local tool supplier (Winks Hardware in Portland - a wonderful old-fashioned hardware store) I saw in their showcase a dial caliper that had divisions in 1/64" fractions. Instant sale. Fractional inches! For instance: instantly figure out what dril size I have from a grab bag assortment! instead of converting mils to fractions in my brain box or consulting a wall chart!! (No, I have not memorized all 64ths of an inch values!) Lots of other potential uses. What could be cooler?




But after the initial thrill wore off I had the same problem in that the dial caliper, although it did have 1/64" divisions only labeled every 1/16" and I still had to figure out where I was if between major divisions.

So, recently perusing the world-wide web mall (eBay) a listing for digital caliper: Inch / Metric / Fractional showed up. Probably been around for ages but I just noticed them - ` and I quickly hit the 'Buy It Now' button.

Item just arrived, a Fowler Instruments plastic digital caliper with Inch / Metric / Fractions. Direct readout down to 64ths! Way cool.




Of course I never get just one of something so I also ordered from another seller a stainless version of a Fowler digital caliper that does the same thing. The plastic one seems very well made and I'm sure the metal version will last forever. I have had a Fowler caliper for 20+ years and other than occasionally replacing the battery it has been absolutely bulletproof.

And also, a note about Fowler customer support: When I was reading the eBay listings there was a bit of ambiguity in the resolution specifications. A phone call to Fowler's toll free customer support line got exactly the answer I needed to proceed from someone who had English as a first language. Although obviously the caliper came from Asia their customer support is USA and first rate.

Naturally, YMMV and all that but I'm a happy camper!

Stu

 

[BGHansen]

One of my ongoing shop projects is reproducing parts for Erector sets. The company made a number of parts in 0.020" steel and brass plated them. I picked up a 1-gallon brass plating set up from Caswell Plating (around $200). Will give some updates once I mix the electrolytes and plate something. I've had a Caswell 2-gallon nickel plating set up for around 20 years, figure this brass one will use the same power supply, grounding bar, tank hangers, variable resistor (for current control), etc.

Bruce


Everything neatly packed in a the plating tank


Kit includes a couple of brass anodes, cheesecloth for covering the anodes, electrolyte, plating tank and a manual.

 

[Superburban]

Snagged an electric oven for $30 at a yard sale. No id tag, or controller, so I will need to fab up something, and measure the coils, to see if I can figure them out. 4"x5"x10" interior.

 

[extropic]

Snagged an electric oven for $30 at a yard sale. snip>

WOW!

 

[DavidR8]

Saw an ad for a commercial rolling pin.
$8

This is what it looks like disassembled.
3.5” OD x 15” aluminum tube.
Two cast aluminum handles.
Two cast end caps
Two sealed bearings
One 10mm x 17” rod.
I’m thinking one handle for a vise speed handle.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Aukai]

8 bucks well spent. What's the wall thickness?