What Did You Buy Today?

I will, however, polish the stuff that has surface rust... handles, center tube/post, feed wheel levers...Why? Because I was stupid enough to start doing that... Now, (too late for those parts) reading your feedback, I should have left that alone as well... now I have to finish it so it looks pristine and it develops its own patina under my care...

Great advice and great plan forward!

Just one caution......
When I noticed some rust on the main vertical column of my 22" King drill press I clean it up and then used the same wax-type product* that I typically use to protect the table-saw top in my garage shop. (* Bostik Glide Kote)
Since then I have had trouble clamping the table to the post fully without really cranking hard on the table lock. It doesn't fall, but turns around the post if you bump it. Sometimes that is very frustrating, like after drilling and changing to tap guide.

I am still looking for a good compromise of rust protection and table grip for this.

-brino
 
They have a number of interesting items. What are you building?

I've started a boring/facing head from MLA. http://mlatoolbox.com/MLA-7.html

My first go working with a casting. It's interesting and has been a lot of fun learning how to do setups and such. Down side is machining cast iron is messy.
I got both of their knurling kits...

IMG_2622.jpeg
 
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A fellow forum member pointed me to Andy's website: http://mlatoolbox.com/index.html

So many cool kits. Reading feedback from other forums, the castings seem to be of very good quality. Got on the phone with the owner, Andy (what a great guy btw) just to make sure that the information in the website was current and to find out what kits he had in stock. Decided to go with the: BORING AND BALL TURNING TOOLPOST - (MLA-13)

MLA13C.jpeg

These are mostly designed for a Southbend lathe... but I am guessing that I can make these work with any lathe... at least I hope so.
 
A fellow forum member pointed me to Andy's website: http://mlatoolbox.com/index.html

So many cool kits. Reading feedback from other forums, the castings seem to be of very good quality. Got on the phone with the owner, Andy (what a great guy btw) just to make sure that the information in the website was current and to find out what kits he had in stock. Decided to go with the: BORING AND BALL TURNING TOOLPOST - (MLA-13)


I bet you can adapt it to whatever you like. I considered that one too, and decided to make things difficult on myself with the boring/facing head, which he told me is one of the more difficult ones to make. lol. Owell. Please post your thoughts when building and using it.

I found mine to have very good quality castings with few inclusions. I have yet to hit hard spots or other real issues. The hardest part is holding them, but he does include some instructions with good ideas on how to do it. Mine are very specific to a lathe, even milling the dovetails on the lathe, which I think I'm going to pass on and use the mill instead. But showing a known way to do it helps a lot.
 
I bet you can adapt it to whatever you like. I considered that one too, and decided to make things difficult on myself with the boring/facing head, which he told me is one of the more difficult ones to make. lol. Owell. Please post your thoughts when building and using it.

I found mine to have very good quality castings with few inclusions. I have yet to hit hard spots or other real issues. The hardest part is holding them, but he does include some instructions with good ideas on how to do it. Mine are very specific to a lathe, even milling the dovetails on the lathe, which I think I'm going to pass on and use the mill instead. But showing a known way to do it helps a lot.

We talked about that one when I asked him what else I should get... when I told him I was a newbie he said, that I might want to have some practice under my belt before tackling it, lol. He mentioned that it was a bit more involved... I was very appreciative of that comment/recommendation.

Do you have a thread on that build? Or specific post with photos?

I did find an old thread (2009)on another forum where one of their members has pretty much done almost all of Andy's kits...

MLA07C.jpeg

I do not have plans to start mine right away. I need to take baby steps first... so I will practice a bit more with Delrin, PVC pipes, etc.

I am just searching for kits. So that I can stay busy building them after I have more practice with the lathe...
 
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