Machining and Metalworking at Home

Updated November 01, 2008. This site is provided as a reference for those persons interested in home shop machining and metalworking. Many files deal primarily with metal lathes, milling machines, and metal shapers. There are also more general subjects dealing with drilling, metal cutting, threading, metal types, rust removal, finishes, lubricants, etc. that will be of practical interest to every metalworker (or woodworker) and machine owner. The "ACME Digital Photography Primer" file in the General section gives some practical tips on getting started with scanners and digital photography -- for the home workshop or studio or craftroom, or as a hobby in itself. (Now in html format for easier reading.) Also be sure to read the safety warning on this page.

Amateur and professional machinists have taken advantage of the Internet to share tips and advice through newsgroups (aka user groups), many of which are machine specific. The message data has piled up in each news/user group's archives, with literally thousands of earlier messages.

It is extremely difficult for a newcomer to wade through all prior questions and answers and tips. A general electronic search of the archives on a subject will likely return too many messages. A very narrow search may not find the needed information, perhaps because the answer needed was buried in a message with a totally different title or discussion subject.

To make refinding interesting data easier for me, I saved some discussions on my computer in simple text files broken down by subject. (Note the "some discussions" -- I only chose items of interest to me and have pruned out much repetitious quoting and redundant messages.) Seventy-eight subject files are made available here, providing some user members' answers to many common and uncommon metalworking questions. I salute all those who have helped others by participating in the metal groups, whether or not their messages were incorporated into these particular files.

Tips for File Use

When looking for information in these subject files, please remember the following:

• You get more complete information if you read more than one subject file. A particular discussion might have expanded to more than one subject. The same discussion was not saved to multiple files; my file choice was purely arbitrary. Similarly if you have say one brand of lathe, you should also look at files for other brands; many Questions and Answers there will be useful/interesting for any lathe owner.
• Text files were used here as they are much more compact than those containing excess formatting overhead. One downside: Web address links in these messages cannot be clicked on to go to the site; simply copy the address link (URL) and paste it into your Internet browser's Address, Site, or File Open ... box.
• Mail addresses within messages are deliberately altered to defeat web-robots from gathering e-mail addresses for spammers. For messages read directly off the Yahoo site, they disabled addresses by erasing after the "@" symbol. But messages received through Digests had complete mail addresses; so I have mass-replaced every "@" symbol with the letters "x~xx" (that ~ is a tilde, not hyphen). In these instances you can figure out the real address, but not robots. Now if someone used the "@" symbol within a message for anything else (rare), it was automatically replaced too. In any case you know the secret and can put the "@" back.
• Clicking on the text files here will open them so they can be read in your browser now. After reading a text file, return to this page by clicking your browser's Back button.
• You can save them onto your computer by mouse-right-clicking them, and using the "Save Target As" or similar menu item, and choosing a destination directory on your machine. It is suggested that you keep them as text files to save space. Individual files average over 100KB. If you save all, you will need about 13MB of storage space. Once the files are on your machine, they can be opened in a word processor or text editor and edited to suit you for your own personal use reference; good programs allow word searches across multiple files.
• If you want to print them, you can do so immediately in your browser. But it is more efficient if you first save the file(s) you want to your computer -- you may want to change font sizes, prune unnecessary information, or even combine files before printing. Save some paper and ink and get customized info you need.
• If you have more questions about particular messages or subjects provided in these files, first make a responsible effort by searching appropriate user groups' archives and FAQs. Still no luck? Then post your question to the appropriate News/User Groups for the benefit of everyone. (I cannot answer them here.)

Metal Lathe Files

Particular emphasis on the brands Atlas (aka Craftsman, or Acorn in the U.K.), Sherline, and Taig (Peatol in the U.K.). Here you will also find lathe operational, repair, and modification information that will be useful to any lathe owner.

Milling Machine Files

Particular emphasis on Sherline and Taig models, but much general milling information is also presented that will be useful to owners of similar size or larger mills. Sherline and Taig mill users should also read the entries about both brands in the Metal Lathe Files section above.

Metal Shaper Files

This information is useful for any brand of small (or even large) metal shaper. AMMCO and the Delta produced version have the same basic design. The Atlas (aka Craftsman or Acorn) shaper also has a file here.

General Metalworking and Other Useful Information

News/User Groups (Also Archives and FAQ's)

The Yahoo site hosts many metal-oriented user groups. Go to their main site and sign up (free) for the ones you want. I strongly suggest you use the Digest choice to receive e-mail. This way one e-mail digest arrives daily containing up to 25 compacted messages, but ads and attachments and viruses have been stripped out. Much easier to read. Especially if a group's messages get busy to the point of needing more than one digest per day. When you want to look at a group's files or photos, just sign in to Yahoo, visit the group's individual area, and then browse through group files there. (Besides metalworking, there are hundreds of groups dealing with hobbies and subjects the whole family can enjoy.)

Yahoo Groups. You will want to check out: atlas_craftsman, Metal_Shapers, sherline, taigtools, atlas618lathe, AA_109Lathe_Users_Group, Atlasshaperandmillingmachineusersgroup, sherlinecnc, and others such as gingery_machines (where folks have made their own lathes, mills, ...), CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO, beginnerswkshp, and Prints_and_Plans. Find other groups here by a search within the main site for group names involving phrases like "metal lathe".

There is an excellent general metalworking news group at Google called rec.crafts.metalworking that also maintains a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions compilation). They keep an archive of thousands of their messages -- see same site as their FAQ.

The Metal Shaper FAQ is now on the NEMES (New England Model Engineering Society) site along with many interesting articles including the NEMES Gazette's Metal Shaper Columns.

The OldTools Archive site has information on old hand tools, including repair and restoration, that will be of keen interest to woodworkers and metalworkers alike. (Who here doesn't Luuuv tools???) An e-mail list can be joined, whereupon you gain the honorific title of Galoot. Sure is catchy on a business card.

Major Metal Links and Some Excellent Private Sites

Rather than try to list the hundreds of ever-changing metal links on the Internet, I'm going to list just a very few key sites including some that maintain big lists of metal links. All the following sites are well worth visiting on their own considerable merits (even if you do not use their particular machinery, yet). And a few helpful sites were added just to show the potential of this hobby. There are some really great people behind these sites working hard to expand the knowledge available to the home machinist as well as professional metalworkers.

Sherline's Lathe and Mill Home Page also has a bonanza of metalworking tips and projects and linked contributors' sites that will keep you printing for a very long time. They are far more than a machine tool sales company. First class help and encouragement for the newcomer.

Nick Carter's Taig Lathe and Mill site where you will spend hours rummaging through the incredible tips and detailed help and the contributors' linked pages. Buy more printer paper. More first class help for the newcomer.

Pat McGuirk's invaluable (huge!) list of links. Spend a month here. So they run out of trees to make printer paper; they'll grow more :-)

Tony Jeffree's Model Engineering Pages where you will see how an innovative master craftsman and fine writer has developed some wonderful modifications and projects for the Taig/Peatol machines, elevating them to an ever more capable level. (You could adapt many ideas here to other machines.)

Guy Lautard's home site where this deservedly famous author provides a wealth of information and resources to machinists, gunsmiths, metalworkers, clockmakers, and anyone who loves tools and good stories. His Machinist's Bedside Reader books are immensely entertaining and a how-to treasure.

John Bentley aka The Engineman where another master craftsman has some incredible completed and ongoing projects (not just engines) that should inspire everyone.

Dan Kautz's The Hobbyist's Machine Shop where you will find unbiased advice on selecting machinery including some brands/models not normally discussed here; superb photos and lots of practical tips.

Peter McBride Goldsmith / Jeweller whose site is a goldmine of information on metalworking and fine woodworking and restoring antique tools. Also, you will be amazed by the skills and techniques involved in his truly hand-made custom jewellery. Enjoy.

Tom Skoropad's Modelling Resources Page which primarily targets aircraft flying models -- but has dozens of links that are interesting and/or useful to woodworkers, metalworkers, and other crafts or hobbies.

Miles Stair's End Times Report has much practical information on self reliant living with subjects like gardening, tool care, alternative energy, and many other topics that may be useful to you today. Nature has frequently devastated large areas where more individual preparedness should have reduced losses.

Machinist Maxim: "Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Site Creation. This private site was created using a powerful text editor NoteTab Light (freeware and actually very simple to use) from Fookes Software that allows simultaneous search and replace across multiple text files. Help in polishing the site to XHTML standards came from reading an excellent book by Elizabeth Castro called HTML FOR THE WORLD WIDE WEB. And you didn't have to watch flashing ads and dancing penguins.

As mentioned above in Tips for File Use, if you have more questions about particular messages or subjects provided in these files, first make a responsible effort by searching appropriate user groups' archives and FAQs. Still no luck? Then post your question to the appropriate News/User Groups for the benefit of everyone. (I cannot answer them here.)

Disclaimer and Privacy Policy. There is no commercial relationship between myself and any site or product mentioned. My Machining and Metalworking at Home site is private and has no cookies and gathers no personal information from your visits. A counter was added in Oct 2003 so I could see how much the site is really being used. If you write to me, remember to replace "x~xx" with "@"; your correspondence will be kept totally confidential unless you wish to share it. Enjoy your hobbies and take care. Steve -- Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada

Site Updating. Data in the metalworking text files here will be updated on an irregular but fairly frequent basis as personal ever-shrinking time allows; to date just over 2000 hours have already been expended. Updated files will not necessarily change much as many discussion topics have been thoroughly covered before. You have the option to save the files of interest to you, and then to update them to suit yourself with information you receive from the user groups' e-mail, or any other source. That way you will always have customized, current information -- keeping only the info that you really need for your personal reference use.

Machinist Fall Resolutions: Never ever plant a tree again that has leaves. Fir trees don't take hours of raking and bagging -- and time away from the shop. Also have some other stuff keeping me restricted for a while, so the project planning and reading continues for now. But the workshop is getting remarkably organized under that old rule of put away/organize 10 things every time you enter the shop. And remember to have fun, safely.

Copyright © 2003-2008 Steve Bachanek. This site is copyrighted and no content may be reproduced by any means, including electronic, without written permission except for strictly personal use.

Last updated November 01, 2008 .... created on March 2, 2003 .... and relocated to this new permanent web address in early 2006.

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