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  1. H

    OT: vehicle battery recycling

    The fly in the ointment: The Afterlife of Electric Vehicles: Battery Recycling and Repurposing - IER Disappointing to see that lithium is not economically recovered from old cells. Where does that fit in the grand scheme of solar with battery backup, if we are to pretend we can all go our own...
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    OT: forum banner jittering

    Those 4 little boxes for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Others continually load late and makes all the threads below jostle downwards by a line or two. I find it annoying. Why the hell can't the page load with a space built in for those damn things so they can appear whenever they feel like it...
  3. H

    OT: audio system subwoofer through guitar amp

    So the standalone active subwoofer system can be fairly pricy for a home audio system. I happen to have a bass guitar amp and a 15" speaker cabinet already. I was mulling over the possibility of running a wire pair from my home audio subwoofer output (preamp only) into the guitar jack input of...
  4. H

    When your lathe carriage gets stuck

    I've had occasional issues with one of my manual lathes, getting the feeling that the carriage was dragging heavy, as though the carriage lock was on. I'd rack the thing back and forth a bit and it would loosen up, and then I'd go on about my day.Finally got REALLY tight one day, so I had to get...
  5. H

    Haas VF3 column bolts breaking?

    I was hooking up one of my indexer cables this morning, and I noticed a hole was open in the column base of my 1996 VF3, and the bolt (a 1" Allen capscrew) was laying on the floor, a piece of it anyways. Sure enough, the bolt had broken off. There are 8 of these large bolts in total and I test...
  6. H

    OMG put 17-4 SOL Annealed on your bucket list!

    None of my customers has ever specified 17-4 SS as their material of choice, so I've never machined any. But I was mindful of its existence, but never wanted to buy a whole bar and get stuck with it, until recently. Now, I want to get stuck with it, stick me with it :D I've seen some...
  7. H

    OT: metallic Powder on Phone speaker

    So I had my phone apart to replace the battery. This was a Nokia 1520, and they didn't build it to have the battery swapped easily, it was a PITA, but I managed that part ok. While I had the phone disassembled, I noticed this globule of powder on top of the speaker diaphragm. I thought, that is...
  8. H

    Trying to harden air hardening steel with a torch

    So I'm trying to make these small steel bushings that are tapered inside. They are 3/4"OD, 10mm ID by .625" long, pretty small. These are an extrusion nozzle for cold pressing seeds of various kinds, from an oil expeller. I made an initial set from W1, and of course, the customer is looking...
  9. H

    Pump Seal shaft fitting practice

    I've been asked to retrofit a water pump, changing from a packing seal to a 'real' water pump seal, with ceramic seat, and spring loaded. I had to machine an insert to fit into the packing area to hold one half of the ceramic seat. So I look up the specs for the seal: Flowserve Pac-seal...
  10. H

    OT: Fun little game app for logical builder types: the Sequence

    I don't generally find many games that I will play on a smartphone, but the Sequence was brought to my attention recently, and it is challenging. Who knows, it might open up a new area in the brain :D I think it would appeal to most machinist/engineer types. It amounts to placing a few 'movers'...
  11. H

    How to remove plastic plugs from Haas table

    What is the least destructive method to remove the plugs that cover the capscrews into the trucks, on a Haas VMC? I read someone mention that they often found loose capscrews if they checked. So I'd like to check mine, but reuse the plugs if possible.
  12. H

    Stainless Precombustion chambers in Aluminum head

    Had a guy drop off an aluminum head which came off an engine that must have been overheated. It has small inserts where the injector pokes through which all came loose after the event was over. It could be a big PITA job, all the cavities in the head where these cups sit are distorted and need...
  13. H

    Thread Forming with taps and pull out strength

    While reading the thread about tapping an 8-32 hole 1.5" deep, I got to wondering. Has there ever been testing done to determine the difference in strength between a thread formed hole done in the standard manner, versus a similar hole that has been formed, then reamed back to the original...
  14. H

    Master Jaws for collet pads

    I have an SMW 12" chuck that I'm thinking of equipping with master jaws for collet pads. I see the master jaw sets for around $600 and I'm wondering if there is any reason to buy a set when I could just make do with a prepared set of soft jaws? What don't I know? My chuck is old now and has a...
  15. H

    Recommended insert endmill for roughing, CAT40 taper

    A CAT40 taper in a Haas VF3 is not a real beefy spindle, so I'm just wondering who has tried what, and what they've been happy with, for profile roughing. Example: milling 2" 4140 plate, with maybe a half inch of material to remove all around, in a couple of passes. I used a solid carbide, 1"...
  16. H

    Talongrip and Versagrip gripper replacement: best material?

    I've been using a set of Versagrip vise jaws quite a bit to hold some 4140 HTSR plate. The plate was 2" material, apparently flame cut, but it must have been through an annealing cycle after cutting, because it is not super hard, that is to say, I take a heavy conventional milling cut around it...
  17. H

    OT: if phones didn't immediately disconnect when you hung up

    What kind of things would the person on the other end most likely hear? How mannerly are we,...really? :D I find myself doing a lot of muttering after I hang up. I was reprimanded by a customer recently, who ignored my 'busy' sign on the door, and came in carrying some kind of mechanical...
  18. H

    Tip: using expansion hand reamers

    I've always generally cursed when it was time to get out the expansion reamer to try to do final fitting on a hole. Reaming low carbon steel can be a real biatch, what with the reamer exhibiting a continual tendency to stick, forcing you to pull it back, curse, and try again. This might take as...
  19. H

    Tip: measuring diameter of shallow face grooves

    I had reason to desire a more surefire test for measuring the diameter of a shallow counterbore, only .125" deep and 3.252" +.002 -0.000 ID and couldn't get any of my 3 vernier calipers to agree, and two of them were good quality Mitutoyo digitals :( Then I thought of using gauge blocks, and...
  20. H

    Only 2 bolts holding Kurt vise to table?

    I was experiencing some machining vibrations on a job lately, a piece of 1" mild steel plate about 7" square, held in a Kurt 6" vise, nearly as far open as it will go. This was on a Haas VF3, not a real heavy machine, but I have had some weird vibration issues from time to time, even machining...

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