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My country The Netherlands is small and I live in the South in a High Tech area. Therefore I can easily visit suppliers and discuss what must be done - part of the fun! The anodizing firm I mentioned subcontracts among others to ASML, the leading builder of chip machines. They comply with the...

Well....... Steel in the raw may be half the price of Alumium in the raw, but by the time you have machined during long hours your chunk of steel back to useful and precise dimensions and by the time you have ground and reground your cutting tools the initial joy of lower material cost is long...

If you want Aluminium special tooling to resist wear you can get it hard-anodized. I love chunks of precise rectangular Aluminium blocks to make all sorts of special tooling. Easy to work and often seldom used. A simple holder for a grinder will stay as is. For use on my antique toolgrinder I...

The way out is to get one of your grandchildren into welding.

In general when I want to machine some welded-up fixture I first stress relieve the fixture. To do this I put it at the end of the day in the dying fire of my workshop woodstove. Next morning it is fit for machining.

Interesting, on my trip in coming May to the UK I will have a look. I always love local claims about the biggest and largest in the world. In The Netherlands we have of course also the biggest steam engine in the world - stil in service: https://www.woudagemaal.nl/ .

Hi Darryl, well organized and documented! The only difference I see with my gearcutting is that I would hesitate to take 0,125" (or 3,175 mm) depth of cut in one step. Most of the times I do it in two steps, sometimes in 3 with the final cut a fine one. My gears are rather thin; a wheel with a...

For some relatively simple jobs like replacing an oddbal size spindle with its related nut, bushings and handwheel I used to sketch an assembly with dimensions and make the components straight from the assembly sketch. However I find more and more often that when the position of a component is...

Being more at ease with mechanics than with electronics I'm not sure whether this experience is relevant: after I had a new mains board for the workshop installed with highly sensitive trippers the system shut off random and often. I could narrow it down to my 60-70 year old Schaublin 102 VM...

My great-grandfather, my grandfather and my father were mechanical engineers and worked all their lives with machines and in machineshops. So with trade school and university I became master in engineering; my son too; and my grandson just entered the mechanical engineering department at the...

Diamond at high temperatures becomes brittle and just desintegrates in little particles. So the recipe is low speed, say 100 - 150 revs, low pressure and preferably cooling with water. At this low speed there is no watersplashing. The result with a fine diamond disc is a mirror-smooth finish.

Thank you for a very interesting and enlightening tooling-movie. Alas my home workshop is loaded with tools and machinetools that come straigth from the 60's and 70's so what you show is from my time-capsule far in the future!

An interesting solution. Having said that the old hands in my factory would strongly disapprove of the use of magnets or tape for any operation other than very light grinding. With the possible exception of a lathe where you can apply counterpressure with the tailstock. Because of the risk that...

Bluetooth ear defenders may be OK. I myself mostly rely on very effective custom made motorbike ear defenders. The only downside is that my daughter tends to berate me when I don't react very much in a rowdy family gathering and she finds out I have the protectors in.

Hi Ollimatti, the most direct and costeffective way to get a TAIG out here in Europe was for me to get a good friend to take one along from California. The thing is so small it fits in hand-luggage and the cost is so low that in The Netherlands no import duties are required.

Two basics for the home workshop are in my experience adequate heating and an additional chair for company that is comfortable enough for your wife/partner.

My assesment is that those instructors are not really happy when there are no buttons to push. I checked the basic data and I find them agressive compared with what I find in the public domain.

Cars are protected with the very best all weather paint system for consumer goods. If you park them outside you will have ample room in the workshop.

Hi Shopgeezer, I would like to suggest that you try to get your grandchilderen (or any other available youngsters) interested in your machines so you can leave them in their care. There are some risks. My oldest grandson started last year as 6th generation at the mechanical engineering...

Ah, it's more the journey than the destination.