OFF-Topic Anything 2022

MightyRaze wrote:

I wonder what @biggasmowers is doing these days?

It's been 6-7 months since I talked to him last but he got a 24 valve cummins and I believe he's into welding now.

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

MightyRaze wrote:

I wonder what @biggasmowers is doing these days?

It's been 6-7 months since I talked to him last but he got a 24 valve cummins and I believe he's into welding now.

Probably a second gen lol

I wonder what @MatthewD is doing now.

MightyRaze wrote:

I wonder what @MatthewD is doing now.

I just went and looked and I haven't talked to him since April but last I heard he was finishing up his school and getting into a machine shop class.

Check out this chunk of 1/4" "scrap" I scored from work today!


I have a few projects that can make use of all that material!

Talk about a steel.

That reminds me last year in the middle of a back road on the way home was a pace of 1/4 inch plate that measured about 2ft x 3ft.  I used some of it on making the dirty rat front extension.  I'll see if I have a pic of it somewhere.

Wish I worked at a shop with a plasma cutter or waterjet table so I could get some nice scraps like that. Or a production CNC shop that had a lot of bar ends. That would be nice. I do get some pretty good stuff where I work though.

MightyRaze wrote:

That reminds me last year in the middle of a back road on the way home was a pace of 1/4 inch plate that measured about 2ft x 3ft.  I used some of it on making the dirty rat front extension.  I'll see if I have a pic of it somewhere.

Here it is.  I still have a good chunk of it.

@RichieRichOverdrive I've been there a few months now and haven't witnessed it in use yet! Lol. I usually get my steel from the salvage yard to keep costs down but I definitely got lucky today, asked the boss how much to buy some scrap and he told me to take it!

Now that's a find and half @MightyRaze way to be!

You can buy metal from the local scrap yard for $ .25 a lb. They often get plasma and waterjet cutoffs. 1/4in thick 2x2ft, 2x3ft chunks, 20in x 10ft and lots in between. Some 3/8 and I also spied a chunk of 1/2in but I wasnt able to get it out.

I probably bought about 500lbs of it. What will I use it for? Who knows, but when I need it Ill have it. And Ill probably get more next time Im down there.

My local scrapyard has some great chunks of steel. I think the only people that have bought any of it is me and the couple of blacksmiths I told it was there. Got a great 12x12x1" piece for use as a bench plate, and my blacksmith friend down the road got a whole bunch of 2x5x10" pieces to be used for striking anvil plates. There's still a whole pile of 1.5" and 2" plate there. They also have some steel round bar there that I wish I had a use for lol.

Well guys it would appear I am renting a new shop.


In total it's about 1400 square feet, and yes I get access to the skid steer on site. It's in back of the local feed store, I've known the owners for years and helped out there periodically. I got an amazing price on it. All my equipment and my tools have really gotten out of hand, and they're all sitting outside covered in tarps, so this is quite the improvement. On top of that, I have a concrete floor for once, there's not one single piece of concrete at the ranch. It's about 10 minutes from my house, which is good considering the closest walmart is 35 minutes.

Congratulations @Double W Cross Ranch that's one heck of an awesome workspace!

That looks like a great space! I remember when I moved to KY and got my first concrete floor. Life changing!

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

My local scrapyard has some great chunks of steel. I think the only people that have bought any of it is me and the couple of blacksmiths I told it was there. Got a great 12x12x1" piece for use as a bench plate, and my blacksmith friend down the road got a whole bunch of 2x5x10" pieces to be used for striking anvil plates. There's still a whole pile of 1.5" and 2" plate there. They also have some steel round bar there that I wish I had a use for lol.

Id love to get my grubby mitts on more thicker stuff. I got a little chunk maybe 2 1/2in wide x 26-30in 1in thick. Im thinking about some project to make some sheet metal forming dies. Could be fun.

I don't even know what I'd really need big chunks like that for, most of the time. Make good weights on the back of a tractor I guess lol.

I got a wild hair and decided to paint my Kurt mill vises. Really I was tired of the bare cast iron rusting lol.




One of my vises was missing the needle thrust bearing and had screwed up the surface between the vise and the screw pretty bad. So I set up a backside counterboring tool in my horizontal mill to clean up the counterbore.


Worked great! i thought a tool this wide would chatter but it wasn't bad at all.


The screw was also a bit messed up so I turned a nice face on it and added a bronze thrust washer on reassembly. The vise feels much smoother now and probably clamps harder for the same amount of force applied, as there's less friction on the screw.

A coworker of mine is really making me mad today and has been making my other coworkers mad too over booking us with 2 people running a shop that should have atleast 3 at all times we are understaffed and people have had to do a buncha overtime so we can even keep up with basic appointments and he keeps doing walk in services we arent supposed to do right now. We have told him several times. Also we usually dont check air filters if they are hard to check and he has been making us and he isnt even a manager or anything hes a service writer. I had to walk away and go on my break, (which i missed before lunch because he was too worried about airfilters) or i was gonna tell him some nice things. But i got some tires mounted for my tractor and one for my truck.

What are the consequences of you not getting a superhuman amount of work done in a day? Besides, if he wants to you do extra work, don't let him Albuquerque to you about not getting other things done. He was the one that had you do it. And if he thinks he can do it better, he can do it his damn self. Personally I would drop any job that involves A: working on automotive stuff, and B: involves a POS boss/whatever you have. Don't feel like you owe your life to him. There's always plenty of CNC machine shops looking for operators, and often times are willing to teach anyone that wants to learn.

Good point. Also it isnt my boss whose the issue hes really cool its a service writer whose job is to write peoples cars up for work and stock the isles check tire tread air up tires and check batteries. He acts like he is our boss

Fair enough. There's always something to be done with a situation. The way I see it, the whole world is a part of your game. Most people act predictably and it's easy to plan for and around those reactions. Though maybe I'm getting a little too into my manipulative side

Man, I don't know about you guys, but it's cold.  I know it is 5 here in Oklahoma, but I know most of the Midwest is well below 0 Fahrenheit.  Stay warm out there.

Looking at about 3 degrees here in KY right now with several inches of snow. I'm worried Mutt might be too cold blooded to start tomorrow lol.

Wow that nuts it's actually colder down your guys' way for once! Lol. 28f here but we have a storm from the south dumping lots of wet heavy snow and they're expecting some serious wind to head our way too...

On another note, a couple weeks ago I got a cheap cross slide vise for my drill press I've been wanting one forever! I also got some cheap lathe inserts and holders so I can try my hand at turning down bushings and stuff with a little more precision and accuracy than using a grinder! So far I've just been setting it up, learning how to make it work with my drill press, after a few attempts I'm finally getting the hang of it and getting decent results!


My latest test was a piece I trimmed off a bolt, turned out pretty well actually! First pic is after the cut, second after a few minutes with a file and sandpaper to give it a nicer finish.

Now it's time to test out turning down and actual bronze bushing!

I have the same drill press vise. Did a fair amount of milling with it before I got my Bridgeport. I would lock the slide that controls your tool height and keep the cross feed pretty snug for your application.

I would shoot for a few thou oversize and polish the part into tolerance with sandpaper or emery cloth. Good way to hit a dimension right on.

Great advice @RichieRichOverdrive I'm ahead of you on those points! Lol. Drill press height and turntable locked solid, Y axis locked and X pretty snug, it's a 2 handed operation to hold the X axis adjustment and lower the spindle into the piece but I'm getting it figured out! I was also planning on getting it close then finishing off by file and emery cloth, the insert really helps get it close WAY quicker than a file alone that's for sure!

I just finished testing on a bronze bushing, I can tell there's a little pushing/gouging happening and assume I need to get the RPMs up a bit, probably even play with the angle a touch more what do you think? The drill press is spinning at 300rpms at the moment.

That was a 7/8" OD (0.8750) bushing I need to get to 13/16" (0.8125) and I brought it down to about 0.822. Really I need to start with a 1" OD bushing or larger so I can get a minimum 1/8" lip on it but I feel this is a great start to my learning curve!