Doug's Machine Shop

I'm fortunate to have a pretty complete machine shop in the basement.

Some of this stuff is for sale, too! Go see my For Sale page for details.

Tools available to me in my shop include:

• 11" Logan lathe, mostly used for making pommels for swords. I'm really wishing for a taper attachment to help making Morse taper accessories easier. I'm watching for plans and have found a couple but haven't started to make the taper attachment yet. Popular Mechanics published plans for a taper attachment in 1966. [I have an extra copy of the "PM Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia" with that article reprinted in it available. What I'd like to do is have it pass along from user to user. Send $10 cash and I'll mail it to you, providing you agree to pass it along after you copy the article or build the project. That way we can avoid the copyright problem with posting scanned magazine articles. I added this note on June 9, 2002 and I'll remove it as soon as the book is gone.] I have started making a steady rest for it, which I've gotta have to finish the sheet metal slip roll former that I started a couple of years ago. The slip roll plans are from the February, 1966 Popular Mechanics magazine (on page 190). This slip roll article was a bit too big to scan and post, and it's hard to hold that magazine flat enough for the scanner. So I haven't scanned and posted it. The basic idea for the steady rest is from plans on page 217 of the May, 1956 issue of Popular Mechanics. I've scanned steady-rest plans.

• vertical mill (picture) . This is a Fray "universal angle" head without quill feed, mounted on an ancient base for a Pratt & Whitney #2 horizontal mill.
• horizontal mill (big, full-size Kempsmith #2 unit in the garage) (closeup picture) (pic of me & mill) . Still haven't used it much, due to lack of projects for it. I didn't have much cutter-holding tooling at first, either, except 2 or 3 big boxes with a very wide assortment of cutters. I'd guess there are well over 100 pounds of cutters, and probably 200 pounds, because some are quite large. Especially the one or two inserted-tooth facing cutters. There were even a few gear cutters. What I needed was arbors for the cutters, but I've picked up a few at other sales. It did come with a 6 inch Starrett non-swivel vise and a very large dividing head that has a huge (for me, about 10" or 12") chuck mounted on it. Lack of use and lack of space and hostility of wife convinced me to sell the Kempsmith. It's still in Michigan but now is on the eastern side of the state, in a Detroit area hobbyist's home shop.
• Horizontal bench mill (Atlas model MFC). Cute as a bug, and has a Marvin vertical millling head attachment. Here are two OLD magazine pictures of it (view one and view two) and one of the Marvin vertical milling attachment. Here's a catalog scan of an early model Atlas mill from the 1937 H. Channon catalog, with specifications and ratings [1937scan ]. Also a scan of the Atlas MFC data from the 1953 C. E. Strelinger machinery catalog [1953_MFC ]. I scanned the whole Atlas page from 1953, too, so you can see the accessory listings [1953Atlas ] and the Marvin accessories from the next page [1953Marvin ]. I have a photocopy of a 1950 magazine page with photos and descriptions of the two Marvin attachments, vertical head and shaper, but it's a big 970 by 821 pixel (189k) scan file and shows up larger than my 800 x 600 screen but does show lots of detail [1950_Marvin ]. PLEASE Note that the machine as it is would not be very useful without the Marvin vertical attachment. For those wanting to ask if the attachment is available separately, I'll let it go for $1150 plus $55 shipping and handling.

• 7" Atlas shaper (picture from right) (picture from left) (close-up picture) (probably also has a Sears Craftsman model number, but I don't know what it is.) Catalog specs from the 1953 Strelinger catalog [1953_A7 ] and the 1,530 page industrial supply catalog number 166 from H. Channon Company of Chicago [1937_A7 ].

• 7" South Bend shaper (picture) . I've sold this shaper, but I still have the picture!
• 8" Shape Rite shaper Model B, made by Havir Mfg. Co. of St. Paul, Minn. I got it in the summer of 2000. It looks like it has a universal (tilting) table but I haven't been able to thoroughly inspect it yet. Unfortunately it got knocked over while it's previous owner had it in storage. The table elevating screw shaft is broken, the table horizontal feed nut is broken and the motor mount is broken. Hopefully the two cast iron parts can be brazed back together. The screw might be easily replaceable. But the machine is now in my storage, waiting for something from the basement shop to get sold (please see http://users.netonecom.net/~swordman/ForSalePage.htm) to make room to work on the Shape Rite.
• drill press (Enco 17" #2170 and I really like it)
• bench grinder - the two wheel kind (not used much at all. I always seem to use a belt grinder.) These may be better for buffing wheels and wire brush wheels.
• 2 belt grinders with 1" x 42" belts. An Arco that I use all the time and a Rockwell that's only used occasionally, mainly because it takes up more bench space, and it's a little harder to swap belts on it than on the Arco.
• 2 belt grinders - with 2" x 48" belts. For one, the Kalamazoo, I've made a jig for grinding blade bevels. The other is home-made with Ickler parts from Centaur Forge.
• horizontal/vertical cutoff bandsaw (Jet 4" x 6"). Boy, do I use this a lot! Mostly in the vertical position, cutting parts for fencing sword hilts. It also cuts of 2" round bar stock very nicely as well, which I use for sword pommels.
• acetylene welding torch (the cheap Asian import kind. Works OK, but the regulators and the valves in the handle aren't too good.)
• MIG wire welder (120 volt). I mainly planned on using it for sheet metal projects like helmets, but haven't done any yet. I did use it to repair my garden tractor mower deck and that project worked out very well.
• spot welder (Miller 230 volt, hand-held, with short 6" tongs). So far unused (by me) and untested. It came from a tool and die shop "house cleaning" sale and they had gotten it in an auction lot somewhere and had never used it either. Someday . . . . . .! Maybe for a suit of armor.
• 3 hp. air compressor. So far, all it does is run my bead blaster. I do have the nibbler, but haven't gotten to the sheet metal (armor) projects yet. Too much fun making hilts, and so many styles to do yet!
• small bead blasting cabinet (from Harbor Freight Tools. Works very well!) Sits on a bench top. I use fine glass beads and my 3 HP compressor.
• air-powered sheet metal nibbling tool. Just got it, for an attempt at making a suit of armor. Sure wish I had a power hammer, too.
• Bench shear - 12" blades and a 30 inch handle. It's supposed to cut 1/4" steel, but it has a hard enough time with 3/16 flats about 1/2" wide. Also has a hard time keeping the work piece level, and if the piece tilts, it won't cut. I had to improve the stock hold-down on its left side, just above the table I also added. I got this from J & L Industrial Supply in January, 1998.
• Plate shear - rotary cutters, a bit like a can opener. It's supposed to cut up to 12 gauge, but was pretty hard to turn with 16 gauge, although my handle is shorter than the original one. My shear is from Enco, but this picture is not.

• Die Filer or filing machine, bought at a yard sale at a machinist's house. No name on it, and not too fancy. Has a 5/8" stroke generated by a Scotch yoke mechanism belt driven from a motor mounted below and behind the 9" square table. It has a different clamping arrangement for its files and seems to be able to hold any kind of file. Not just the round shank machine files which are expensive and hard to find.
• Punch Press, very small, from the same machinist. I don't know what I'll do with it, but I always wanted (a bigger) one for making small pieces of armor. It was made by Lasalle Machine Works in Chicago, ILL. It weighs 125 pounds and stands 17-1/2 inches high, 11 inches deep and 7 in. wide (12 with the flywheel). The flywheel is 10" diam. and 2" wide. The throat is 3" deep and the crank bearing is about 2" in diameter and the crank shaft is 1-1/16", which I guess is a clue to the capacity of the press. The stroke of the ram is about 3/4".
• Kick Press, again from the same machinist's yard sale. Like the punch press, I don't have a use yet, but I've read about them being used for quite a few useful functions. I just bought it then because it was cheap and the first one I'd ever seen available. And the first one I'd ever seen at all. It's marked Hastings Consolidated Press Co., No. 1. It's total weight is 95 pounds, 65 for the frame and 30 for the leg lever. It was mounted on a fabricated steel stand which isn't included in the weight. It's sitting on that stand in the picture, but not in its normal position on the stand. And the leg lever is not visible.
• Foot Press, a foot-operated punch mounted on a stand. Whitney-Jensen model 29, 10 inch throat, one inch ram stroke, and supposed to be able to punch a 2 inch hole in 16 gage steel. With its stand it weighs about 350 pounds. I'll have to get the few punches that I have for it sharpened before I can tell how well it works.
• Bench Punch, J.F. Kidder No. 32 "Little Blacksmith" with a 2" square ram, 19" high, 7" wide, 10" deep and 88 pounds. I haven't found any info on its capacity, but Don Streeter says (on page 19) in his book "Professional Smithing" that he has a No. 35 with capacity to punch a two-inch-square hole through 16 gage sheet steel. Sure wish I had specs for mine!
• Bench Punch. Mine is marked "National" No. 6, but now they are made and sold by Heinrich. Several supply companies carry them, including J & L Industrial Supply (www.jlindustrial.com) and McMaster Carr (www.mcmaster.com).
• Small "squaring" shear. Made by Di-Acro, with a 12 inch blade.

A really handy tool is the "How To Do It Index" of how-to magazine articles. I've seen it in lots of libraries. There are about 5 volumes now, in bright yellow covers. It covers a lot more magazines than I ever heard of and indexes a bazillion articles on all kinds of hobbies. Additional sources for very useful plans are similar indexes to Popular Mechanics, Home Shop Machinist, Projects in Metal, and so on. These other indexes can be found on the internet by going through the Metal Web News at <http://www.mindspring.com/~wgray1/> or going directly to the rec.crafts.metalworking newsgroup FAQ web site <http://w3.uwyo.edu/~metal/>. There are many good things on the Metal Web News site, too.

1. •HSM/PiM index updated through 1996
2. •Village Press index
3. •Chuck Fellows metalworking magazine article index [this one is really good!]

• The wish list: Power Hammer, TIG welder, plasma cutter, 150 lb. anvil (or bigger), Henrob Dillon acetylene torch, Beverly shear or other plate shear, Heinrich 4-A or 5-A combination nibbling tool and shear.
• metalworking and machining links
• List of machinery makers addresses, for obtaining manuals and parts.

home ------------------------ updated on May 5, 2007