Home
Creators
Search Recent Missing Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Anniversary Q&A (Patreon)

Published:
2021-08-29 01:39:41
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey Patrons!

I can't hardly believe it, but it's anniversary video time again. This will be the third one! Hard to imagine.

As is tradition (snicker), I'm opening the floor to Patrons to ask questions. Anything you'd like me to answer, post it below in a comment! You can also message me directly if you prefer. I won't use anyone's names in any case, but I'll do my best to answer as many of the questions as I can.

I left this call for questions a little late this year, so the sooner the better on asking them. I'll need to shoot my anniversary video pretty soon here. So ask away!


Comments

Alex Topfer

How many teeth on a Sproket?

Bob Page

Quinn, thanks for what you do. I look forward to new videos every week. I always find something useful, educational, or entertaining. Now that you've spent considerable time making parts on your PM lathe, what do you like about it and what would you improve? If you were to replace the PM lathe, what would you buy? New or vintage?

div

If you had to start over from scratch (and let's all hope this remains hypothetical) from a clean slate - zero tools and machines, but in the same size space - knowing all that you've learned in your journey so far and assuming a limited budget... what order would you replace machines and tooling in? Would you significantly change your workspace layout and organization? Which tools are must haves, and which are nice-to-haves that you could add later - given the types of things YOU enjoy doing?

r mcpheely

One thing I've always appreciated about your blog/videos has been your openness around failures and mistakes. As the channel has grown, has it changed the way you think about/talk about your mistakes?

Merlin Zener

beginner question here - say someone gives you a couple of pins off an excavator and asks you to turn 0.4mm off the diameter. How do you tell what they're made of? hardened? How do you know what kind of tool to start with [HSS or carbide?] Any tips? Feeds/speeds?

melgross

First of all, you can assume they’re hardened. Those are likely knuckle pins and must be hardened. It’s highly unlikely they’re high carbon steel these days (maybe from old steam operated equipment way back), most likely alloy. Most alloy pins are about the same. So that’s a good starting place, and likely sufficient.

melgross

The second thing is whether they’re hardened through, as most are, or surface hardened, as some are. If the latter, machining is a no go.

Blondihacks
>>66918916

Like melgross says below, they are most likely hardened. Probably case-hardened. You'd need a hardness tester to know for sure how hard, or get a set of hardness testing files. Check if a regular file will bite into it. If it skates off, then definitely hard. So you're looking at either annealing them or hard-turning. The former is easier if they don't need to be hard again when you're done. If they do, turning them down is probably not a good idea because they won't work as excavator pins any more if you turn off the case-hardening. If they're not too hard, carbide will work, otherwise you're looking at CBN inserts most likely. What's the use-case? The wear item in an excavator joint is usually the bushings, not the pins, so I don't know why you'd need to turn them down.

Jeff Ray

Quinn- Newly minted supporter here- What are your Ten Commandments for the machine shop, and why?

curtosis

I'm a fairly recent arrival to the channel, so there's a bunch I'm still catching up on. I guess my most burningest question is maybe a little bit of a nuanced version of the basic beginner question ("how much lathe do I need")... The easy answer is of course "as big+massive as you can afford and house", but at the hobby end of the spectrum there seem to be quadratic jumps in costs. There's the super-cheap around $600 (HF etc), then the "reputable 7x16 clones" (LMS/MM/Grizzly) around $1300, then "reputable 10x22 clones" (LMS/PM/Grizzly) around $2500, and so on (until you're in new-car territory). One of the things I really value about your channel is the analysis and discussion of where the precision is coming from and what its limits are. So I'd frame the question perhaps as: knowing what you know now, is there a magic sweet spot in there where the limitations of total-n00b skills aren't overwhelmed by the limitations of the lathe? You went with a well-respected 10x22; do you think having that solid baseline helped your skills develop faster than if you'd started smaller? Put another way: is the time better spent getting started, or saving for more mass? Love the channel, and the way you help us see the learning process!

Tod r Cook

i'm looking to add a DRO to my HFT mill. I'm no electrician. how hard is it to add and program a dro. should i get a 2 axis or 3?

Blondihacks
>>67397211

They are quite easy. The cabling is simply plugged into the box. The installation is mechanical- finding a way to make brackets to attach the scales. I covered this a bit in my DRO video, so maybe give that a look.