Member postings for Charles Oster

Can somebody tell me where I can find or buy the articles written by Gordon Smith? Collecting stuff to start building steam engines. Recently BlondiHacks had trouble with commercial safety valves. I starting looking into this and Smith's name came up over and over again. I can't find information on line at all other then his designs are supposed to be really good.

Thanks. Charles

Thank You All!! I'm getting what I was looking for. I'm trying to do the setup shown in the lathe. I'm buying a Precision Matthews VF-1228 Lathe next year. If the tariffs don't bankrupt me! It has AXA tools that should fit, so I ordered them 6 months early. I was able to identify the TNMG inserts and ordered a couple of the -12. Can't ID the -16. Haven't found a 1/2" square tool holder, so I guess I will make one. Saw the big round one on Youtube. Looked interesting and the guy swears by it. I will make a couple when I get the lathe. The reason I bought the fly instead of the face mill was money. I used the extra savings to buy a 12" disk sander. Maybe in the future. Right now I need to clean up 5" wide stock and this fly should do it even with HSS tools. Looked at the Tormach in person. Fantastic! The machine shop at work just got one. But than I would want to buy a real Bridgeport.

Anybody got some information on making a tool holder that uses the unused edges on the inserts from Neil above?

Again Thanks!!!!!

Getting a new Precision Matthews PM-30MV mill next month. New mill, new tools, bigger projects. Just got a Sierra American 2-1/2" flycutter. Takes a 1/2" square tool bit. Have 4" & 6" bits on the way and lots of drawings on grinding the end. I would like to in the near future to try carbide inserts. Problem is that my head swims when I try to figure out what I need. If I grind an end wrong, I just touch it up. That gets expensive buying inserts.

Can somebody give me some suggestions on make, model, holder, angles & + or - rakes that would be a good starting point? Especially something that will translate to America. Materials will be 1018 and 12L14 steel, 6061 aluminum and brass.

Thank You!! I will appreciate any help I can get

Thank you all. I guess I will be learning how to hand scrape. I have just fly cut and occasionally used a surface grinder. The Whitworth book is all about scraping and the Gelbart videos show more about it. I will make the vise first and get an estimate of how much is taken off in this operation.

Special Note. Thank you David for the Gelbart videos!!! I like his explanations and did learn some interesting things. I cringed when he used a caliper to scrape the steel. The Laser Indicator, I WANT, WANT, WANT!!! I have ordered the LED's and am trying to figure out how it stays on the chuck. It would have saved me a days work over the last couple of months building work fixtures. Many, many times I need to drill back from the edge and in the center. I would only have to make one measurement instead of two. In particular, I have to take some stamped Chinese steel plates and enlarge the hole from 1-11/32" to 2.120". I can use this to locate center quickly for setup. I'm going to put this at the top of the list to do for the drill press first and mill second.

Thanks everyone for the ideas. Charles

Thanks for the replies! Some of you have hit it on the head. I want to try some precision machining. I currently am making some work aids, fixtures and jigs for a music chair manufacturer. The tolerances range from a few thousands to just slop! I had to file a screw head and griped it with a pair of vise grips with aluminum sheets to protect the threads. I filed it a little crooked so I want to make a small pair of blocks to put the screw in and file it straight. Call it a work holder instead of hand vise. I have made some in the past and eventually you get a wear area where the file touches.

I am retiring in the next year and am setting up my own little shop. This is just a learning project to see how tight and perfect I can make some things. It all needs to be done in my shop, so I don't want to send it out for treatment. My heat treating in the past has been to heat a chisel to cherry and quench and anneal. I have two kilns sitting here so I thought I would try a more controlled procedure.

I'm using 1018 because I have it along with 6061 aluminum and mild structural steel (A36?). Will work for steel or tools! Even Cash! I will be happy to try your recommendations for better steel if I can come close to lapping and finishing square and parallel. Same for heat treating vs case hardening. I down loaded the Whitworth book and am looking into black polishing. Trying to figure out how to hold the item on the lap above to keep parallel.

I live in North Carolina, USA. Been doing heavy duty machine and truck repairs for over 40 years. That includes inventing what ever is needed building engines and transmissions and welding. Also milling and lathe work as the machinists let me close to their machines when they are too busy.

I appreciate the answers and look forward to trying them out. Thanks again for all the help and look forward to more ideas!!

Lets start with the hand vise. 2 pieces of 1" x 1-1/2" x 3" long. A couple of alignment dowels and some threaded holes to tighten. Some notches perpendicular to the face for round objects. Put together, tighten, mill flat and indicate to check. I can do that. Where do I go from here? I have only a bench grinder. I will have to make or buy something to grind/polish or lap and keep the dimensions and tolerances. Can I do it on the mill itself? I do have a Paragon Kiln for melting, slumping and annealing glass. It is supposed to get hot enough for heat treatment. If not I have a torch. Ideas wanted. Thanks Charles

I would like to make a hand vise, 2 x 3 inches for filing small parts . Using 1018 steel. Don't know how to mirror polish it and keep tolerances (hoping for .0005 surface) . After doing it needs to be hardened so the file skates across it. If I succeed I would like to make some sine bar standards. Same polish and treatment except finishing to an exact size. Eventually ending up in the .0002-3 range. Doing this to learn how. Any recommendations as to how to proceed or articles/books? Cutting, turning and measuring to size is not a problem, but I have never done a real mirror type finish or heat treating. Thanks Charles