Like many of you Home Shop Machinists, shop space is at a premium. My shop is located in my garage where I also store a few motorcycles and my  vintage sports car. A big fear I have is one day turning on the lathe accidentally with the chuck key still in the chuck, and flinging it across the
I have a JET 12 X 36 BD lathe of 1985 vintage. It a wonderful lathe for the type of work I do. Mostly hobby gunsmithing and making various parts for motorcycles and expedition vehicles. When I bought the lathe in 1995 it was box stock. It had been used in the Borden Pasta factory
I built a simple barrel sanding device that mounts on my lathe and using power feed, it simply sands a barrel to whatever grit I have loaded in the sander. Sander was bought at Harbor Freight for under $50. A bracket was fabricated from angle iron to position it as shown. Vacumn cleaner attaches
I currently shoot Cowboy Action. This sport uses huge amount of ammo. A standard one day match can use 120 rounds of centerfire ammo and 24-30 shotgun shells. Add a bit of practice and you are shooting a few hundred rounds a week. This calls for a progressive reloader. I’m a big fan of the
I recently started shooting 38-40 for Cowboy Action. As any of you know that enjoy this sport, you use a whole bunch of ammo and reloading is a real necessity. Â I use a Lee 1000 progressive press and I recently bought a LEE Load Master to reload this cartridge. Lee 1000 Lee Load Master
I wanted to add AC to my Palomino Bronco “Soft Side” Pop-Up truck camper. I didn’t want or need a large roof top unit.  A small window residential unit would easily be powered for a single Honda 2000i generator or equivalent. I ordered the smallest window AC unit I could find. Frigidaire FRA052XT7 5,000-BTU Mini Window
My Dodge 2500 4X4 Diesel with 100K miles on the clock was in the need of front ball joints, u-joints and brake pads. I was intrigued by all the conversation on the various Dodge Diesel forums about the unit bearings failing and the expense to replace. So I did some research and found three companies offering a Free Wheeling, Locking Hubs kit for our trucks. Dyna Track, SpynTec and EMS Off Road. I called Tom Brister at EMS Off Road  http://www.emsoffroad.com/store/ to discuss my options. He assured me that all the kits were well made, but their kit was a few dollars less and used off the shelf bearings that could easily be replaced in an emergency. Although all three kits were back ordered at all vendors I checked, Tom said he could have a kit to me in a week so I ordered it up along with a set of non greasable U-Joints. At the time of this article, the kit cost $1495 and the two U-Joints were $110. Shipping from PA to MA was $60. Total $1665.00. The only other item I needed to purchase was high temperature wheel bearing grease and a bearing packer device. The grease was $12 and the bearing packer was $8.
When you mess around with firearms, especially OLD firearms, it is important to be able to inspect them before putting them into service. One area that is difficult to inspect is the bore. The device you would need to inspect a rifle or pistol bore is called a “Bore Scope” These devices are used in
I recently installed new leather seat covers in my 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 Diesel. A great product from a company called Clazzio http://www.clazzio.com/ Upon removing the rear seat to install the covers I realized that the seat back is simply held in place by two metal tabs that slip over a couple of metal bars
I recently decided to add solar power to my Palomino Bronco truck camper. After a few weeks of research, I decided to go with a pre-packaged system from www.solarblvd.com. The system consists of a 120wall panel, a controller and a digital readout display. http://www.solarblvd.com/Solar-Panels-&-Systems-12-Volt-Solar-Kits/c1_272/p2748/12-Volt-120-Watt-Solar-Panel-Kit-with-FREE-SHIPPING/product_info.html The total cost at the time of this writing (7-21-13)Â is
