Name Change!

I've been contemplating doing this for quite a while and finally got the itch to just go ahead and switch everything. For those of you that saw that I did make another channel with the same name, and are wondering what's up, here's the deal.

I wanted to make another channel with more professional looking videos and better content. I did that about 2 months ago or so and after thinking about it and realizing that running two relatively successful channels let alone one is quite a bit of work. The other day I came to the conclusion that from here on out, I would work harder to make my main channel much better and build on what I have already made. No use starting over with basically the exact same stuff!

So here it is Precision Machine Shed. I searched long and hard to a decent name and  was always keen to precision machine shop, however that was being used by several companies across the country! Where the last word in my name comes from is the following. My grandfather always had a little work space. In his early years after he got married, his work space was literally a garden shed that he worked out of. As the years went on and he moved and built a few houses, he gradually built himself a large shop which was anything but a shed! I guess when anyone would as where he was back then they would say "He's out in the shed!" which back then is what it was! The shed name never changed and to this day, his last "Shed", a 30x60 foot 1.5 story shop is still loving called "The Shed"!

Although I do a lot of gunsmithing stuff, as of recent, I have not been doing as much as I wanted. That and I feel that I can still do that work along side general metal working projects. Building rifles gets expensive even when you can do all the work yourself such as I do. With the parts that I normally use to build a rifle such as a 1917 enfield, $1,000 per rifle is a starting point for parts costs. Whereas building random metal projects can cost next to nothing!

I'll still be doing rifle stuff when I get a chance or feel up to it, but I will mostly be working on teaching some metal working skills, along with cool projects that I have in mind, and hope to conjure up in the future. My goal is to be able to show projects that anyone with a lathe, a little bit of tooling, and a little bit of skill can accomplish.

There are a ton of people out there that are ether buying a new or used lathe and wanting to learn and make new things, and although there is a wealth of knowledge on YouTube, I hope to grasp a niche market in the stuff that I plan to do in the future. I still work on a very tight budget, so I rarely have extra cash to go spend on anything. That being said, I will try to build stuff that doesn't cost the average person an arm and a leg, or possibly make things out of stuff you may have laying around your shop!

Thanks to everyone who checks out my stuff and I would like to thank all of my subscribers for sticking with me as I transition into a new era!

A few updates, and a few new lathes!

For those of you that are reading, Sorry I have not posted anything in a while. As you may have seen in my youtube videos, I have been doing some random projects here and there, but I have not shown what my big project has been. Recently we decided to make a "shop" room in the basement and isolate all my stuff into one room. I have not shown this yet because I am not finished, but I'm getting close. I think in the next week or two I will unveil it all to everyone.

I also picked up a new lathe as partially seen in my latest video. It is a Clausing 5914 Lathe built in the late 70s'. It's in really nice shape mechanically and now it looks better with a new coat of paint, which I didn't want to do, but It really did need it!

The collet closer is now gone, I didn't really need it and it's in place and just about ready to get put into use! I don't have any budget for these things so I buy and sell my way into these machines. There is no way I could just go buy any of my machines at this point while I am in school! They are a great investment though!

I also just picked up a few more lathes, mainly to part out or sell, but I did run across a little Atlas 618, which although I'm not an Atlas fan, this thing is so stinking neat, I might have to hang onto it for doing rifle cartridge case work!

We are about to welcome our 2nd child in the next couple weeks too! I have finals for another week, then some free time unless the baby comes of course! Hoping to get a few videos made before the end of the year!

Getting things rolling!

Just wanted to put a quite update up. I have been waiting for a new lathe belt for over a week now, and it was suppose to be shipped 4 days ago but nothing yet. Being a little impatient, I found some 3M Scotch-Weld CA4 glue which has been used by others for bonding lathe belts. I had two belts left over from moving and another lathe so I figured I would give a shot at bonding them together to get a belt long enough to use. I was able to use one of the original ends which I was able to peel apart after applying a little acetone to the glued joint. I then set my belt up in the milling machine to cut the two new tapered joints. This worked out really well and I'll have to make a video on it in the near future. I bonded the two belts and left it sit overnight. The tensile strength on this glue is 2,300 lbs so hopefully it will bond to the material.

Today I set up the second joint and set it up in my lathe and bonded everything back together. It is now currently clamped together and waiting until tomorrow for it to cure. Full cure time on this glue is 24 hours, so I'll pull it tomorrow evening and give it a test run. I was careful to try and get the length as close as I could, although I can still adjust the length lather on the machine.

On a side note I am moving my shop around in my basement. I am putting up a new room to keep all my shop stuff in. The floor space I am currently using is about 10x12'. The new room will be about 10x14'. I'll end up with a little more room, but it should be plenty of room for what I currently have. I'll get some photos of all this stuff up soon.

Buck Chuck Cleanup!

About a month ago I was cruising eBay looking for the elusive deal for any of a number of lathe parts I was looking for when I ran across a listing for a Logan 11" lathe head-stock. I looked at it several times over several days and went back and forth on wither or not to buy it. Now, I can see you asking, what the heck would I want with an old Logan head-stock. I don't have a Logan anymore, and I don't need any parts, however, this listing was for an almost complete head-stock with a "Stuck" 6" 3-jaw adjust-true Buck chuck. I didn't want to buy it and be left with a head-stock that I would never use, but after doing a little research, it still had a nice bull gear and back gear assembly in it. After doing the math and figuring that I could sell the extra parts off it and pay for the entire purchase plus make a few bucks, I committed to the purchase.

When it finally arrived, I did have to work a little to get that chuck off there, but with a little Kroil, it came right off! In the next couple weeks I was able to find a buyer for most of the other parts and I had my original purchase paid for and a few extra buck to boot along with a really nice Buck chuck!

It's been sitting for a few months while I am getting the heavy 10 restored, but the other day I decided to break into it and start cleaning it up. I didn't get a ton of photos of it but I got a few of the before photos. This thing was literally caked in dried on grease/metal chips. I had to scrape the crap out of the jaws with a brass scrape to get them clean and even that was tough! There are a few light dings on the outside of the chuck and I didn't take it down to bare metal, but rather cleaned it up and made sure everything was free, greased or oiled and fully functional! I also noticed that it has the original Buck back plate on it too!

I have to get a few chuck wrenches made up for it, but it looks like it will function perfectly after I get it installed. I will be taking the back plate off and taking a skim cut to make sure it is running true with my lathe spindle too! After geting it all back together I might have to attack the outside with some 600 grit and make it shine like the rest of the lathe!

One chuck down, 2 more to shine, and one more to clean that looks like the Buck did!

Sneak Peak!

Here's a sneak peek of the latest I've gotten done on my lathe. Finished up the tailstock along with the collet tray, and got the taper attachment cross feed rail painted. All I need now is a beltv and to align the tailstock.

My Intro!

Hello to everyone! I am starting this blog to better document my many projects that I take on and to help compliment my many Youtube videos!

A little about me. I'm a graduate student going to school to become a DC and I am about half done when I am writing this. I learned how to do what I do with a lot of guidance by very experienced people, a lot of practice, tons or reading, and endless hours of refinement to my techniques. I have been running a metal lathe for about 8 years and currently own two. A Fully Restored, not repainted, South Bend Heavy 10L, and a Clausing 5914 Lathe. The south bend was reground and scraped by a local builder, then I did everything else and took the machine down completely to every bolt and everything was replaced or refurbished, re-painted from bare metal, and re-assembled. I'

I focus mainly on gunsmithing when I have the funds to build what I want, but also get into random metal projects and tool building. I have built several of my own rifles and have built them from start to finish covering every aspect of rifle building. about the only thing I have yet to do to date is checker a stock, and metal engraving which I plan to do in the future. If you have seen some of my videos, you may have seen some of my work, but I have not published much.

I also spent about 5 years as a carpenter and about 3 of those years as a finish carpenter. I am extremely detail oriented, and excelled at finish carpentry. I have done every aspect of building a house from foundation work to roofing. I gained a vast knowledge of many topics of construction, but I no longer work in that industry.

I was also a chemist at a factory for a couple years before going back to school to become a DC. While I enjoyed my time there and it was a very rewarding job, I left to pursue my dream career.

The reason for my blog is to follow my projects and give you guys a little more detail on what I am doing.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll hang around!