Crochet hooks, lipstick.................

Randy:
Use double backed carpet tape to hold parts for machining.
Use spots of superglue to hold parts for machining.
Use Magic Marker to creep up on a wall, like when machining out the corners of a pocket, or trying to match floor depths with different end mills.
Use paper between end mill and part to creep up to the cut on a manual mill.
Use pipe cleaners to clean small holes.
Use thin cork against vise jaws to protect the surface of finished/polished parts for another mill operation.
Use 3/8" fuel line screwed into coolant rail for a quickie wash down hose.
Have used star wrench used for taking off lug nuts on wheels to tighten vises, fast when you spin it. Pre-spider wrench era.
Have used oil-filter removal wrench to tighten similar sized cylindrical parts on fixture.
Used leather working hole punches to put holes in soft plastic and rubber sheets.
Use program driven Sharpie pen in toolholder to lay out part in CNC.
More later as I think of them.

I use a BobCRAP V22 disk to place under the Starbucks doubleshot coffee I drink to protect my wood desk.
BobCRAP V22 isn't good for anything else as many have accurately reported on the BobCRAP forum on CNC Advertising Zone now that slimeball BobCRAP employee Chris Corbell isn't allowed to censor and delete their posts.
Many buyers of BobCRAP V22 who tried to tell the truth about BobCRAP V22 had their posts censored or deleted by Chris Corbell with the full permission of CNC Advertising Zone's owner.
The answer to the BobCRAP V22 nightmare is to forget BobCRAP V22 even existed and upgrade to BobCRAP V23. Unlike other older versions of BobCRAP, V22 doesn't appear to be offered any longer. I can certainly understand why!
Jon Banquer San Diego, CA

Cool! Some I'd forgotten and some new ones! RR

Loctite in the soft jaws for that added bit of grip when turning delicate stuff.
Later,
Charlie

wife's sewing needle to dig slivers out

BottleBob wrote in news:gO2dnTHQC7EomMjUnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:
Tooth brush to clean threads, etc before inspecting them in an optical comparator.
Alligator clips to hold small parts for inspection.
Magnets of various sizes. I use them for all sorts of things from holding parts to sticking the drawing on the machine. I also use the thin adcertising ones you see stuck all over the machiens at shows. I cut out pointers from them and use the pointer to align bar feeders using fishing string. Hmm. there's another one.
Monofilament line - use it for lining up bar feeders.
Form-A-Gasket - use it to seal the slots in collets on jobs where fine chips are getting into the spindle.
The lipstick is an old screw machine trick. You put it on a sticky collet. It doesn't wash off as easily as grease and works just as well.
Hose clamps - I use them to mount DTI's in tricky places where there isn't enough room to use normal mounts. For example: on small Swiss machines I use it to clamp a DTI to the sub spindle to check alignmet of drills etc, on the back work tool post.
Tweezers - I use them for handling small parts and pulling slivers.
Silly Putty and Play Dough - Use for taking impressions and to hold tiny parts for optical inspection.
Dish washing soap - It's a great way to clean oil off of parts and also can be used to find compressed air leaks.
Kitchen freezer - If you have parts to put together that are a press fit, like dowel pins, put the pins in the freezer for a while and they will drop right into the holes. You can also freeze delicate parts in water to fixture them for light machining.
Permanent coffee filters - I've used them to catch small parts where the parts normally fall through the holes in the part catcher basket. They also work well for cleaning small parts in solvent. Put the parts in the filter basket and dip it into the solvent.
Corian - makes a great work surface for the top of a roll around tool cart.
Pencil eraser - can be used for polishing small areas, with or without compound.
3/8 drive socket and washer - use as a stand off to pull taper pins.
Fabric softener - can be used as a coolant defoamer.
Crisco - works great as a cutting fluid for plastics like delrin on manual machines. Smear it on the tools and work.
Razor blades work well as a cut off tool for teflon and other plastics.
Carpet tape - use to hold automation and bar feeders in place temporarily. Also use to stick a piece of emory to a surface plate to deburr/polish parts.
Some homebrew cutting oil additives - oil of wintergreen and STP work well for stainless and nickel alloys.

Wow! Glad I asked. RR

Randy Replogle wrote in news:gj3m6d$csf$1 @mailhub227.itcs.purdue.edu:
I'm sure there are tons more. It's just hard to conjure them up sitting here at home.

Ah, yes. Dan reminded me of a couple more.
A piece of silly putty/play dough, used to hold the three wires for measuring threads.
Refrigerator freezer, for cooling rubber to make it stiffer & easier to machine. Got to work fast though. :)
And the infamous use of "Fusible Alloys" like Cerrobend for holding parts to be machined.
Cerrobend for taking impressions of a groove down deep in a bore - or for taking other impressions. The alloy being solid enough when cool to take accurate measurements off of.
Using the fork lift to drive over two parts that you are double back taping together when the hydraulic press is set up for something with a higher priority.
I almost forgot, cardboard egg crates for holding parts. The rectangular ones that hold 30 eggs.
Harbor Freight 3 tier cart to hold parts and tools.
Digital camera to take pictures of complex setups and put the picture in the Work Traveler.

Yep, done both. I also use hot-melt glue sticks. I heat up a flat aluminum plate on a laboratory hot plate and stick sheet metal, etc. to it allowing it to cool with a weight on top.
I was shown this for picking up a surface on a surface grinder.
yep
I have been looking for something like this. No matter how well I clean my vise jaws there will always be a pit or scratch. How thin can you buy it? Do you need to re-indicate each part after re-clamping?
RR

Randy:
The cork pieces I normally use are about .060 thick, and can take up a lot of part irregularities. But yes, something that thick would probably require reindicating as it couldn't be counted on to "crush" the same amount every time.
There are other options though. Aluminum soft jaws tend to indent more than a steel part you'd clamp in them. Or just use some computer paper in your hard jaws - that should protect your part. It's cheap, cut strips so you'd have new strips for every part if cleanliness is of utmost importance. Tape your jaws with masking tape is one option, more trouble to get the tape adhesive off than anything.

Ill see you that and raise you one--beings as Ive actually used cutting oil additives in homebrew...

Beeswax works well for this.
If theres any volume then use glycol prechilled to -50 F
Wooden nickels.
We used to douse forgings with MEK or acetone to melt the snow off before using the forklift to bring from the yard to the shop proper.

BPB:
I've never used it. Is it soft and malleable like silly putty or play dough? Or hard like candle wax? Anything holding one end of the wires has to be somewhat flexible so that when the faces of the micrometer contact the wires that they are freely able to align themselves parallel with the faces.
I don't believe the shop refrigerator gets that cold. If someone were THAT serious, I suppose they could go buy a block of dry ice.
So do I. But on a subplate - topplate combo that is 10" x 15" a vise won't have much effect on the center.
I've had one that's worked fine for this use for probably 10 years. Much more maneuverable than trying to move your toolbox next to the machine.

D Murphy wrote in news:Xns9B80A5314B2CDBW12BU20MU38SY@130.133.1.4:
Just to add.....
Schrade Pocket knife.....1 very sharp blade, one relatively dull blade. Use sharp blade to debur plastic, dull blade to deburr aluminum + some steel.
Medium sized Swiss Army Knife..... too many uses to list.
Band-aids can be used to prevent marring of parts when held in a vise. Just stick a couple of band-aids to each jaw.
A piece of 3/16" aircraft cable about a foot long kept hanging somewhere convenient is great for peeling off a strand to use to clean the chips and gunk out of collet slots. Dental floss can be used for the same thing. You can take a couple pieces of 3/8" drill rod, drill a cross hole, and a M4 or 10-32 screw hole adjacent to use as handles for the wire/floss.

Sheesh well it warms to the touch--killer stuff.
closest your gonna come unless your a beekeeper or happen to keep some so as to be able to re-set reeds in a accordian might possibly be here :
yes exatly 50/50 glycol drop your dry ice into it the get you to -50 f iirc
Thats using our head then.
Sigh, I have six vidmars--mostly full of junk mind you but still.
Once your done, probly best should get them th hell out a there.
dunno been there seen widow auctions etc seen it all rather not delve unless pressed and then would rather take it offline
--SVL
(who will be retriring soon but apparently has few if ant personal tools that are subject to the IRS tax bO0ks

BPB:
Offline it is.

I have used liquid nitrogen for this very purpose also. At -320 deg F, it gives you a bit more time than a freezer. We also use the stuff alot when working with tight press fits. The celophane wrapper on a box of ciggerates is exactally .001". Nice cheap shim stock....provided you have a few smokers around. Old bandsaw blades are useful....shear the teeth off & cut them in 5" lengths & bend in the middle....makes a nice spring to hold parallels to vise jaws

Oh, yeah, I was taught to make special collets/pot chucks from round bar and hose clamps. Split the end of the bar in a cross shape on the bandsaw (make deep enough cuts so that the "fingers" are a little bit flexible)then chuck up in the lathe and bore a pocket as needed. Sometimes I undercut the sidewalls a degree or two. Use the hose clamp to compress the fingers and hold the part...like small this disks, etc. Kinda like an emergency collet I guess. RR