Mounting electrical box to lally column?

A mate used to have one of those here in the UK, it was ex WW2 lend lease and pretty beaten up but it was his and it worked. It had to go when he divorced and downsized but he does have access to his father's Myford 7 which he acquired from the widow of a family friend for little money as she just wanted the garage cleared. A mate has the Hayes Diemaster mill, and the dad also had a decent sized UK made pillar drill.

I was fortunate the M300 tailstock was in good order and aligns very well and I've not had to touch it. It has little wear in the barrel as it had a 8mm wide collar of congealed oil at the back of the bore which stopped it moving fully back, once cleaned out the quill moves fully back and I can feel a slight increase in the force required. The congealed oil ring was why it wouldn't eject Morse taper items without a tang. I like the lever tailstock as it gives more feel when drilling but can't generate as good a clamping load so some jobs I have to revert to the standard tailstock.

Totally silly idea. Find a straight shank Morse taper adapter with an OD slightly larger than your current opening. Bore to fit. Longer "might" be better, but even a couple inches of stroke is good enough if it comes with a nice no slop sliding fit.

Totally silly idea. Find a straight shank Morse taper adapter with an OD slightly larger than your current opening. Bore to fit. Longer "might" be better, but even a couple inches of stroke is good enough if it comes with a nice no slop sliding fit.

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It's not silly, I have such an MT2 to straight adapter and matching bronze sleeve for an incomplete endmill sharpening fixture project. Unfortunately the adapter's OD is 1.000" while the tailstock spindle's is 1.062". Hardening made the sleeve expand slightly at the ejection slots, apparently after it was ground. A HiRoc bit could drill through the end for a collet closing screw but doubt I could thread it or mill the key slot.

I rely on the depth graduations on the spindle because I sometimes lose track of turns while peck drilling small deep holes. My attempts to engrave and number graduations on tools haven't been impressive.

I was planning to make a tool holding fixture that resembled the Quorn's, but initially simpler, since the swiveling head of my Delta Rockwell Toolmaker surface + cutter grinder appears to be the inspiration for its design. As usual, shortly after buying the parts I found a second-hand commercial fixture for sharpening the spiral flutes of endmills.

The fixture I did complete is for grinding S&D and other large drill bits in a 5C end mill sharpening fixture. It consists of a 5C closer nut bored out

Again, after finishing it I found a 3/4" collet that fits my originally 1/2" Drill Doctor. It's like I have to prove I'm worthy before finding what I seek. jsw

There is nothing special about any of them. They are all just the right size piece of pretty

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If it's original then Mickey Mouse worked for South Bend.

The 'stud' is a loose-fitting Grade 5 galvanized hardware store hex head cap screw, and the bolt head recess is a milled rectangular pocket the width of two sides with little half-round clearance cuts in the ends for the points. I machined a flange nut with a 13/16" hex to fit the proper style of short-handled forged box wrench.

It could also be low due to heavy use. I seem to recall one conversation where somebody said if you have a choice in setup between ever so slightly high and overshooting to be a tad bit low its better to leave it alone and let it wear in over time. I think a mechanism that can be adjusted over time makes more sense, but that's what they said. I'm not sure how being a little bit bad in one direction would be better than being a little bit bad in another direction, but that was the gist of it. It reminded me of shooting pool with people who ask if its better to miss by a little bit or miss by a lot. "Um, you missed. That's all." LOL. " Its still my shot."

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Since it came from a trade school I think it saw relatively little use, and less care. The obvious problems were the D-shaped tailstock spindle and missing compound handle. The dealer told me that the instructor spent his yearly maintenance allocation on school-color paint to hide defects, and the rest on whiskey. The hardened ways look perfect and I observed less than

I didn't see another Heavy 10 for sale for 15 years, and then at the price of a new 10" Grizzly. What really kills me is that I had to surplus a pristine 14" long bed South Bend at Mitre with no chance of bidding on it afterwards. As Air Force property it was supposed to go to a school or non-profit, on its tortuous way to Iran. I surplused millions of dollars of older equipment I would love to have owned, but never saw again. Perhaps it's best that I've collected only a couple of Hewlett-Packard boat anchors, a digital storage scope and a spectrum analyzer. jsw

It's like I have to prove I'm worthy before finding

I feel your pain. I've got multiples of tools for that reason. Last time I needed a powder actuated pin driver I couldn't find mine. I knew I had two of them One hammer actuated, and one trigger actuated. After spending three days searching I gave up and bought a new one. I figured at some point an ex-employee forgot to return mine. I hadn't even opened the package when I found the one I already had. The new one is still in the package some years later. LOL. I figure if I ever misplace them again I can just threaten to open the package and they will re-appear. Now I know all I need to do to find a tool or figure out an easy way to fix one is buy its replacement.

It's like I have to prove I'm worthy before finding

I feel your pain. I've got multiples of tools for that reason. Last time I needed a powder actuated pin driver I couldn't find mine. I knew I had two of them One hammer actuated, and one trigger actuated. After spending three days searching I gave up and bought a new one. I figured at some point an ex-employee forgot to return mine. I hadn't even opened the package when I found the one I already had. The new one is still in the package some years later. LOL. I figure if I ever misplace them again I can just threaten to open the package and they will re-appear. Now I know all I need to do to find a tool or figure out an easy way to fix one is buy its replacement.

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After buying and using the new one I look for a logical place to store it, and more often than not that's where I find the missing one. Why couldn't I have remembered to look there before?

I have a rack of assorted tool boxes (yard sale dollar or less finds) for items like pin driver, oscillating tool, etc. which keeps the tool together with its pins, bits, or spares; which does help somewhat. Sons find this helpfull when they come to borrow as well.

I have a rack of assorted tool boxes (yard sale dollar or less finds) for items like pin driver, oscillating tool, etc. which keeps the tool together with its pins, bits, or spares; which does help somewhat. Sons find this helpfull when they come to borrow as well.

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That's a good idea that can be hard to implement. I've found stackable plastic cases with latching lids for the manual , tools and spares for chainsaws and generators that may be used away from the house, but not for air tools, especially those with whips for easier handling. They are all in cardboard boxes with the hoses and packages of sanding belts and disks protruding from the top. As my power tools evolved from NiCds to replacement NiMH batteries that are slightly larger I had to carve up the fitted case's interior or remove it completely. For at-home use the lack of restraint doesn't hurt them.

I've given up trying to separately package angle and die grinders since their parts often interchange, especially since I machine spindle adapters to misuse them such as making a compact right angle drill from a grinder, or jack up my car with a drill.

Some of my small bench-mount tools are on rolling stands with invertable two-sided tops on trunnions, one tool on each side. In one case a single motor on a hinged base drives the table saw or belt sander that is on top. A box or drawer below stores parts for both.

It might have been better to mount two unrelated tools on each stand so I could have all the sheetmetal or woodworking tools on top simultaneously instead of frequently swapping between two on one stand.

Yep. No matter how much stock and parts storage you have its either empty or over flowing. There never seems to be a "enough." I've thought about getting another shipping container just for bar stock.

My current dream project is a 56(ish) foot long monolithic steel top bench along the back wall of my shop with bench top to floor drawers with 6 foot long wings about every 8 feet with 6 foot deep drawers for long stock and long tools. I have the steel for the top, and some of the steel tube.

"Hey dad, I need a shovel."

"Third wing bottom drawer under the grinders."

I actually hope to be able to get rid of my three roll-a-way tool boxes.

My current dream project is a 56(ish) foot long monolithic steel top bench along the back wall of my shop with bench top to floor drawers with 6 foot long wings about every 8 feet with 6 foot deep drawers for long stock and long tools. I have the steel for the top, and some of the steel tube.

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That's not much different from the benches in several labs I've worked in. At Segway a rep from MSC came in periodically to make sure the hardware drawers under the long bench in the machine shop remained fully stocked.

Long open benches tended to acquire a population of small bench-mount equipment that has to be far enough apart to not interfere with turning, cutting, grinding, drilling or tapping long stock, and soon the open space isn't that long any more. That's where I got my preference for mounting it in pairs on carts that could be temporarily clamped to the edge of the bench, then stored compactly together.

My plan is to break it up into sections dedicated (mostly) to a particular type of work. Grinding, injecting, welding, general assembly, etc. I plan for some bays to be covered in small pieces of equipment as that's the way they will be used every day. I even plan for wings on the wings for things like the 6 ton arbor press and mid size drill press. Of course plans/mice/men/spouse/kids/etc