Any of you Guys or Girls Machining/ Fabricating from Home with Manual Machines?

a reply to: Brotherman

i started saving some money to purchase my own equipment. i've been looking at equipment on craigslist just daydreaming. i have a decent set of hand tools, but will need everything else.

a reply to: Brotherman

Whatever is cold brother!!

It's a lot of fun, we've made shotguns, rifles of all types, just got to be sure all the laws/requirements about length is incorporated, but generally a 18.5" BBL with a solid stock in any common commercial caliber is always good to go!

No serial numbers required unless you plan to go into business selling them. Although you *can* sell a gun you make, you just can't build it with that intent (intent...love that word)

Very impressed with your skills, that is a true art and science, fabricating and machining is a big interest of mine but I'm an amateur at best and dont have any serious tools

You ever see the laser based ones out there? I forgot what materials it works with

I always wanted to try my hand at crafting some knives, start out with a nice stainless steel or something like S30V or BD1N and come up with a nice scary sharp fixed blade

Good luck to you buddy sound alike a tough but highly rewarding adventure ahead of you! 👍👍

originally posted by: Brotherman
a reply to: zatara

My suggestion is go big or go home with some things. A mini lathe would be cool to have but for the things I like to make is well way to mini. What kind of things do you want to make with your mini lathe? Are you into making hardware for wood working out of brass or jewelry for example.

To be honest I don't know... What I do know is that there are just e few really good mini lathes and that making interesting stuff will requier more machinery than just a lathe. I watched a few channels on youtube on which some real pros operate a lathe and I find it just a fascinating machine.

a reply to: zatara
Mini controls and gearing isn’t the way to learn. Those things get complicated because of their scale, if you can’t run or machine on one bigger then imo turning on smaller can probably get down right nasty and frustrating. I know this is going to sound backwards but in my limited experience you need to crash things sometimes to understand how to do it right, those mini’s have plastic back gears and everything is small, easy to break and make in operable. Some of the larger ones are more forgiving and you can learn better between the books by doing. Again just my opinion.

a reply to: JBurns
Like I said never dreamt about in my shop 🤐

originally posted by: Brotherman
a reply to: zatara
Mini controls and gearing isn’t the way to learn. Those things get complicated because of their scale, if you can’t run or machine on one bigger then imo turning on smaller can probably get down right nasty and frustrating. I know this is going to sound backwards but in my limited experience you need to crash things sometimes to understand how to do it right, those mini’s have plastic back gears and everything is small, easy to break and make in operable. Some of the larger ones are more forgiving and you can learn better between the books by doing. Again just my opinion.

Yes you are right... Iwatched a few youtube vids about those mini lathes and there are just a few which are worth the investment. There is this guy Abom78 who has been around lathes and mills his entire life...his dad had his own metal shop.. and I can watch all day how this guy is operating these machines and producing all kinds of stuff. His work place has a few machines which combined make anything metal. And then there is of course the measuring tools...which can be really expensive.

Anyways..being anle to use these machines will requier creativity, insight and able to do some basic math.. And these things will make may day..I say.

a reply to: zatara
Then run forth my metal working friend and make things