Easy job to put a straight knurl on a part, then you can service it if the need ever comes up. I don’t like the idea of tack welding it to the forging, I just feel personally that’s a Band-Aid to the real problem and there are better solutions.
The machine tools are a great asset if your serious about fabricating your own parts Leonard. Like any thing, you have to weigh just exactly how much work your need to do with those tools. Taint worth it if you are only going to use them for one or two jobs.
Used lathes come up often if you keep your eyes open and can be found for $500-$1000. There are probably millions that ended up in old retired machinists basements when they up graded to new ones at work.
Milling machines are out there also but they’re usually up in the $1000-$2000 bracket. You can do a lot of light duty work on the bench top mills, which are quite a bit less expensive even when new.
Tooling can be just as expensive as the lathe or mill. However you can get by at home with Chinese tooling for about 1/10 the cost of the US made stuff. I'd love to support US industry but the simple fact is that we have priced our selves out of the market. You simply can't compete when you have to pay your workers $30 to $50 an hour plus benefits and when the higher ups are taking home six and seven figure salaries. I keep saying that we’re living in a house of cards and if we don’t pull our heads out of you know what, it’s gonna come crashing down on us one day. We need to get back to the position of making a good living rather than everyone trying to make a fortune over night. But, that subject is like arguing about overpopulation or global warming, i.e. fruitless.
Hope the pix helped you out, that's what they're for.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
