BLOW THROUGH VACUUM If you end up chasing threads or tapping on a machine and don’t want to make a mess blowing them out, here’s a quick tip. Drill a hole in your vacuum cleaner nozzle and feed your blow gun nozzle through it. Now suck the chips up as you blow the...

INDICATOR ADAPTER Most Co-Ax indicators have a 3/8" or 1/2" diameter stem. Instead of wasting time closing the lathe chuck to hold the indicator and then more time opening it back up to hold a larger diameter work piece, make a simple stepped adapter with a precision...

SEAT SPUD For machining custom valve seats, in addition to the expansion arbor, I have a simple aluminum spud and lock. I can quick machine it down for whatever seat I need. It started out as a 1-foot-long piece of round stock, and I just keep drilling and tapping as...

POWER ADJUSTMENTS To save time, we use a half inch cordless drill to power our stroke and counterweight adjustments on our crankshaft grinder machines. Adney Brown Performance Crankshaft Ferndale, MI DECEMBER, 2021

SET UP BLOCKS Keep your tape measure in the toolbox when doing set ups that you repeat time and time again. Make some gauge blocks or fixtures, whatever it takes to save time setting up your machines. Randy Torvinen Torvinen's Machine Menahga, MN DECEMBER, 2021

3D PRINTER One of the most useful tools I have acquired and recommend are my two 3D printers. It allows rapid part prototyping as well as the ability to quickly make a tool. In this case I had a cam bearing that my two other cam bearing tools just weren’t working well...