What's going on in your shop? Show us whats going on, and talk a bit about your work!

Been looking for a lathe in decent condition for a good price for years now, but never pulled the trigger. In the middle of another project (will post once finished, or at least once I have most of the parts made) I was thinking about possibly needing one to tune a fit. Didn't find anything that matched my criteria (which, granted were/are quite unrealistic, was hoping to get lucky) when I realized that I already have a 'lathe', just no chuck for it. Fast forward a week or so, and I bought a cheap ebay-chuck, and made a backplate to go onto an iso40/sk40 shell mill holder, to go into the horizontal spindle of the mill.

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I measured the runout right behind the jaws, and it came out to around 0,05mm (that'd be ~2 thou) which I'm completely fine with, considering the quality of the chuck, and it being an independent 4 jaw, I can tune in the parts, should they need it.

Edit: I tuned it in a bit since then, and managed to get the runout down to around 0,036-0,038mm (around ~1,5 thou). At one point I had it down to 0,024, but that was at the start of a 2-3-hour session of loosening the screws, moving stuff around, clocking the whole chuck, and at that point I figured I could get someething better still. Fast forward a few hours, and I was more than happy with the end result, even with never having exceeded my I think second or third try, after being beaten down by the passage of time. That, and standing in the same place in front of the mill, leaning over slightly, and not knowing enough to interpret the inconsistent readings.
 
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Nate’s Knives said:
You going to pin or solder it or both? Can you wip the guard on this thread or another? I’d appreciate it. I’m two years into this and still learning.
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I might solder it but definitely won’t pin it. I don’t have a carbide drill bit small enough and the tang is hard. It’s probably destined to be a personal user so I was thinking about getting the guard to fit as tight as possible and just letting G-flex do its thing. Since it’s barely wider than a 1/16” drill bit I had to peen the slot in a few spots where the bit walked while I was drilling it. I let my 9 year old handle the hammer work. I had to grind down a needle file to fit in the slot after I ground a coping saw blade small enough to where I could connect the holes. I also ground a hacksaw blade down to fit it so I could use that after I got a slot big enough with the coping saw. It was kind of a nightmare. I definitely need to get some smaller burr bits than what I currently have.

There are a few holes already in the tang so I will be able to get at least one pin through the handle.

This knife is kind of an exercise in problem solving. My boys are getting interested so I’m using it to teach them how to work through issues. I’ll try to grab a few pictures along the way from here on out. I wish I had taken some yesterday of the layout and cutting of the slot.
 
I realized I had no way of making a slot in a block very easily so I cheated. Ground a piece of G10 about 0.010-0.015” thicker than the tang and sandwiched it between a set of scales and liners. I also ground a couple of scrap pieces of G10 thin and glued them together to make a spacer that will match the G10 in the handle. I addressed the choil/ricasso area and lined the plunges up as best I could and started hand sanding. The plunges are a bit difficult because the knife is so thin I can’t see what I’m doing on the grinder. I got them as close as I could with a 600 grit belt before I got scared and quit. I’ll try to line them up better as I’m hand sanding.

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If you don't want to pin or solder, get you a tube of JB weld. Coat shoulder and tang with the JB then stick in guard. Excess JB can be wiped off then cleaned with some WD40 on a rag which dissolves the JB.
If the gap gets a little big and guard material is metal, just smack it on side to close it up. Refile as needed.
 
Got two more ready for tangs Friday evening, A sujihiki and a gyuto (laying on the catch funnel) ... and a little mini-usuba (sitting on elephant hide)... maybe a muki?

I also changed the dust collector funnel in the forge grinding room. I had all the scuppers and downspouts changed at the church to larger ones. I told the contractor to just leave the six 20-foot-long 4" PVC downspouts and scuppers and I would find uses for them. I took one look at the scuppers, drilled out a few rivets, and it made the perfect catch funnel for a grinder. I'll put the rest in the grinding room in the main shop. I might put one under a buffer to suck away the dust, as well.

Saturday morning, I did the 2026 Polar Plunge.
37° water temp
27° air temp
50+MPH winds
wind chill at -2°

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Rough day in the shop since it was so cold, but I have a show early next month I need to get moving on!

8 of my MBBO in 14C28N, 62-63 HRC. Got 1 Drop Point, 2 Reverse Tanto and 5 normal ones ground out to 400 on the handle at the ricasso, 400 felt belt on the blades:

Snow Bucket for cooling them down:
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roughed at 120:
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Cleaner and 400:
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Worked on getting handles drilled and roughed out profile wise:
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Forgot to get pics roughed out and I don't want to go back into the shop...lol
 
Eh, had to go back out in the garage anyway:
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The carbon fiber / red G10 will get Red pins, and most will get a smaller 1/4 in od/3/16 inch ID black or natural micarta lanyard tubes. Some will get aluminum 5/16 OD linear tubes.

still debating if I want to do copper pins on the blue paper and blue jute handled ones or go with white pins for those?
 
I’m in completely uncharted territory at this point. It was time to start shaping the guard so I checked my centerline and of course the slot was cocked by about 0.012”. Once I got a new centerline established I was ready to go.
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Having never made a guard before I decided to do the most logical thing and pretty much eyeball it off of a few random lines. It’s not as uneven as it looks in the picture. I’m holding it at a bit of an angle. I’ve decided I’m going to come about halfway up the guard and taper it to the bottom a little more. I think it’s a bit too bulky.
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I had my first un-forced errors of the project. I broke two drill bits off in the guard drilling holes for the alignment pins. Also, while I wasn’t looking someone snuck into my shop and ground the slot in the spacer way too long so I had to make a new one.
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Just need to fine tune everything and clean it all up. I should be ready to rough fit it all to the handle block tomorrow.
 
ScarFoot said:
I realized I had no way of making a slot in a block very easily so I cheated. Ground a piece of G10 about 0.010-0.015” thicker than the tang and sandwiched it between a set of scales and liners. I also ground a couple of scrap pieces of G10 thin and glued them together to make a spacer that will match the G10 in the handle. I addressed the choil/ricasso area and lined the plunges up as best I could and started hand sanding. The plunges are a bit difficult because the knife is so thin I can’t see what I’m doing on the grinder. I got them as close as I could with a 600 grit belt before I got scared and quit. I’ll try to line them up better as I’m hand sanding.

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Quite bold doing your first hidden tang with such a thin blade but it's coming along rather nicely, looking forward for the end result!
May I suggest instead of sanding the plunges, use a diamond file. Sanding this much is more likely to wash out all the crisp lines, filling them with a diamond file is quick, maintains the crisp lines and it's easy to starting sanding from there.

Retired Spook said:
You sure make some beautiful knives.
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Thank you!
Peter James said:
dude your work is just getting more and more awesome
I'm really looking forward to seeing what crazy stuff you're going to make
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Thank you very much!
I've been trying to expand my skill set lately and that involves trying a lot of new things. Most of them are scraped in the end but it's the price we pay for knowledge.
 
Tony Mont said:
Quite bold doing your first hidden tang with such a thin blade but it's coming along rather nicely, looking forward for the end result!
May I suggest instead of sanding the plunges, use a diamond file. Sanding this much is more likely to wash out all the crisp lines, filling them with a diamond file is quick, maintains the crisp lines and it's easy to starting sanding from there.
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I’ve used EDM stones but not diamond files. I have a few laying around. I’ll definitely give that a try if I have one with the right profile.
 
Taz said:
Rough day in the shop since it was so cold, but I have a show early next month I need to get moving on!

8 of my MBBO in 14C28N, 62-63 HRC. Got 1 Drop Point, 2 Reverse Tanto and 5 normal ones ground out to 400 on the handle at the ricasso, 400 felt belt on the blades:

Snow Bucket for cooling them down:
View attachment 3100211

roughed at 120:
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Cleaner and 400:
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Worked on getting handles drilled and roughed out profile wise:
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Forgot to get pics roughed out and I don't want to go back into the shop...lol
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In my old shop my quench bucket would freeze every winter because my shop was too leaky to heat year round I would slap them right on the ice when they got too hot to handle.
 
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