Ah my thread for my special brand of Autism.
OK let me start by saying this I have precisely TWO power tools, all my tools including those you would class as machine tool's are man powered i.e. foot or hand, the two power tools I have are a Hilti drill I got on the cheap, and a MIG welder I use for car repairs that I've had for years and I only use the drill
very rarely,I do both Metal and Woodwork and a tiny bit of stone work, all with hand tools.
OK let me start with the BIG stuff you don't need or won't need if your just pottering around making just basic stuff but you can find small electric storable table top versions both modern and veteran that will do you if you want to go deeper.
1)
Drummond M-Type pre B, 1903 model, It's so nice i bought it twice once with the original treadle and accessories (sadly not the over heads, but rocking horse poop is easer to find) and another with a pitted bed that I can use for spares if / when something breaks on it, I get a similar cutting speed to modern lathes with this but I am limmited in tooling as I can't use carbide inserts or braised tooling - I am limited to tool steel or HSS bit's, but the advantage is I can do antique styles of turning on it that you can't do or do safely on a modern lathe. One accessory I have bought that I would call essential is a vertical cross slide milling table, it makes milling on a lathe a lot easier to do.
2)
Adept Number 2 Shaper, This thing isn't essential to my work but is damned useful, when you need a flat surface, a slot or a keyway making precicely or even dovetails this little gem is what you want.
3) Unnamed 1915 War Department hand cranked drill press,
It looks like that but it's about twice the size, I suspect it's a Mancuna but there is no makers stamp just the year and War Department broad arrow marks, I've drilled holes upto 2" with it in mild steel and it didn't struggle with it at all, just for comparisons sake a modern drill press that can take that size of bit will stall, over heat, slip a belt etc.
OK that's it for machine tools, onto joining bit's of Metal together.
To me welding is normally one of two processes -
Forge Welding, or
Oxyacetylene processes the former takes a lot of work and prep but once you have the skill down it's great because the welds very uniform it's downside is you can't use it for structural work that's in place like welding beams together but it's one of the few processes than you can weld more base forms of iron with like Traditional Wrought Iron. The gas process is what I use for portable stuff or when I'm cutting up scrap to salvage the metal from or melting something in small quantities when I don't want to fire up my smelting furnace. As I said I have a MIG welder but I don't use that for anything but car work on my own or family stuff and that's because I don't like having a very hot gas flame near cars.
Braising - I normally use traditional copper irons and a heavy duty solder (some times made myself 50/50 lead tin mix) and a rozin or rozin wax flux, but I also do forge and thermal mass soldering as needed, nothing really all that special here but I use copper blocks as my heating mass, and I heat either in a forge or a small gas burner.
Onto the hand tools -
Hacksaws, self explanitary but I've got 6 - 12 and 18in versions of them and multiples, word of advice don't buy the new ones they are a bit pants and over priced, go to a carboot or ebay spend a few quid and get 3 or 4 that you like and use them. Also get a Jewlers piercing saw if you do fine or decorative work.
Hammers, get yourself 4, 8 12 16 and 32 OZ ball peins and cross peins, a 4lb lump hammer, and a smiths rounding hammer of a size you don't mind swinging all day I use a 1.5lb I made for reference, get yourself a pair of Soft blow hammers, I have a small 8oz one that's lead and brass to true up work in the lathe, and a larger 16oz one that's brass and raw hide for when I need to give some gentile adjustment to things. I would say always go for the Wooden handled verities on hammers, they are easy to replace and feel better than any synthetic in use.
Punches, Chisels, Gravers etc, You don't need as many of these as you think - but what ones you do get make sure they are the best you can get always get forged and hardened (punches get soft and hard ones) and learn to keep them sharp, or the heads unmangled, if you ever think they are not sharp enough they most likely are not and they don't feel like a knife when sharpening metalworking chisels, the angles are different (I'll come back and add a guide I just need to edit it to remove some stuff).
Measurement - Good guess, Educated Guess, Precision Guess and Educated guess and then Absolute -
Tape Measure, Rule (machinist), Calipers, Micrometer and Gauge blocks, that's how measurement works in that order.
Tape measure - Use this for quick rough and dirty measuring rough stock to size down to a 1/16 woodworker is fine for this.
12" 6" 3" Rules, you can't have to many of these one in every toolbox, several on your work bench, and your pockets, get them with multiple granulations if you can ideally 1/2 1/4 1/8 1/16 1/32 1/64 of a inch in that order.
Calipers, it's tempting to get a digital set here but don't the cheap ones are fine for rough work and range from decent to crap but they are not accurate, get yourself a good dial set if you can't read a vernier scale, even from the best manufacturers they are cheap and well worth getting spendy on if you can.
Micrometer - 0-1" (0-25mm) and a 1-2" (25-50mm) will do most people for the vast majority of work they would ever need, you can get cheap ones but honestly are not worth it they don't maintain any accuracy and the markings are normally not etched but surface marked and will be more frustrating to use, but if your getting your first one or you don't expect to use often. Second hand is your friend here that can develop into a serious addiction just beware that you will need to clean and replace some parts quite often and you will need to recalibrate them and this may mean you have to buy a gauge block or "STANDARD" to do it right. Having said that for the smaller one's because they are so common the new ones from Starret and Mititoyo are very cheap and worth spending money on.
Gauge Blocks - there is a 99.9% certainty you will never need these or be aware of them but they are the pinicale of precision and calibration, they are blocks of a specific alloy that resists expansion and contraction through moisture, heat, pressure etc and have a wonderful property called Ringing that allows you to join them together in combination to create a precise measurement and the process that allows them to do this is still mostly unknown to science, but you can get them calibrated to AAAA* standard where a breath of a human on a AAAA* calibrated block will not allow it to pass through a gauge designed for it chilled to 0C,
Here is a video that explains it exceptionally well.
Not explained above but well worth knowing about - DTI's, Clock Gauges and Surface plates.
Dial Test Indicators are basically how flat or level is my work, with them you can check the flatness of a part, angles of a part and a whole host of other fancy jazz, you just need a surface plate or alike to use them well.
Clock Gauges, Work horse measurement of a machine tool shop they are the slightly retarded cousin of the DTI but can do the same work if your patient and willing to put in the effort, but are best used for measuring the distance between X and X in a linneier fashon, or run out (wobble) of a part in a lathe or mill, you can spend a little or as much as you like on these things for the most part but the more you spend the finer measurement you can achieve and the more reliable it is.
Surface plates - Oh boy this one is crazy to explain but what you call flat and what is flat is amazing and has a real impact on your daily life, like Gauge blocks this goes from 0/na to AAAA* and the more precise your work becomes the more precise this plate needs to be, the good news is you can if your just doing light hobby work get away bith a thick chunk of float glass and it will be more than flat enough, and you can get A grade plates made from granite for about £100 that are very very useable, traditionally they where made from cast iron and some of the best still are but they need to be tempriture and humidity controlled for them to give you a correct reading - my advice is unless your doing Hyper precision aerospace or medical work is to ignore the cast iron jobs and get a stone one in A grade or better.
F
un fact, Joseph Whitworth the guy who made the Whitworth Rifle, Whitworth threads also made the first true surface plates and the maths to accompany them.
Spanners and Sockets - This one is a little variable depending on where you are, but honestly just get them used you will pay about the same for a full set of new ones and they will be of better quality even if you have to dress dings in them with a stone. But always have a Metric and Imperial set to hand, doesn't matter if your in a Imperial or Metric region you will need both as Imperial still rules the day in mechanical applications (for reasons I wont go into here), Modern epensive sets are great but the quality is starting to dip in places you don't think to check, my personal preferance for this sort of stiff is Britool and King Dick.
Screw drivers - this depends what your doing, but because I work with mostly older standards I nearly always end up using perfect handled flat head drivers, I have a insert screw driver and bits and a few precision sets from watchmaker to IT repair in size range including security / propitiatory bits. I will say this the older screws work best with older softer steel and iron drivers, if you use a modern hardednd flat head on a screw from 1930 it will mangle it, pro tip here if you have to use a modern bit on a old par you care about use a size down and coat the tip in masking tape it will abate it some what.
The problem is here modern screw drivers are all hard but the screw heads are not, most of them are soft and are not designed to be driven with power tools and the soft material can't take the torque applied to them by a impact driver or drill / driver and strip every easily. Especially when it comes to devices that are not designed to be serviced like computers, tablets or phones etc, there is also a myth called cam out if your camming out using a flat head, the screw is poor or your using the wrong sized bit / driver.
Layout - I make my own marking out / layout fluid using iron gaul ink oil and charcoal with a tiny bit of pork fat. But I also use a sharpie, chalk or directly inscribed marks, most people just need a thick fat ink line they can scribe on, and you cut TO the line as the line is your mark.
For fine work I have a smoke lamp I use with oilive oil and a wick set to burn dirty I hold the part over when I am doing fit up work.
Scribers, I use a carpenters marking knife for straight lines and a Starret 35A for curved lines, but as long as you can get the marking edge as close as you can to the work without distortion will do.
Taps and Dies, This is where you DO need to spend money and you need a few of them, I've got Whitworth, Metric, BSP, WhitFine, BSP, UNF,etc etc if your just doing a tap once or twice just get one use it and toss it when it gets dull but honestly if your making or repairing threads often buy them and buy the best you can and treat them right when you use them.
Drill Bits, This one is again a bit variable as it depends what is used or was used where you are, but I would also suggest you look up how to make drill bits as it's far easier to make or adapt a bit of round stock to make that one odd hole than trying to find the size you need, but always get your hands on HSS or Tool Steel bits you can sharpen then down to a nub and they will still work, coated and fused / brazed bits are toss them when broke jobs.
Drilling tools - I use a old style carpenters brace for most of my metal drilling, followed by a Egg beater drill breast drill and a fly wheel pump drill, when used correctly with the right bits the speeds are comparable to modern drills.
EYE PROTECTION - This is one area I am glad to deviate away from old practices, don't skimp on anything to do with PPE, you will always kick yourself if you do, anyty work you does throws particles into the air mostly benign but get a splinter in your eye? Yea you can go blind, doesn't mater what your doing ware eye protection.
Files, It doesnt matter about the type, length, or style BUY GOOD ONES, Cheap files clog, don't cut for shit and are worth more as scrap for other tools than they are in use, also get a chalk block and file card to clean up your files. I can make a whole thread on this subject but to save space just spend more on good files from a reputable company and supplier.
OK That's all I can write at the moment, but I will be back with more including tools lists and books or guides for people to use.
