Inexpensive DIY tachometer for a mill or lathe

Here’s an idea I haven’t seen before.  Adam made a very inexpensive tachometer for his variable speed X2 mini-mill using a cyclometer (bicycle speedometer).  Almost any wired cyclometer will work and you should be able find one with a nice big display for about $15 or less.   (You probably don’t want to get a wireless cyclometer because they’re more expensive, you’ll have an extra battery to replace occasionally, and you might get erroneous readings caused by the receiver picking up electrical noise from your motor).… Read the rest

A Homemade DRO for the 7x Mini-Lathe

This article describes how I added an easy-to-make DRO (Digital Readout) to the cross-slide of my 7×12 mini-lathe.  It uses an inexpensive digital dial indicator that I bought from Harbor Freight for about $25.  It works very well and you won’t have to drill any holes in your lathe or disassemble it to install it.… Read the rest

A Chip Brush for the Jet 5X6 Bandsaw

Pic 1This article was written by “Mikey” and it first appeared on the Yahoo 4x6Bandsaw discussion group.   I think it is a great idea and well presented so I asked him if I could republish it here and he graciously agreed.  It originally appeared as a PDF file that is formatted better and has larger pictures that you can download hereRead the rest

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