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My instincts are to eyeball everything. It's gotten me into trouble, and I'm trying to get better about it! Hence, a good micrometer around!

I did at least measure the parts I'm replicating for...

A nice set of precision gauge blocks is on my medium-goals list... But in the interim, I checked the 2-3" mike using a digital vernier, and it turns out that it's accurate. I shoulda known the...

It might be a bad assumption on my part, but when the barrel is screwed all the way down it reaches an immediate, firm end. At that point, it reads something like 33,000th's. The system it uses for...

Had a banner day of Craigslist shopping today. Bought a 1950's toolbox that belonged to a machinist that worked on nuclear submarines. Got a bunch of HSS lathe bits ground to purpose, some end mills,...

I ended up making a new center punch for this setup and it works much better. It can be tapped in with a rubber mallet too, so there's really no danger of deforming it.

Because I'm heat treating...

After posting, I went back down to the workshop and played around with it some more. The idea I had up there of punching washers, then punching centers does work, and they’re really easy to get back...

As promised, video:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGZtlsvz80c

The center punch ended up not being hardenable steel, but it still works okay. I'll still probably make another one. Just...

This morning I finally made real progress on washer punches.

I’ve settled on making bits for my power punch.

(Image grabbed from Micromark, there are a billion versions of these things, but...

Duh.

Measurements.

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This is the motor (I’ve taken measurements so I can build a CAD model, but I haven’t built it yet).

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The mounting plate:

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And the pulley wheel:

I’ve now definitively answered my long-ago question: can I grind a razor from stock to finished razor using my drill press and a drum sander?

The answer is: Yes. You can also whittle redwood...

It's especially tempting on mine, which doesn't even have a crank to raise and lower it. It's just a cast iron plate that weighs about 30 pounds that has a brake to keep it in place when you position...

I'm still pondering what to do with the linear actuator that this one used for raising & lowering the treadmill. I'm kinda pondering rigging it up to raise and lower the table on my drill press. It's...

I found a couple of youtube videos of folks building contact grinders, and a bunch more of all sorts of other things.

My plan is a little different than most.

The downside of these DC motors...

My project full of projects has come to a temporary major slowdown while I wait for the shop I buy time at to move to a new facility.

In the interim, some things I’ve done:

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I...

Ironically, I have one of those Dremel drill presses. It was the very first tool I bought for working on razors, to try and drill out the pins. It was terrible at that... And would likely be perfect...

I didn't try that. More likely than not, it's pretty screwed up. I took a couple large bits out of the spine at the beginning of the grinding and somehow they just kept sliding the wrong way -- which...

This one's actually from the very early 1800's and persisted for quite some time -- 1830's at least. But it wears its lineage right on the sleeve and isn't much of a break from the past at all.

Also, I’ve mentioned it a couple times, but this is the RSO I made to see if my drum sander setup was up to the task.

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Completely unusable for a variety of reasons, not least of which...

Out of curiosity, I just checked the Roberts razor I'm shamelessly copying.

It looks like the grind on it was done on the flat side of the stone for roughing, then hollow after heat treat. It's...

I'm really looking forward to you getting your setup running! Another member up north has offered his HT services in the interim. It's gonna depend on how long it takes me to actually jump on the...

I don't... THINK it's all getting sanded off? At any rate, the pins don't completely fill the holes before peening, and after sanding they do. I'm sanding down less than 1mm. Maybe it also kinks the...

Thankfully, just one side. Otherwise, I'd probably be pulling my hair out and running away.

On this one, my every instinct told me 'just make a full set of scales. You've got a couple of old...

Oh, I forgot to add the things I used here:

'Alternative Ivory' from Masecraft

#80 drill bits for the small pins and #77 bits for the one large one

30 gauge sterling silver wire for the...

I finished a test piece on the fake ivory (which I cut with the grain going the wrong direction, but nevermind that).

There were several points during this when I really wonderered if doing a...