Miscellaneous tips and tricks: Turning Performance

This column, which is my final installment, is like that special odds and ends drawer in your toolbox, the one with all the weird stuff in it for which you can’t seem to find the perfect storage space.

When I was a kid, my dad had a workshop in the basement. I spent a fair amount of time snooping around, because that’s what kids do when left to their own devices. There was a special drawer in a cabinet under the workbench my dad called “the top drawer.” It was a magical drawer, with all kinds of strange and interesting stuff in it. It contained a cork boring set, the tool to sharpen a cork boring set, master links, steel balls, several pounds of hex wrenches left over from mounted bearing kits, springs—a veritable mechanical cornucopia. If I was on a deserted island, this would be the drawer I would want with me.

Before working with tiny parts, sweep the floor so a part can be easily found if dropped. All images courtesy T. Lipton.

Machinists and metalworkers all have drawers like this. The following is a list of some things I would bet can be found in most machinists’ “top drawers.”