Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Great shop Paula! You have almost everything a model engineer could ask for.

I recognize that lathe! Your MLA T-Slot cross slide build from long ago was very helpfully when I machined one for my SB 10K last summer.  It's a very useful addition to the lathe and I've only started to unlock the new features (line boring).  Looks like your old South Bend his holding up well.

Thanks! Congrats on machining your own cross slide. You are quite right, it opens up a lot of possibilities for machining parts on the lathe that do not work so well on the mill. I wouldn't be without it now. Yes the old South Bend has held up very well. I've had it for almost twenty years now.

I almost had a nice 6x48 belt sander a few weeks ago, not as nice that Jet but a Delta that was still domestic and had the nice cast iron tables. Talked to the guy on the phone and it was still there, arrived at his house and found out he had two Delta sanders and he though I wanted the oscillating sander.   Ahh well, at least he was only 10 mins away.  As you know, the heavy sanders are nicer than grinders for grinding tool bits and such.

Bummer! I used to have Delta 31-730 (combination 6x48 belt & 12" disc) sander. It was a nice tool, but I sold it a long time ago when I moved. It was purchased around 1990, when Delta machines were still pretty well made. Not long after, they started a long, slow decline in quality. The Jet turned out to be much better quality than the Delta machine. You can read my Amazon review at:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3AJBKP0ID8PF?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

Hope you can find a nice one for your shop. Thanks for the comments!

Paula