Depth of small holes – drop a suitable drill (shank first) into the hole – and then push down and tighten a 2" toolmakers clamp to it. Pull it out and measure it.

Having cut material close to a scribed line, place a toolmakers clamp (or one at each end) right on the line – then drop it in the vice and clamp up. Assuming the top of your vice jaws are parallel to the cutting action (and they should be) then this will quickly allow the piece to be trimmed to size for most purposes. Remove the clamp(s) before cutting….

Use the front curve of the grinding wheel to sharpen the cutting face of your tool – then hone this face. The concave shape obtained from the wheel will make honing not only easier but also very quick…it's also much safer practice to use the front of the wheel..

You can quickly put good 'squares' on the end of 1/8" regulator rods and similar parts by holding them in a square collet block and using a piece of short round stock approximately half the height of the block to roll/guide a file over the end of the rod. Very quick and simple to set up.

IanT

I only ever wear my safety thongs for welding !

You can use Blu tack to hold the wires as well , just set them up on the thread and pinch them between thumb and forefinger then with the other hand stab a glob of Blu tack on one end of the wires , plasicine also works as does the centre out of a fresh slice of bread rolled up into a ball just make sure you clean and oil the wires after as they will rust – don’t ask how i know this , i just do 😳

If you need a simple gauge to check the angle of the point of a drill bit you are grinding you can use two hex nuts clamped together flat to flat , this gives you a vee with 120deg inc angle – close enough to 118deg to get you by .

I found recently that the WD40 cans that come with the fold out nozzle / tube this cap will fit the old style cans if you drill out the hole in the actuator cap for the can push valve tube to match the larger one on the old style spray cap. when you push the new cap on it will spray a little but push down on the actuator button and it will click into place and stop spraying – i know you get a tube with the old style cans but it is not as long as the fold out one and always seems to fall out and get lost . Still experimenting with this stuff for a cutting fluid when parting off steel – so far I can’t fault it !

If you have an old ipad , iphone or android phone that still works don’t throw it out instead reset it or at least delete as many things off it as you can that you don’t want laying around or could get into the wrong hands and then download a few of the apps that are available for machining and engineering and keep this in the workshop as your little machinists calculator !

Cheap plastic magnifying devices ( magnifying glass) are a godsend if your eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be , i leave a few laying around for reading the markings on drill bits and taps and if you get the ones with a little light built in its even better !

I use magnets to hold the leather cover i use on my lathe bed when machining cast iron but i soon got tired of cleaning the magnets afterwards , i use some little ziplock bags and place the magnet inside , once I’m done i take the magnet out of the bag and the cast iron chips fall off the bag into the bin and a quick wipe cleans the bag for re use . I use a magnet in the handle of my chip brush to stick it to my lathe belt guard as well – works a treat !

If you use a vertical slide for milling in the lathe, set it square to the bed by bringing the vice up to the front face of the chuck jaws before you tighten it. Saves a lot of clock-faffing.

Too much information…

I'v got a couple of telephone magneto magnets on the end of a broom stick, first assembled to pick up nails after a roofing job at our museum at Homebush. Ian S C

And don't wear V-neck T shirts when welding.

To hold up drawings which I need to refer to in the workshop, I've screwed worn-out hacksaw blades to the front edges of shelves, using the convenient end holes, then use a couple of fridge magnets or similar. Ladyshave items include magnetic labels which work well too. Trust me on this.

woodworkers smocks with the pockets at the back don’t gather as much swarf when milling!

although leather aprons work well for MIG they don’t protect your upper arm just beyond the glove cuff. highly embarrassed by the resultant burn which I spotted when showering later!

Ian

I made my swarf collectors by soldering a copper disc onto the end of some 15 mm copper pipe and carefully facing to thin it. ( Not always successfully! ) A telescopic stick magnet inside collects the swarf, and an O ring on the outside prevents the swarf following up the tube as the magnet is withdrawn over the bin.

My swarf is dumped into clean tins (ex Kitchen ) and when nearly full, the lid is replaced and the rim hammered down, before being put into the recycling bin.

Howard

I just bought a pair of really cheap magnetic bases. I will remove the posts and attach plastic sheet to the magnets. I can place them where needed on the mill to keep hot swarf from flying everywhere.