Sources of materials

[Adam McCulloughParticipant @adammccullough31948]

[Adam McCulloughParticipant @adammccullough31948]

I thought I’d see if anyone here has any tips on interesting or cheap sources of useful materials for the workshop.

 

I can recall being told some time ago that old driveshafts are a good source of high quality steel – I’ve never investigated this though.

I do have an old steering knuckle/hub carrier in the parts bin that I plan to use for a small tool grinder, since it comes machined with a suitable bore for readily available angular contact bearings.

I’ve also got a few old non-vented brake discs; hopefully these might provide material for some small pulleys or similar, as they are theoretically made from pretty decent grey cast iron.

Any other or non-automotive ideas?

 

A 

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

Not quite the same thing, but It’s worth rescuing old ink jet printers, because they invariably have print head carriageways made out of very accurately ground steel rods, usually hardened. And often they are a good source of stepper motors too, if you’re into that sort of thing, and other similar bits and pieces like toothed belts, etc. Let’s put it like this; if you collect enough printers, there will almost certainly be enough bits to build most of a pretty decent home-made routing machine, I reckon.

 

I heard about one person using a brake disc as the basis for a large flycutter, although I think you’d have to exercise a bit of care with that!

 

Edited By Steve Garnett on 15/10/2010 12:31:49

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Old automotive flywheels , old low rev motors, big heavy wheel. Window weights, preferably at least 2″ dia, I think they are about 18lb, the thinner ones tend to be chilled and too hard to be of much use. VHS recorders give a good supply of ballraces, about 5 or 6mm bore. Want a good magnet, old microwave oven, there are 2 in the magnetron, about 2″ dia 1/2″ thick with a hole about 1″ dia, similar is found on the back of some speakers. Rare earth magnets inside computer hard drives.Ian S C

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

It’s not just cars though is it?

 

I recently rescued an old car jack – the flimsy wind-up sort, but scissor jacks have the same thing – a reasonably long leadscrew. Okay, not necessarily that accurate, but if, for instance, you wanted to make something like a broaching machine it would be rather useful. Also over the years I’ve collected a few car bottle jacks, at least one of which looks suitable for mounting in a press frame. And if you can get a few I-beam offcuts, these are pretty easy to fabricate as well.

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

At the heart of my tool and cutter grinder is a PGS bar and two PB bushes from an ancient Panasonic dot matrix printer. Old ones like laserjet 2 or 3 are full of useful, reusable parts. You have to admire how little stuff is in the modern ones, but it makes them less useful for the likes of us.

 

I hate the amount of useful scrap I see on the central reservation when in traffic jams

 

I did once pick up 18″ of dural scaffold bar at a roundabout where it was safe to stop!

 

Neil

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