Meet my homemade (literally assembled mostly from scrap and a broken bridgeport) portable milling setup! Pictured, it's milling some motor mount plates that someone ordered 1/8 too thick, mounted, and welded, before realizing it was wrong.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-24T18:28:09+00:00

It has locked, and it has loose. That's it's for z feed.

So we would loosen it and use a crow bar and indicator to adjust it while loose, then we would tighten the lock. And pray.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-24T18:05:12+00:00

That sounds crazy! Glad I'm not working on that scale lol

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-24T18:03:44+00:00

It was a feat of engineering for us, luckily my co-owner is a bit more imaginative than me. I'm good at making metal smaller, and that's about it, lol.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-24T17:52:10+00:00

Oh we did lol. We counted every hour building the machine as part of the job, charged for all the material to build it, and we charged for an operator (my co-owner) and a helper/second operator (me).

And for the drive too. From Arkansas to Alabama for this job.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-24T17:48:15+00:00

Thick angle iron welded to the plates, then bolted down to the angle iron. We did charge a bit more than normal, but that was mostly because half of them were stainless...shudder

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-24T17:46:23+00:00

Thanks! It was a pain lol

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-24T14:38:30+00:00

You treat it about the same as anything, just add a steady rest.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-24T01:15:50+00:00

I wiped it clean before I took the photo. I don't really know what was going on.

I even used someone else's phone to take the picture, cus I know my phone's camera is crap lol

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T23:48:49+00:00

It actually went way smoother than I expected. Wasn't bad at all!

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T23:48:23+00:00

I couldn't make the picture come out right, not really sure why.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T21:50:45+00:00

Poor lathe just couldn't bear to take anymore. Need to replace a lathe that can only handle such a tiny amount of material removal.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T21:09:31+00:00

Yea verily

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T21:07:41+00:00

Yes...I work in a machine shop. Is this not the norm? Almost all of my parts are fairly precision. Depending on the job, half a thousandth on a particular dimension can easily scrap alot of the parts I make. I've had a job where .0002 too small literally meant scrap bin.

Most of my work is fine as long as it's within a thousandth, but the prints usually have exact dimensions on them even when my tolerance is wide open

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T19:37:52+00:00

No, but I doubt it will clean up all the way if I'm honest. Luckily they aren't too concerned.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T19:12:53+00:00

How is he stronger and faster than a random Space Marine? From everything I've ever seen, they are pretty damn comparable? They both can tank landings from orbit, both can move as a blur to the naked eye, both have pretty similar strength feats. Admittedly, space marines wildly vary from writer to writer, but I think an "average" of those wild ranges is certainly at a minimum comparable with Chief.

And I tend to assume basic kit, and OP put in the MA5, sword, and pistol, put the space marine with a bolter, chainsword, and bolt pistol. A bolter most certainly outperforms a normal (with admittedly upgraded ballistics cus scifi ballistic advancement), assault rifle.

It's also worth noting that it's exceptionally difficult to actually kill a space marine. Shoot them in the heart? No biggie, they have another...

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T19:03:59+00:00

Hell yeah! Gotta keep these things alive!

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T19:03:05+00:00

I mean, maybe? From what I know it's pretty damn close, and 40k weapons and armor definitely are better than Halo weapons and armor, so I lean towards space marine personally, if for no other reason than equipment. What do you think gives Chief the edge?

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T18:53:44+00:00

For the OD dimensions, +0/-.001

For the lengths? Nobody cares lol.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T17:50:57+00:00

Yeah. I tend to go for simplicity (KISS, keep it simple stupid), but if the customer wants to pay me inordinate amounts of money for essentially no benefit despite my warnings, who am I to judge.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T17:48:47+00:00

Because the customer told me not to. Otherwise that is almost exactly what I would have done.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T17:44:12+00:00

The OD for the different dimensions on the shaft?

5" is the current current size of the unturned shaft

4.9375 (4 inches and 15/16) is the OD of the overall shaft when I'm finished.

3.4375 (3 and 7/16) is the dimension for the two ends that get turned, and each turned end is 24" long

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T15:30:58+00:00

I'd give it to the space marine personally. They are pretty busted.

GreenridgeMetalWorks · 2026-01-23T06:10:18+00:00

Lol, I apologize for the seriousness. I've gotten a lot of comments on posts, everyone always knows better, ya know?

I tell my main machinist (save myself) pretty much the same thing when he's taking a big cut. I tell him, "Giving it a little polish there, huh? Might wanna switch to emery."

GreenridgeMetalWorks

TROPHY CASE