Home Machinist's Individual Web Sites: Hall of Fame!

While I collect links to all sites with useful information, these sites are particularly rich. If you look at no others, be sure to check these out!

5-Bears Research: Building a CNC Mill from scratch, and construction of a model radial, turbojet, and turboprop engines.

Brainman: Lots of projects, many of which can be ridden, others are engine models.

CNC Gunsmithing: Hardcore CNC hobbyist making receivers and such with CNC tools.

Crabfu Steamworks: The craziest model steam engines you have ever seen!

Cutting Edge CNC: Awesome site to learn from, self-taught, RC/Helicopter machinist.

Dave Hyland's Page: Many worthwhile projects. I particularly like the machinist's jacks.

Dave's Home Machine Shop: Cool article on powder coating and a number of other home machining projects.

David Morrow's CNC Stuff: Clocks and motorcycle accessories, beautifully done. Some nice engine turning effects as well as cutting gears on a home CNC.

Dean's 7x10 Mini-Lathe Page: Nice site with videos, engine projects (5 cylinder radial!), and a lot of other information.

Devilmaster: Insanely well crafted homemade CNC machine. The site is in Espanol, but the pictures are marvelous. Nice pictorial on making linear rod bearings from scratch. He uses the machine to make water cooling blocks for PC's.

Donald Corson: Making a wrist watch by hand. Exquisite!

Dragonworks: Mini-lathes & mills. Mini-mill CNC conversion. Astronomy & electronics.

Duncan's Metal Pages: Some mini-mill projects and a small foundry.

The Engineman: An extremely talented amateur machinist who loves to build steam engines. Lathe-centric, non-CNC. Don't miss his newest site: ModelEngines.info.

Frets Machine Shop: This fellow is a luthier, but has many fine machine shop ideas as well! Some of the best tips and quick tooling projects you'll ever see.

Gadgetbuilder: Mini-lathe mods and other home machinist projects. Workmanship is excellent. Many small projects for beginners. Some sophisticated stuff like a taper attachment and dovetail cutter.

Graham Howe's Model Engineering: Nice HSM site with lots of steam projects as well as workshop projects. **

The Hobbyist's Machine Shop: Very nice site. Lots of machines, CNC conversions, tips, mods, etc.

Indoor Flyer: Make your own 3D touch probe, a 4th axis, a 5th axis (!), convert a Proxxon mill to CNC, a laser cutter, and a wire-EDM machine.

Lamborn's Miniature Engines: Several small engine projects. Awesome links page.

Les Grenz' Workshop: Nice step-by-step walkthroughs of some projects including clock work.

Marcus Loignan Mini Machine Shop: Lots of nicely made projects. **

Max's Little Robot Shop: Great site of a talented amateur/pro machinist. This is 5Bears quality work!

Metalshop Borealis: Evan Williams site. Many fine projects, lots of information from this long-time Home Shop Machinist contributor.

Micro-Machine Shop: More great Asian tool mods: Best Lathe DRO (Shumatech w/ integrated tachometer).

Mini-Lathe.com: Lots of great info on home machining.

Mini-Lathe Workshop: Diary of a very talented Japanese amateur. Builds lots of tools and mods for his 9x20 lathe and mill.

My Jet Engine Projects: How about a pulsejet-powered go-kart? It's a mad, mad world!

Nilno: Home shop made 100W laser cutter. Cool!

Rainnea: Very impressive home built 5-axis router, 5-axis mill, and software. The pieces being made are also awesome.

Rebarrelling and Home Shop Machining Journal: An author's blog on gunsmithing.

Remotely Interesting: Radio controlled subs with video periscopes? Paintball miniguns? This guy has COOL toys!

Rock Hill: Talented Japanese amateur who makes astronomy gadgets. You will need Babelfish to translate!

Ron Newman Anodizing: Great article on anodizing in the home shop. He sells kits too. This is the method he uses to manufacture focusers for his astronomy biz.

Ron's Model Engineering and IC Engines Page: Great articles if you like engines plus lots of machining tips.

Stagesmith: Lots of clever metal working projects: hydraulic press, lots of welding related projects and tooling.

Stellar International: More great 9x20 lathe mods including a powered cross feed mod.

Steve Bedair: Awesome home machinist, tons on 9x20 lathes & upgrades, telescope buildling, more. Really cool knurled knobs with mill and ball turning.

Stirling South: Outstanding site with CNC, Stirling engines, CNC arts & crafts. Check the aluminum velociraptor!

Tero's Project Corner: CNC mill conversions. Homemade anti-backlash nuts.

Terry Brown's "Shed Stuff": A mad Aussie shows us his foundry and machining work--very nice!

Two Buddies: A full time machinist and public accountant with dueling metalworking portals on one site. Good stuff!

Ty's Mini-Lathe Page: Lots of mods!

Varmint Al: A great mini-lathe page.

Weber Precision: Unbelievable model V-8!

Home Machinist's Individual Web Sites: Sites of Interest

The Alchemist: Great site, lots of tooling made on and mods made to a Shopmaster 3-in-1 machine.

Animato's Live Steam from Finland: Some amazing projects here!

Archie (Jeep534): Nice fellow whom I've corresponded with. He is restoring some pretty big machine tools and vehicles!

AutoEditCNC: A free g-code text editor.

Alexander's Metal Madness: Amateur with lathe and mill.

Annisquam Granite Company Railroad Shops: Has an HF 8x14 (similar to Lathemaster) and does mods.

Anvil Bikes: Active on Practical Machinist. Shows what you can do with a home business building bike builder's tools. Parts are beautiful. Uses a Tree Journeyman 325 CNC mill.

Barry Fish: Sharp electronics guy builds CNC machines too.

Basics of CNC: Nice intro for college students.

Bernard's Site: Bernard builds models of ancient machines, such as many Leonardo daVinci models.

Bob Berg: Nice CNC conversion on a Sieg X3 mill.

Bob Powell's Metalworking Page: Nice shop, notes on rigging, phase conversion, info on building an anvil and a dovetail cutter.

Boysun Grain: A small shop on a working farm with a number of interesting projects such as a hydraulic bending brake.

BuildYourIdea: CNC and other home shop projects. Also makes a nice 3 axis CNC controller with joystick.

CB Rack Boss 9 Retrofit: Interesting photo account of moving a Bridgeport Boss 9 with a unique cradle/dolly and then retrofitting it with a new control.

Chris Salter: 2 plasma/router table projects documented.

CNC Future: Nice site, but a bit heavy on the flash animations versus real content. A work in progress.

CNC On A Budget: CNC conversions and other metalworking projects. He also sells some pretty nifty stuff--PC Board drilling spindles, Router Z-axis, and so on.

CNC Projects: Babelfish this German site to see some cool CNC projects.

Country Bubba's DRO and CNC Conversions. Shows how to make your own anti-backlash nuts for ballscrews.

Curdridge Observatory: Amateur astronomers who use lathes and home anodizing to make their telescopes.

Dalziel Toolworks: Refitting a small knee mill for CNC. A clever bracket lets him hang a router from the spindle and thereby CNC it as well!

Daryl Ralph: Beautiful handmade designer knives. Many very high tech designs.

Dave Goodfellow's Web Site: Machinework and Black Powder, all in a spare bedroom. What could be more fun?

David Pape's Page: An engine builder and CNC enthusiast.

DC Techs CNC Machining: Check out the amazing custom rifle!

Demand Designs: Jewelry on a shop made 5-axis mill. Lots of cool Rhino drawings too! Amazing little mill is cool.

Doc's Machine: Paintball, sculpture, and a variety of machining activities.

Duke's Hobby Shop: Built a CNC mill from scratch that's very nice.

Eamon Keogh's Engine Turning Page: Extremely nice work on a number of subjects, including rare Mercedes and Allard automobiles.

Elmer's Engines Yahoo Group: Site dedicated to Elmer Verburg, his model engines, and tooling. Also see Groups 2, 3, 4, and 5

EuroSpares: Michael Moore's Site. He has a Tree 325 CNC mill and is into motorcycles.

Father Finelli's Railroad Page: Father Finelli is "The Steaming Priest".

Frederic Breitweiser: aka "Midimonkey", some CNC work and other metal shop projects.

Garaj Mahal: Excellent machine tool restoration info on several machines. Hardinge bearing replacement procedure documented.

George Willer's Shop Pages: Nice photo album.

Gizmology Bearing Info Page

Golden Gate Live Steamers: The Tips section fo this web site has excellent information on model steam engine fittings including check valve design, a gate valve, and a steam pressure regulator.

Hugh Spark's Page: Hardinge HLV restoration, Gack shaper, and other interesting projects.

Mark Hargett: Serious CNC conversion on a Bridgeport, OneCNC user, and a lifestyle CNC biz doing custom Porsche work.

Harlan's Hangout: A number of useful tool projects and lathe information. Foundry work.

The Hermit's Machine Shop: Nice site. Click "Site Map" to see the entries.

Home CNC Technologies: 9x20 lathe, Mill-Drill, Ball Screw Conversion, CNC Router, Videos of CNC Mill Working, etc.

Home Shop Machinist: A tiny but potent shop!

Homebuilt CNC Bridgeport: Chris Bruno has done an amazing job CNC'ing a Mill-Drill and 2 different Bridgeport mills!

Igor's Projects: Lots of shop projects. Nicely plumbed air system.

J. Kelly's Home Machining Page: Lots of good basics from a non-pro who learned at home.

James P. Riser Machinery Page: Refurbished a number of lathes. A fascinating look at metal spinning is also provided. This guy builds magic tricks with his machine tools. His refurbished Sheldon lathe is beautiful.

Jeff Albro: Nice little CNC mill and other projects. He is also an astronomer and woodworker.

Jonathan Westhues: PC Board milling machine, many interesting electronic projects including security hacking.

Jose's Machining & Tooling: Many great articles including lathe tool grinding.

Kevin Wilkins: Has a small business making custom knives with a Haas TM-1.

KT Marketing CNC Conversion Page. They also sell carbon fiber and other cool stuff.

The Kinetic Art of Wm Durbin: Pure art expression of Victorian-era steam engines.

Lathes.co.uk: Tony Griffith's exhaustive resource on older machine tools, not limited to lathes.

Les Newell's Web Site: Buildups of CNC plasma and router tables. Projects surrounding cars.

Liutaiomottola: CNC basics for musical instrument builders.

L.M. Watts Furniture: Construction of a good sized CNC router table.

Madvac CNC: One of the best CNC router table projects I've ever come across. He uses it to make ocean kayaks.

Majosoft: Lots of good info on CNC engravers and some freeware g-code generators for special purposes.

Matronics: Converted a Jet milling machine to CNC.

McLurkin Custom Knives: Not so much machining, but it is metalwork, and the knives are gorgeous!

MechMate: A bigger version of the ShopBot CNC router table. Some very nice ideas here!

Megabar Fighter Jet: Wherein a fellow uses his CNC machines to create molds for an R/C fighter jet--very cool!

miBot: Has a Lathemaster 8x14.

MicroTools: A CNC devotee: Taig lathe and mill. One of the all time coolest amateur projects: using the mill as a lathe with gang tooling.

Mike Smyth's Compressed Air Engine Page: Lots of really nice model engines here.

Model Machinery by Barry Jordan: Barry is a madman who builds scale models of machine tools. Pint-sized Bridgeport anyone?

Mumford CNC: Homebrew CNC lathe, full-sized mill conversion, and other home CNC conversions.

NovaLab: English electrical engineer does a cool CNC conversion. He's also selling the plans.

Pat Hutcheson's Home Shop Page: A 9x20 Lathe, a mill/drill, and some nice mods.

Piczo: Nice English metalworker's site. Has built his own tool & cutter grinder and other tooling.

Plasma Cutter Lathe: Use a plasma cutter as a lathe tool for cutting intricate designs on cylinders.

Pledge and Aldworth: Amazing resource for engine turning.

PM in MO: This one is either an individual or perhaps an org dedicated to open source build-it-yourself CNC driver electronics.

Podgorny Design: This fellow makes armor using blacksmithing, but his workshop (atellier) is beautiful.

Projects and Engines: Cool Sterling powered fan.

Purple Sage Machining & Hot Rods: A cool GM pick up and some machining tips.

Rainman229: A home machinist building custom paintball guns and accessories.

Randy Chernich's Quorn Article

ReMark: Talented machinist has made some nice model engines, tooling, and vehicle parts. **

Robert Bosco: Not strictly metalworking, Bosco turns amazing shapes on a lathe in wood. Good ideas if you want to go beyond the Turner's Cube!

Ron Reil: Reil is a blacksmith with a beautiful shop on a ranch.

RPMachining: A business run from a garage. Very nice shop.

ScanZ: Use a laser and a digicam to create a 3D scanner for CNC purposes.

Sieg X-3 Mill: A nice smaller dovetail column mill available through Lathemaster.

Solsylva.com: Shows how this fellow made several CNC router tables.

Sparky CNC: Mill/Drill conversions.

Stationary Steam: Great new site from Rich Carlstedt.

Steam Engine Valve Gear Software

Steve Lindsay: Maker of DRO 4.0, a PC-based DRO scale reader.

Steve's Taig Page: CNC drill sharpening, homemade flood cooling w/ enclosure, and a few other nifty projects.

Steve's Toolworks: An Aussie shows some nice homemade tooling for the lathe.

Stewart Coffin's World of Puzzles: Lots of 3D puzzles. Many would make interesting HSM projects.

Swarfmaker: Many smaller precision tooling projects.

Swarfrat Enterprises: Cool quick release dial indicator clamp and other projects.

Syl's Hobby Page: Lots of engines and other HSM projects.

TheWorkshop.CA: This guy has built 3 different CNC mills...

Thomas' CNC Mill Conversion: Extremely nice RF-45 conversion. Just a photo album without much text. Control panel and pendant are really professional.

Thomas Powell: Some really nice mods on an IH Mill.

Token Toolroom: Another great Aussie site.

Tom's Institute of Technology Mill/Drill CNC Conversion. Nicely done, includes ballscrews on the second phase.

Tony Jeffree's Model Engineering Pages: Homemade dividing head. Leadscrew conversion w/ tumbler. Sieg X3 CNC conversion.

TruTex Machinery: Lots of different metalworking from a software guy. Including a CNC Bridgeport conversion. He builds servos from DC motors too.

UglyTech: Where a Swedish enthusiast takes an entirely irreverant look at making stuff for a Harley drag bike.

UWRF Energy Research: Cool Sterling engines made at a university.

Valley Metal Group: Group that meets to learn how to use machine tools. Good lathe setup article.

Vintage Projects: Cool site with reprinted plans and articles for the machinist.

Vikki Ford: A very talented machinist and evidently also a musician.

W.G. Ermer's Workshop: Several nice projects including an X-axis power feed for a mill and a number of lathe-related projects. **

Wrathall.com: An amateur who modified a number of machines, including a CNC.

Knife Makers (A Cousin of Machining)

Ariel Salaverria: Lots of nice custom Damascus knives and some great tutorials to make your own from this Argentinian.

Custer Forge: A number of tutorials. The tutorial on making Damascus is good as is his recipe for heat treating blades.

Fischer Custom Knives: Excellent tutorial on making Damascus.

Gil Hibben: Nice photo essay on how to make a knife.

Greg Brannon: A giant link page with lots of good stuff.

Jay Fischer: Amazing collection of pages, including tons of knife patterns and information on filework.

Jesus Hernandez: Great site with lots of interesting articles and beautiful knives.

Jordan Knives: Nice discussion of how to grind a blade on the belt grinder. Also discusses pattern welding/damascus.

Ray Rogers Handcrafted Knives: Nice shop tour and some tutorials on how to build a folder and a kitchen knife.

Stone & Steel Knifeworks: Check out his tool section. I love his custom knife vise.

** = Contents not included in mods catalog.