WWA Info Exchange

I went on line to see if I could find a lefthand acne threaded rod to make a replacement part for my wood lathe tail stock. I found McMaster-Carr web site. They had what I needed and when I entered the part number of the items I needed an exact description of the part and picture came up so you are sure you got the part number correct. (Am I the only one who ever ordered a part with a long part number and ended up getting the wrong part because I made a mistake in the number.?) , but when I hit "place order" nothing happened and a "waiting" symbol came up. I had to get a load of fire wood so I left and when I got back two hours later the "waiting " was still there. I called the number on the web site and got a customer service rep. I explained the situation and stated that I was afraid to hit the "place order " again for fear of getting twice what I ordered. She took my name and checked their orders pending, She told me to try again and if it did not go through she could take the order over the phone. I hit "place order" again and she told me it went through and since it was still before noon the items would be delivered tomorow! That is good customer service for a new customer with an order for less than $100. And as an added bonus the load of fire wood cutoffs had about thirty pieces of 1x3 27 to thirty inches long and the only blemishes were either very small or simply because the electric eye on their machine throws out curly maple because of the light reflection. I figure I got over $100 dollars of good usable wood.

Well my wood lathe is up and running again. Thirty five hours after I ordered the parts I needed to manufacture a replacement for the tail stock. I replaced the fine 18 thread / inch with an 8 thread/inch acme thread. I bored out the "barrel" inserted a bearing bronze "round nut" fastened in with JB weld. Then machined the shaft from the acme thread rod. To get the smooth part I turned the rod down to the root diameter of the retaining ring grove, placed a home made bushing up against the threaded section so I had a smooth surface, placed the retaining ring on and then fastened a sleave up against the retaining ring with more JB weld. I let the Assemblies set 16 hours for the JB weld to cure and placed them in the tailstock and it worked smoothly. I'll let the JB weld cure another day for full strength before actually stressing the assembly. Getting the parts needed 20 hours after ordering with out paying for over night delivery was amazing!