Unique Shop Tools - Revealed Vol. 1 

Joe. Although I'm a hobby machinist, so many of your approaches to your craft are valuable for even a guy like me. I love my career (aviation) but somehow my gut tells me I really should have been a machinist. Thank you for your time and effort Joe. It is immensely appreciated! Cheers from the Canadian Arctic.

I was right...I looked at that for two minutes and came to the conclusion that Joe was going to have a a really creative use that I wouldn't guess in a million years. Sure enough, I never would have guessed this.

Creativity of use of machinist’s accessories provided it provides the correct result is the innovation of manual machining. Never stop thinking.

Joe, I want to thank you for the time you spend on these videos to help educate some of us beginners. The time and effort you put in to them is greatly appreciated. I've never worked in a machine shop or ever had any formal training in the trade, I took it up as a hobby a couple years ago and I've learned more from you in the last year than I ever thought possible. Your method of teaching from the greaseboard theory to the actual hands on is the best by far. Thank you, my friend!!

You have solved many machine problems for me during the last 2 years, thanks

Brilliant. I love seeing little fixtures and indicators like that. Gives me ideas. Would love to see more.

Superb! Many thanks for explaining their intended use, you've opened my eyes!

For an old timer, I am enjoying your videos immensely, learn a lot of short cuts. Thank you for spending the time for a great education. John

Wow Joe, I have to rate this as one of your BEST Video's. Thank you

Thank you for the video. You have a great gift in teaching and explaining how to use your tools that you make. I always enjoy how you explain how things work .

Thanks for sharing more of your very helpful tips and tricks!

Great stuff, thanks so much for taking the time & sharing.

Every time I watch this channel my list of tools to make gets longer

Thank you Joe! I always learn something new from you! Ands thank you for the in depth explanation for us new guys and I'm old and retired !

Modern day tool makers button without the screw hole. Brilliant!!

As always Joe, great videos big eye openers. You get me started to see the possibilities.

Joe Pi, i love your content, i'm the guy that mentioned the buck chuck many months ago.. i'm impressed by the way you've shown the way to eliminate the burr on a top mill situation. man i have been machning for the last 30 years.and i still learn from you. L.C.

A modern version of toolmakers buttons! Brilliant. Now you can do a video on how to make the second one!

Thanks for another smart tutorial! We love them Joe!

Great demonstration, cant help but think of various opportunities for use. Thanks, great stuff as usual.

Very helpful, very interesting! Thanks for sharing!

Fascinating uses. I enjoyed this exercise quite a bit. Very creative audience! Thanks all! Congrats Tanda!

Joe... as always a fantastic job at showing that a lot of head scratcher ( how am I going to do this without getting a headache) can be done so easily with a guiding hand !!! Would've named something dear to me after you if I was an apprentice under you... Just can't put into words how graceful so many of your simple ( wrong adjective) tools are !!! My favorite one is the lathe center height because of its simplicity !!! Thank you for taking on the challenge of sharing your many years of experience so the less savvy folk ( like me ) can make it through a day without resetting up just to make sure we are on the money !!! Ohh one last thing.... wish where I work was as clean as your shop

A lot of things that aren’t taught or demonstrated this day and age. Also weren’t taught 28 years ago when I started. Thank You Joe!!!!👍👍🙏🇺🇸

Thanks Joe, love watching your videos👍🏻! Wish I had a teacher like you in the early days, that would have saved me a lot of time... Best wishes from the Netherlands!

Great tips, techniques and instruction as always. Even with my CNC mill I can think of applications where it would be nice to jog over and plant a marker on a part before I mill away all of the easy to indicate references. I was thinking double stick for placing them on the table as well but I really like the idea of a little leg off of the bushing. You could come down and place it. Then with rod still in place, rotate it until the leg is under a toe clamp and lock it down. That was fun. Thanks so much for the shout out! (Pronounced like Panda with a 'T').

Thanks again Joe ;I love "the guess what it is used for "game.

You are one clever dude Joe - love these ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Great video and great tools. It took me a while to understand the vise alignment, as I kept thinking that just a sized rod in the mill would allow a known offset from the center-line. It was obvious that your alignment tool allow setting the vise jaw on zero or very small offsets using gauge blocks. My big aha moment came when I realized that not only do you get an offset, but you put the vise jaw on the tangent line of the offset perfectly. Without your teaching effort I don't think I would have figured it out.

Wow! This is a huge amount of practical information. Thanks!

Awesome stuff !! Cant wait to give a try myself. Always look forward to next one !!

Great video Joe- very innovative ideas, well thought out.

Interesting video Mr. Pie! Thank you my friend, cheers, Doug

You continue to amaze me Joe. Even though it’s way over my head the way you explain the application and process is clear and easy to understand. Thank you... 👍👍👍

Great video. Simple can be so elegant.

Excellent. as always. Thank you

Who knew...good to know.👍 Great video, thanks Joe.

Ahh so close with the super glue idea. Love this series can’t wait for more. Definitely could have used that idea a few times could have saved a lot of time finding the center of a radial feature. Always made a sub plate and drilled and reamed holes for locator dowel pins. Don’t use rotary tables very much since I use cnc now. Definitely can apply this idea for other uses. Love the creativity!

Very good video Joe. I learned a few new tricks. Thanks

As usual...Always good stuff. Thanks again.

It's a good day when you learn tricks like that. Cheers.

As always nice explanation, thank you.

Thank you for your excellent explanation.

Joe, Thanks for the rotary table alignment tool. Worth every penny! I have not tried the alignment rod and bushing idea as yet, but it's next on my list.

Another great video. Thanks for sharing

Very creative and useful bits of kit. I will have to remember those. May come in handy if the CNC mill is tied up with a job.

Thanks for a great channel and sharing your knowledge!

Your Videos are AMAZING!!! Thank you so much, I love your the knowledge, experience, and style! Excellent👍👍

Hey joe great stuff again. As a. Skilled automotive machinist i love to watch your videos to learn more of the i guess you would say a true tool and die machinist Your knowledge is unbelievably vast and incredible most people today have no idea how much knowledge and skill you need to be in the machinist trade , the trade is one of many hands on skills you do not get paid enough for today hence not many people get in the trades. Thank god for you and others on you tube sharing your knowledge and passion for the trade .. I truly appreciate your time and put your tips to good use in my shop. If you ever have an open house let me know i would love come down to Austin and check out your shop . i thought your sound quality is fine im watching to learn im in shops all the time so no bother to me and 18 dislikes are probably liberals that think we ( the usa ) do not need know skill trades its a waste of time nobody wants to do it. Anyway THANKs !! Keep the vids coming 🇺🇸

Very useful but I've forgotten most of what I've just learnt, I need to try this out so it works better in my head

GREAT TUTORIAL!! Always enjoy your projects as well, keep up the informative tips and how too's

Excellent as always.

Hi Joe, I have recently started watching your videos and have found them very useful. I have learnt a lot from them. Thanks very much. Colin, Nottingham. (Robin Hood County) England.

Thank you for the video Joe I miss working with metal. I've told you before I'm very very sick I have really super super rare condition and unable to get that big paycheck anymore I had to settle for a Chinese Mill but at least I bought a great big one. It's actually pretty accurate in the linear horizontal Direction I was quite impressed but as far as speed goes in needs to be converted to belt driven in my opinion and it's really not worth it at this point. I've been away from metal for about 8 months now because I've been messing with Pottery just for therapeutic reasons but I need to get back out into my shop. I got to the point where I made a pretty decent set of accurate tools for myself and I was able to make a new compound slide for an old Logan lathe and it turned out real nice. At any rate I appreciate your videos a lot because you talk to people of all skill levels in you make videos like this that explained extremely extremely handy Concepts. I have a 8 inch rotary table myself and figuring out things like this is the hardest part but that helps a great deal. I would really love to see you make a nice toolmakers vise step by step that would be exceptionally handy especially for me personally because I think I'm going to do that if I can get back out there. If the weather ever warms up in Michigan at least LOL

All of those ideas were very clever.

Wonderful tool ideas and explanations. I guess I have my work cut out for me. These videos often cost me money, this time it's only time...

The simplest ideas can also be the most complex 👌. 👏👏👍😀

12/29/2021 So, what I am taking away from this video is; for a certain use you create a tool, but for every intended use there is at least one other use for it. Also the more creative you are the more uses you can find. So, never ever discard a proprietary tool, fixture, or jig, because you may find another use for it, or even as a prototype for a marketed tool, just like every tool out there once was. Cool mind pricking video. ;-)

always learning thanks

it's a variation on toolmaker's buttons but with tape instead of screws. Great idea!

Hi Joe, that bench dog looking thing was awesome (didn't really think it was one honest). I so have a load to learn but I think I have the best teachers out there! TFS n Best Regards G :)

Thanks for showing!

Yep, this is a must have tool. Waiting by the 'mailbox' I am!

Awesome! These should be 101 tools!

Nice. The bushings are very similar to toolmaker's buttons, minus all the tappity-tap-tap and micrometer readings.

Good stuff Joe! ATB, Robin

Joe, another incredibly cool and informative video. I however, am going to come back and watch it again in about 5 years. Right now I think I am more like at the “kindergarten” level of machining, and you just demonstrated “advanced functions and calculus”, lol. That said, the first one, I think I actually followed about 75%. The second, well, not so much, more like a solid 20%. I really look forward to a time when all of this makes sense. For the time being I’m going stick to flying airliners. My best as always. Cheers.

Mr. Pie, A doughnut with no hole is a danish... As always, awsome vid!

Joe - that rod-block center finder looks very useful - could you make a video showing how to make one?

Great tips, Thanks

Great lessons.

Outstanding!!!!

Sweet, there really is no limits other than your imagination! Cheers Joe

'There is no exactly' - how true! I am trying to train my woodworking friends (who are prone to say 'exactly' or 'spot on') to say 'within tolerance'...

Great video Joe. I really like how you are able to find so many uses for simple tools. This is exactly the kind of educational channel people want to see. Keep up the good work sir! And this video answered the question I posted on the last video, so thanks for that! Got another one for you...say you had a slitting saw in a .5” arbor in the spindle, a 7/16 radiused part mounted vertically between two 90deg angle plates, and you wanted to cut serrations closely together both horizontally and vertically, how do you measure the correct offset for a certain depth of cut? I can send you photos etc if you need more detail regarding the setup.

Slick....very, very slick !

nice, its all in the knowing how, thanks

Ha Ha, you were right , there is now two flat spots on my forehead. Thanks !

Hey Joe: That is slicker than ship.

I was in the tool height camp... no cigar, good thing I don't smoke :) The actual use is pretty handy.

Great stuff

Maybe your best vid so far!

Joe, The 12 minute mark looks like a modern self adhesive take on traditional Tool Makers Buttons.

Thank you Joe. More great tools. Instead of magnetic gage blocks this would be a perfect application of Space Blocks. (KBC Tools, part # 8-412-001, $112.00 Canadian, probably half that from their American site). But you would need to have a 6mmx1.0 hole drilled and tapped in the face before it was ground. Thanks again, I have many Joe Pie inspired tools in my box.

Thanks for making video

I have now seen a few videos you have on rod and block alignment tool. I can see this is an exceptionally handy tool to have. I see that you produce these are your shop; is this your own invention? If so, I would like to say, very well done!

Thanks Joe

Hello Joe Very very clever ! what else might you have in your mystery tool box . Thanks Joe

When using the second tool to set lathe tool height, I'd sneak up against the bottom surface of the tool using a level on top would be precise enough. Even with out indicating.

Extremely cool indeed 😎👏👏🇺🇸👍! I knew that you had to be from Texas! 😃👍👍🇺🇸

Cool tools.

First of all I enjoy all of your videos, and would like to suggest another method of finding a radius center without having a bore to a hole in the workpiece. You can use plumbing epoxy (Oatey) put in the rough location of the center line, then pick up your datums, once you are at the location of the radius centerline then put a bore into the epoxy. This can then be used to locate the centerline on the rotary table. After you have finished m/c'd the radius, simply take a piece of brass or aluminum to knock of the epoxy.

Must be nice to be as creative as you are.

Joe you need to fix your audio when at the whiteboard. You rock

Excellent

Joe, I am just a hobbyist and in no way apply the title “machinist” to what I do. Given that, your knowledge and expertise is far above my own. However, I never cease to learn from your presentations. Thanks for sharing what you know.

Oh...non-trackable features...that was totally my next guess. 😉

clever even for a woodworker

This is a thank you for 2019 as a hobby machinist forwarded .I will not waste your time writeing coments so thank you for your time and helping us morons to make things simple

To align the tailstock to the spindle : Align the quill (locked position) of the tailstock parallel to the bed-ways in 2 axis, by shimming, grinding or scraping, using an indicator. Once the tailstock quill is parallel to the bed, attach a test indicator to the headstock-spindle and rotate the spindle with indicator stylus on the quill. Adjust accordingly (by the earlier method) till the axis of the quill is co-axial to the headstock spindle.* *This method assumes the spindle is aligned in both axis to the bed also. Or, get a Hardinge HLV-H Tool Room Lathe.