Hello my nickname is Boot.  I have been a machinist "A" which was one under the tool room machinist classification for 37 yrs.  I worked for a company in Hazleton, PA called Dorr-Oliver out of Stamford ,CT. Retired now. I was required to run every machine including CNC in the shop.  Running a Mazak HMC when the company went out of business.  I had a South Bend lathe and sold it back about 20 yrs. ago.  I just recently picked up an Atlas which I have for sale on Fleabay and now own a South Bend 9" which I just converted from a "C" model to an "A" by adding a quick change gear box. I just finished up making Jerry Howell's Super Stirling Hot Air Engine Fan.   I am now starting work on a Howell Farm Boy hit and miss engine. I enjoy photography which I have a degree in commercial art photgraphy and did weddings and portrait photography as a side line. I also enjoy machining with my SB lathe,HF mini-mill , drill press and cutoff band saw. Luckily I kept all my tools from my shop days. Plus I do welding and burning.  I am also a gardener raising a lot of my own veggies. I heat my house with wood with oil backup. Very little oil backup.  I don't like supporting the Arab shieks.  I have access to a good oak wood supply on my property and friends.  

Thanks for the compliments.  Yes I burn oak in my woodburner stove.   Be careful burning soft woods like cedar.  They produce creasote in their smoke which blocks up the chimney and also catches on fire with disasterous results. We burn oak,maple,apple or any other hard wood.  The pine family of trees is a no-no and I'm not really sure about cedar ,but it is resinus sap wood.  Be careful.  We don't have any restrictions on when and where we can burn wood.  I heard that Seattle has such laws in affect.  They only leave you burn wood when the air is just right to carry the smoke away .  A lot of my neighbors in PA have the outside wood burners that pipe hot water into their house systems.

I hope I can be of help to someone on here.  I run into problems myself so you find me asking advice also.  I have to shim my HF mini-mill .  It's off .008 front to rear on the table when I tram it.  I'm going to add shim stock to where the column connects with the Connecting Strut and the Pivot Plate and see if I can get it >.000 on the indicator.  This is always the trials and tribulations of a machinist.