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The museum has a couple of machines that they are wanting to part with - might be your chance! Also we have finilized the agenda for ArnFest South to be held at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture May 10-12, 2026. More info in the video!

Machines for Sale and ArnFest South Agenda Machines for Sale and ArnFest South Agenda Register for ArnFest South at https://arnfest.com/Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com...

Just a reminder that ArnFest South is coming up real soon. Hope that you will consider attending. The event will be held at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture in Tifton, GA on April 10-12, 2026. You can find more information and register at https://arnfest.com/

See you there!

ArnFest - An Annual Celebration of Vintage Machinery Registration is OPEN! Walk-ups Welcome! See you there! Can't attend? DONATE!

Get ready to unleash the power of community and innovation at ArnFest South, happening April 10-12, 2026, at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture in Tifton, GA! 🌟 Join forces with like-minded individuals who share your passion for vintage machinery and be inspired by educational demos, interactive exhibits, and a swap meet on Saturday morning. Bring your unique finds to sell or discover hidden gems - every connection has the potential to spark something amazing! Register now at https://arnfest.com/ and be part of a movement that celebrates old iron and collaboration! 💪

I've got 11 students in the shop this weekend participating in one of my hand scraping classes - learning the art of scraping, used in machine rebuilding on surfaces such as ways where two surfaces are moving on one another. The practice not only helps to get the surfaces extremely flat for precision, but also to reduce friction between the movable pieces and increase wear. In the class, students learn the art of scraping in a 18" straight edge casting that can be used as a tool when rebuilding machines. We are about half way through day one of three in the class.

I will be teaching a Basic Hand Scraping Class at my shop in Tifton, GA on March 6-8, 2026. We have room for ten students in the class. During this three-day course, participants will have the chance to learn the basics of hand scraping while scraping in one of my new cast iron 18” Straight Edge castings – the project will be yours to keep at the conclusion of the class. If you are interested in this class or being informed of future scraping classes, please email me or send me a private message with your email address and I will follow up with information on this class including cost and what you would need to bring to the class.

Working on the slide valves on the 1917 Vulcan Iron Works Steam Locomotive at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture today. Over the past 109 years, this valve seat had worn way put of flat. I am scraping it in using a small surface plate (taken to the valve) to mark it up between passes. A lot of work, but it is starting to come in nicely!

For Sale: Brown and Sharpe No. 585 18" Height Gauge. $125. This is former US Navy equipment. Nice shape. Comes with wooden box. Can be picked up in Tifton, GA. Will ship to US addresses for the cost of shipping. Payment via cash if picking up or PayPal or Venmo if shipping.

Can you use a BIG punch press? If so, this one is available. Located in Tifton, GA, its owner wants it GONE. If interested, send me a message and I will connect you with the owner and you can work out a deal!

Needing to move this Landis Cylinderical Grinder along. For those that always chime in and say it is too far away, I have delivery options available through several Hot Shot drivers who I have worked with in the past.

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Checking the calibration of my surface plate today using a set of Federal electronic levels. These levels can detect changes in an angle down to 1/10 of an ArcSecond. You run a specified pattern on your plate (the union jack) and the software will calculate the deviation of the highest point to the lowest point and roughly map out the contours of your plate. The differences in the screen shot of the map produced by the software are GREATLY exaggerated to show the contours. In the end, the difference in the highest point and lowest point on my plate is 235.6 microinches (235 millionths of an inch), or 0.000235". The highest grade of a surface plate is AA, which for a plate the size of mine (3ft x 6ft) has to have a number under 300 microinches. This puts my plate at a AA grade! Pretty good! I do think I am going to shoot the plate with an autocollimator too though just to verify my electronic levels are working properly. I honestly was surprised the plate came out that good and I'm not sure I believe it. My levels are pretty old and I don't know when they were last calibrated.....