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COVID-19 Feeling Isolated.


COVID-19 

It seems everything has gone mad, thank god for hobbies and my wife
.
I've been trying to drill the axle hole exactly in the middle of the casting and there is not much room for error on this part. The initial drill looked ok, until I got to a drill size of about 16mm then it seems to be a bit off by about 1mm on the right side. reversing the casting on the mounting I managed to drill out the error with the next drill with just a small amount of reaming left until it is the finished size at 3/4".
with my eyesight not that great, use of my phone camera to check the drill's tracking down the length gave me the confidence to carry on, that it would end up perfect.

Front axle finished and built up, there is some weight here just in these few parts.  





I've started drilling this bit, same again difficult to tell 100% if it's exactly in the middle. I'm tempted
to take the whole chuck off and look from the back with a torch to see if it looks ok by eye.
In this situation, I've been tempted in the past to get one of the USB small cameras/ microscopes.

Thinking this could be a great asset in the workshop as I find it harder to focus on small bits, or just using it for a machining view screen. Food for thought! 










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