Hi Mark--Really nice to hear from you and really glad your health has gotten better,
I used to look forward to your posts on HM. You are a very talented machinist and hope to hear more from you.

Terry,

    Some years ago, when I  was building all those projects I  wanted to share ( and most were on H-M , then I  was deleted there ), I started my own site and posted a lot there. This brings me to my dilemma. If I  make an article on my site, is there a way to copy it over here to shre it without rewriting the whole thing a second time? That is just too much work to do everything twice.

Mark Frazier

Terry,

Since I  am getting back into things I  find I will be needing a dividing head soon. Way back some years when I  was on H-M, I built a dividing head and used ShopCalc to make the hole charts for the head. Well, my friend still has the dividing head I  built , but not the hole charts. I couldn't  remember what I used to generate the charts, so I  sneaked over to H-M to look my my build article and read where I used ShopCalc. Last nite, I  searched  ShopCalc on Google and downloaded it for free and it still works , so you can still download it free. That head is almost useless without the charts so I  have regenerated them on ShopCalc.

Mark Frazier

I don't know if anyone remembers me. I started out on Hobby-Machinist site and then started my own site to share projects and anything machining.
    Several years ago my health went bad, the money grabbing doctors all said there was nothing they could do and I would be crippled permanently.  I was 60 pounds overweight, on two blood pressure meds, pre-diabetic,  on Thyroid medication,  suffered from A-fib, on cholesterol meds, had a couple heart surgeries, wound up in a wheelchair , went broke from the bills, lost  pretty much everything, including my entire shop. Well, about two years ago, I  found some new doctors.  One year later, under their advice, I  am of of all medications. I  lost 60 pounds, followed a vitamin protocol, from the Nerve Doctors, that cured about 80 percent of the destroyed nerves keeping me in that wheelchair, I  follow a strict diet that has over seven months eliminated 90 percent of my pain and corrected several health problems,  a heart surgery at Cleveland Clinic  has resolved my severe A-fib. At this time , after 3 years, I feel better than I  have in fourty years. Next month I  will turn 75 years  old and can do almost anything I  want ( within reason for my age).It's kind of like a second chance at life. This brings me to the last year. A dear friend who had me help him setup his machine shop and teach him how to use it many years ago passed away from dementia at 86. His shop and machines had been sitting for almost 5 years untouched. His son contacted me and I  was appalled at the condition of everything. I  made an offer to buy everything,  the complete shop. The last two months I  have moved everything to my new garage and been cleaning and setting it up. A few of the tools were too far gone but most everything is in decent shape.  I now own a Monarch 10EE lathe, ( the Cadillac of tool room lathes), a round column milling machine, a band saw, 60 gallon air compressor,  several bench grinders, and more machinist tools than I ever had. Over the next year, I  will be upgrading the power to the garage and begin machining again. I will try and post some photos soon, but I  am excited about being BACK.

Mark Frazier
 

I am so sad to find this out. He used to call me every couple months to catch up. I haven't heard from him in a long time and suspected he was not well.

Mark Frazier

Terry,

So sorry to hear of this. I hope things get better.

Mark Frazier

Made it back to Minnesota on Monday afternoon and she is now in a rehab facility. She had kind of a rough start there, but I hope she starts to make some great progress as the days go on.

Many thanks to all of you for the kind words, thoughts, and prayers. I am truly grateful.

Headed back to Minnesota tomorrow morning. She will be going to a rehab hospital back home for a couple of weeks but at least we are making progress.

I can hardly wait!

It is with heavy heart that I wish to announce that our old friend, Bill Gruby, passed away back on June 9th, 2026 at the age of 80.

His obituary can be found here: https://bristoledition.org/2026/06/16/william-r-gruby/

I had known for quite some time that his health had been declining. Despite many attempts he did not respond to phone calls, emails, or private messages from me. About a year ago I started searching for his obituary from time to time, and just found it a few minutes ago.

Bill was an early member and global moderator at the Hobby-Machinist forum for quite some time and was a charter member and moderator here. Bill and I enjoyed many phone calls through the years discussing many different topics. Regretfully, I must admit that I never met him in person.

Bill worked as an engineer for General Motors and he always enjoyed telling a story about a Cadillac that GM ended up buying back from the customer because of a strange noise that no one was able to isolate or identify. It took quite some time to get to the bottom of it. Upon near total dismantling of the automobile, they finally found the source of the odd noises: An empty soda can inside the left front fender where no one could get to it.

We have been missing Billy G here for well over a year around here and we will continue to miss him. His last post was on March 1st, 2025, and his final visit to HMJ was on April 27, 2025, well over a year before his passing.

Rest in peace my friend, you are and will continue to be missed.