Just a couple more tips. If you want to use some grit paper to finish something off, wind the saddle back, put some cardborad or even better make a wooden cover that locates over the bed, before you start. This stops the grit from the paper going on the bed. If it does then the movement of the saddle over time with grit will screw up the accuracy due to wear. I would also invest in a GOOD digital caliper, not the cheap 50 buck ones but a known make with a calibration cert. I paid around $150 for mine and it checked out with a local engineering companies standard as dam near spot on. If you progress then DRO (digital Read outs) are now well within the price range of the home builder and alleviate the problems of back lash. keep fingers away and enjoy your new found addiction. Oh and never get pissed because you make a mistake.
I have found out after owning 2 lathes an a mill for 10 yrs now that I usually skip on the carbide indexable inserts an just use high speed steel tool bits because most of the time I am making 1 off projects or replacment parts for my old hot rod to my farmall... But you will find the lathe very useful in rebuilding almost any automotive or industrial component... And you will have lots of friends coming around when they need unobtainable parts made...
What I believe you need is a hard copy of the USN Machinery Repairman 3&2 training manual. It is available in paper or DVD. The information is a self study course written for GED level education personnel and spells everything out as if you are totally new to the field. I still reference mine. Ron
FadT - I was watching a guy on YouTube and he was using a digital. I'm old school with all my instruments but I like the idea of locking in your final dimension and then just working backwards to it. I could use my dial indicator but it takes too much remembering or scribbling down numbers. Seabee - Great suggestion on the Navy manual. GED level should work perfect for me! QCE - Ahh...no.
Unfortuneatly Bob Tylor (swapmeet tool guy) Passed away a couple months ago. Frist thing one must learn is that any piece of machinery has the will and the capacity to mame, dismember, and kill you---even a small bench top
Katuna DRO's are great and they have gotten cheaper and more refined,but I found it money well spent to at least get a trav-a-dial first for your longitudinal operations, really handy for parting off parts to width dimension, especially multiple parts, such as spacers, bushings, etc. Not a thing wrong with a good(not HF) quality dial caliper, made a living with them for 30 years. One neat thing about having a machine is for trading services with people, as good as money in the bank. Doug
Since you're on this forum, checkout some of those related to machining ie. Practical Machinist for one.There are others related to specific machines etc, and of course it's free I have an old Index mill and a 1941 Monarch lathe and I've picked up many tips and how to's on the forums.
find the nearest tech scool/community collage do a class. I did. worth the time and $$ next you,ll need a mill.
don't know as the Trav-a-Dial is still available as new. Seems like I contacted Southwest Industries at one time and they wern't producing them. You can find them used, tho'. There's a certain procedure for installing. I've got one on a 14" Jet. At one time SWI made a verson that had outputs for a DRO. This was the answer we were looking for to get digitals on a big 50" Tuda lathe. That was something like 35 yrs ago and it's still in use.
No Power feed till know what it will do. For wiring you need a dead/mans box installed in wire system.
A few years ago, I looked around So Cal for machining classes. I couldn't find one. There used to be classes around here as late as the 80's at Junior Colleges, but that kind of instruction has dried up. I was fortunate enough to have machine shop in high school, ('77-'81) along with metal shop including a small foundry. We had drafting classes with real paper & pencils too. Most everything now is computer design 'drafting' and CNC machining. I ran into some people at the Grand National Roadster Show a couple of months ago in the venders building that offer hands-on training in metal fabrication, and machining. I think their main machining focus is on the CNC stuff 'cause they prepare students for the job market. But, I asked about manual machining, and they do teach that too. It's also mentioned in their brochure. The books and videos others have mentioned are really good. I think hands-on training would accelerate the learning process. They're a good 5 hour drive for you, (Riverside, CA area) but maybe they offer a 2 or 3 day course…I don't know. Check out WWW.THEFABSCHOOL.COM. Or 1-877-411-WELD.
All dead on there Gatz Made the Co. where I worked for 30 yrs, a lot of money with trav-a-dials, liked it so much I installed one on my new 18x80 in. 10hp American Turnmaster. Shame no longer selling them, w/tech. probably like covered wagons and Studebakers, better things come along. Correct on the install. having one not tracking right is worse than not having one at all.
Been looking for a local class but the few I found are all CNC. Found the manual online so I was able to determine that all but the accessories are there except for a reducer (whatever that does!). I did score a drill chuck though. Found a piece of round stock in one of the cabinets that had been whittled at. Gives me something to practice on once I get the huevos.
The "reducer" may refer to a tapered piece that fits into the spindle. Some, but not all lathes, had these as standard equipment. The main purpose was for a Morse taper dead-center (also usually furnished) so that piece-parts could be turned "between centers"; the tailstock having either a dead-center or live-center. see side note below Some of these reducers or adapters have a flange on them which makes their removal easy, some are just tapered inside and outside. You remove these kind by tapping with a soft drift through the spindle bore from the opposite end. The O.D. is not necessarily a Morse taper; it just matches whatever the mfg of the lathe decided to put in there, but the I.D. is typically MT. If there isn't a picture in the manual, just look on line for a Lathe Spindle Adapter. As a side note....when both dead-centers (not a live center) are in place, and the tailstock all the way to the end of the bed, the distance between the points of the centers is what gives a lathe its 2nd number. e.g. 14 x 40. The 14, of course refers to what diameter workpiece can be turned without interference from the bed ways; this dimension would not include over the cross-slide. Some lathes are "gap-bed" and will allow larger diameter pieces to be chucked/machined. Every lathe that has this feature will state so in the specs.
Be a little cautious about "gap-bed" lathes. A long time ago there was an ad in the "Thrifty Nickel" for an Atlas lathe. I'd always wanted a lathe for home use, and Atlas would've been a good one. The ad said something about it being 10", but gapped to 15". ??? Not exactly sure of that description, I went to look at it. The guy had been using it to machine(?) motorcycle wheels and then align them by using an indicator. So, he just took a torch and opened up the bed so that there was room for a wheel. As much as I wanted a lathe, I passed on that one.
Try Mrpete222 on youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/mrpete222/videos http://neme-s.org/Tubalcain/machine_shop_tips.htm He has been helpful to me. I just got started with a bridgeport and a 13x40 Enco lathe. Jay
I picked up a Sidney 12" with a 42" bed last year, Learned a lot just by hands on. I worked as an outside machinist so I had been around lathes quite a bit. Go slow be careful and enjoy!
The Atlas lathe manual is very good. Regarding dial calipers. They can never be as accurate as actual micrometers with standards. You can get a better feel with actual micrometers.
Saltflats - Serious?! You're AWESOME!! Thanks! I'll PM my address. Viva la HAMB! Ago - I've got a full set of Starrett inside/outside mics. Haven't broken them out in a few years. Have a good Japanese dial cal. Would like to pick up a digital one though. Need to start making shavings before I get too far ahead of myself.
our first projects in High school ( took 3 years of metals ) where to make screwdrivers and a soft faced hammer ( still have my cross pein hammer but My dad confinscated my screwdriver and parallel face vice , plus a few other of my projects and hopefully I will get them back when he passes ) , as it gave you operations in multiple materials , the plastic was a pain to cut as its soft , also look into some hard machine wax ( they use it for prototyping ) , as you can learn to cut ( both lathe and mill) and when done remelt it down to basic shapes ( rod and plate ) and rework it again .
I remember years ago see some knobs and shifter knobs my dad did in high school back in 60-61. Hard, colored laminated plastic turned down on a lathe. Would love to make something like that for my FILs dash. Don't know how to laminate different colors together. Would it have been lucite?
Would have been acrylic (plexigass.) Glue together with liquid solvent, clamp. then machine,sand or shape to finish. Easy.
Learn on aluminum, 6061 machines well. Some of the soft Alum 3000, too soft and gummy., good for bending thou. Machine plastic with very sharp bits, cuts better. When machining, rough down first , leave .010-.015 for finish cut. Take time on finish work up your skill level. Don't worry about mistakes every body makes them.
Any school that does CNC machining is going to make the students start out in the manual shop . . . I'd check the school's program course outline/schedule as there should be manual "gen ed" classes year-round. As far as buying "off-shore" machine tools, shars is at the top of the heap for me. I've bought everything from inserts to CXA toolholders to a knock-off vise. I still get most of my tooling from MSC but shars is great for a lot of things that aren't made of carbide or you need +/- .0005 on.
Don't buy a Shars adjustable reamer....the shank is plain soft steel. Blades do not have correct relief grind.
I believe I read somewhere that the lathe was the only machine that could make a copy of itself. So.... I was thinking that you could make me one
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