I thought I'd document what I'm learning about my lathe. I have no experience doing any machining. I'm an ok mechanic and I can mig weld and am learning to tig. I'm very much of the opinion that you can learn anything. I've no reason to have a lathe or any real need for one... I just thought it might be fun. I've got half ideas of making stuff for the bikes but any thoughts of spending less on materials and tools than I would simply buying the parts are simply not a factor... I'm not that daft.
That said the first job was to clean the lathe up and see what I had. It looked like it had been stored in a damp garage and was rusty as buggery. So I went at it with a wire wheel or two, applied way oil to the slidey bits and acf50 to everything else. I'm pretty pleased with the results so far...
There was no functioning lock on the tail stock and the locking handle just went all the way in with no locking being done. I looked at the parts diagram and found that there should be an insert in there so I made one out of an old bolt with the head cut off and the end ground to an angle and that works now.
There was no lock on the milling head to stop it swivelling so I fashioned something from an m10 cap head bolt, a washer and an old socket and that now locks in place. This feels like something I can make on this machine when I know what I'm doing but for now this is ok.
I'm missing a belt from the lathe speed selection system and the other two look tired so I've ordered some more. Finding parts for this machine doesn't look that easy but belts are available.
The milling head has a jacobs chuck on an MT3 taper with an M12 lockbar (I have a manual!) that is fine for drilling (apparently) but not for milling so I've ordered an MT3 chuck for ER32 collets and a set of those.
There's no e-stop on this machine so that's something I need to address pretty quickly. I also need to make sure that it doesn't restart after a power outage... there's a term for that switch but I've forgotten what it is.
Last edited by dern on Mon Dec 30, 2024 10:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I was nervous about starting 'making chips' but there's no time like the present. I started off with the tooling that was with the machine and did some facing and turning down of some BS 4360 43A 25mm steel stock I bought and cut down. I just ran the machine on the speed it was set at which was 400rpm I think and I have no idea if that was right or not. It felt ok and I was pleased that everything seemed to be working.
I had a load of 6mm hss blanks and thought I'd try making a left hand and right hand simple cutting tool to turn down the piece and to face it. This wasn't too hard to do on the grinder and actually the tools felt a lot nicer to use. They weren't making the same disconcerting noises and the cuts seem to be better. They look the same in the pictures but the sound was better. It was satisfying to make some tooling though.
Surface finish obviously leaves a lot to be desired but I need to understand what the lathe speed should be at. I'm also using the driven feed on the slowest speed and I don't know if that's right. I also don't really know how much I'm taking off each run but it feels like about 0.5mm. I need to read the manual and understand what the markings on the machine actually mean.
I'm using cutting oil by the way.
I did try and part the piece with a parting tool that the previous owner had made but broke it. I'm pretty sure I hadn't aligned the tool sufficient well, used enough cutting oil and was running at too high a speed.
I'm very pleased so far though and very encouraged to do more. I have ordered a proper parting blade with holder though.
The emergency stop / don’t restart button you are looking for is an NVR (No Volt Release) switch. I can’t help with any lathe specific stuff as I was at school the last time I had the pleasure of using a lathe and milling machine.
ER32 collet for the mill attachment will be a winner, on my mill I hardly ever use the Jacobs chuck - I only use it in situations where you have a number of holes that each require several drill stages (spot, through drill, drill to size, c'sink for example).
On small stuff try running the lathe a bit quicker, its the peripheral speed of the part you need to consider.
And: when tooling up I'd have saved myself loads of time and frustration going into indexable tct tools from the outset, also on the lathe an efficient tool change set up.
And#2: workholding is everything its the primary consideration, so good vices, jaws etc.
And#3: anything involving manual mill or lathe takes forever. It is really slow work. Which you don't get to fully appreciate until you start playing with boring bars. Two days to drill a hole? It happens.
Good luck, that comes in handy, too.
I'm sure you know all this but I didn't when I started and the learning curve was unnecessarily protracted as a result.
It's 50 years since I used a lathe,I found it very satisfying work. There's absolutely no room in my garage for one,but they are a very cool thing to have.
Looking at your pictures I'd say try: up the speed on the chuck and take lighter passes (0.5mm is removing quite a lot of metal), and your lathe isn't really heavy duty. (Not putting you /it down).
Parting tools are fussy and the cause of many rejected components. Make sure it is sharp (easy if you buy an indexed tool). Absolutely square to the machine. Absolutely at the right height (which may take a bit more to achieve than it appears). Dont let the tool project even a tiny bit more than you need. I never use the cross feed when parting - i much prefer the feel you get from advancing the cross feed manually. Go slow, both feed and rotation. Maybe start with some lumps of delrin which is a whole world easier?
I don't know if I said it before but I dont profess to be an expert. Before I retired I was a cabinet maker and only started on this precision metalwork stuff after I retired. But I've made plenty of mistakes and always carefully review them afterwards. When I've stopped swearing.
Get some delrin. To cut proper metal takes knowhow.
I made a spacer for my lathe. The only dimension that mattered was the through hole so making things to dimension is the next challenge. I made my own hss tools for it out of 10mm hss blanks. I drilled out using the tail stock. This is the second attempt at the spacer and have improved surface finish loads by using a live centre support. Learning loads. Changing speeds on this lathe is a pain in the arse though.
I made a clamp that fits over the lathe ways, that acts as an end stop but also holds a dial gauge so it is easy to measure carriage travel. It helps that I found a dial gauge with 50mm range. So that sets longitudinal travel.
For cross feed travel I have an irritating and (one day hopefully to be improved) painful arrangement comprising a magnetic stand (sometimes doubles to hold a perspex screen) holding a dial gauge. A dro would be nice. On my previous lathe I made a fixture that held a vernier caliper to do the same thing - a kind of poor man's dro. I should do something similar. One day. I seem to spend more time making tools and fixtures than I do doing jobs....
From the photo I'd try upping the speed and slowing the feed rate, but much depends on the design of your tool. There's so much to learn that i sidestepped tool grinding by going the indexable route, one massive learning curve avoided. But: boring large/deep holes in mild steel like that is no small deal in itself. All good. Assuming the size is close enough to what you need
Brickie wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2025 6:14 am
There's so much to learn that i sidestepped tool grinding by going the indexable route, one massive learning curve avoided.
I always thought tool bit production and geometries were part of the Dark Arts
(My undergraduate final year (a long time ago) thesis was on the heat treatment if sintered tool steels. The test bed was a lathe the size of a minibus using something like 8" diameter billet (to get the surface speeds to test HSS tools in near-continuous action).
We ran some tests on hot pressed silicon nitride tool tips and found that they needed a completely different geometry - they ended up looking like Scrabble tiles!)
Brickie wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2025 6:14 am
From the photo I'd try upping the speed and slowing the feed rate, but much depends on the design of your tool. There's so much to learn that i sidestepped tool grinding by going the indexable route, one massive learning curve avoided. But: boring large/deep holes in mild steel like that is no small deal in itself. All good. Assuming the size is close enough to what you need
Cheers. At the moment, due to the fact that I’m missing a belt, I’m limited to 400rpm at the chuck. I’ve got some new belts coming this week and then will have access to 630, 1000 and 1600 rpm.
I played around with centring the piece in a four jaw chuck and cutting some relief for the cap head fillet that stopped the cap head bolt fitting home in the 10mm bore cleanly. I didn’t need to cut as much out but the only point of any of this is practice. I could have avoided having to make the piece at all simply by buying a shorter bolt but I wouldn’t have learned anything.
Centring the piece in the chuck was really hard until I got a feel for it and then it went much more quickly. I used a dial gauge on a stand and isolated each pair of jaws as I had read to do. It started to make sense after a period of playing and swearing.
IMG_7170.jpeg (1.04 MiB) Viewed 780 times
This is the completely unnecessary piece in place…
I enjoyed reading your post. I have had a lathe (a Boxford thing) for about 15 yrs now. The best thing that I have ever bought for it is a cheap DRO (Digital Read Out). Something like this;
Over the years I have machined parts, having to remove them to measure and then having the issues of getting tham back in the chuck staight. The DRO has been a game changer. Touch the tool to the part, zero it and then crack on with the project. The chinese DRO has been fitted with strong magnets so a piece of cake to fit.
One of the recent jobs that I have done is to make some press in bearing holders to widen a swingarm. I made one for each side and the parts are exactly the same sizes and fit perfectly. All because I watched the dimensions on my little lcd screen. Money well spent!!
