Is it my turn? Anything to do with lathes, mills and other shop tools

I'll look in to classes, both machinists, and welding. With our toys, these are handy skills, for sure. My friend (with the hot rod "toy shop" where I've been working) has been talking about getting a plasma cutter. Useful, instead of some of the more primitive tools at our disposal at this time. But for now, budgetary constraints dictate what I can do. :doh: We'll just have to "farm out" work we can't do ourselves, and we're okay with that. Granted, actually knowing what we're doing would be nice, but it's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock & roll! :rock:
 
59Tebo said:
I'll look in to classes, both machinists, and welding. With our toys, these are handy skills, for sure. My friend (with the hot rod "toy shop" where I've been working) has been talking about getting a plasma cutter. Useful, instead of some of the more primitive tools at our disposal at this time. But for now, budgetary constraints dictate what I can do. :doh: We'll just have to "farm out" work we can't do ourselves, and we're okay with that. Granted, actually knowing what we're doing would be nice, but it's a long way to the top, if you wanna rock & roll! :rock:
Click to expand...

Hi Tebo,
there's things that nobody thinks to tell you. Like when I was working with the millwrights during my apprenticeship.
They showed me how to use an Oxy-Acetylene cutting torch and gave me a slab of 1/4" plate to cut.
While doing the molten-slag-fell-into-my-shoes two-step I realized why those tough burly men all wore elastic-sided ankle boots.
 
Just don't wear gloves while running a lathe. A stringy chip can catch them and pull your hand in. If it's off and you're cleaning, still be careful as chips can be sharp enough to slice through a glove(ask me how I know).

I went to tech school for machining when I got out of the army. Best thing I did. I had wanted a mill and lathe for years, and luckily machining can provide a good living. Half way through school I had a job, and I've upgraded jobs twice since finishing school. Now I have a mill and lathe at home for personal projects and a job that pays well with good benefits.
 
gggGary said:
Whatcha got? Lathe, mill, any other shop tools, pics of your shop and tools, details, techniques questions How do I ?? How I did....
I'll lead off; my dad's ole southbend has followed me around for 25 years now.

View attachment 110174
But got all fancy and bought a Grizzly 4003,
View attachment 110175

Huge difference from the old, small, and rather worn, South Bend. But I have no training or education on the use of the lathe so I'm on that steep learning curve.

I'm liking the QCTP but the insert holders that came with the lathe were weird or improperly machined, the insert angle was just plain wrong?
View attachment 110177

In order to use them for typical square face and turning cuts, the tool post needed to be skewed off of square to the chuck which just made no sense to me. The grizzly boring bar holder that uses the same insert has the "correct" angle,
View attachment 110179
which seems to be the 80 degree "point" should have 5 degree back angle on each side, kinda like this,
404-1051o_4.jpg

I kinda kludge fixed them by grinding an angle on the rear of the holder so the insert has the "normal" 5 degree angle to the surfaces, I think this will work fine for now.


View attachment 110178 View attachment 110180

I got a few of the Grizzly carbide inserts which are also a bit unusual in that they are machined for left and right hand use.

Well that's a wandering first post in the thread eh?
Click to expand...

gggGary, 1934 South Bend Lathe 9 inch swing, 36 inch bed... Looks exactly like mine.
How To Run A Lathe: For The Beginner: How To Erect, Care For And Operate A Screw Cutting Engine Lathe
by South Bend Lathe Works | Nov 23, 2012 First printed in 1914. About 6 bucks on Amazon. Any gun smith would kill to have it. Yep, First thing I did was to ditch the rocker tool post and get the quick change tool post.
Thu
 
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Ratranger, am I to understand that you started with that humungous slab of steel in the top picture and machined it into the piece in the bottom picture?

Horry Sheet!
 
sblathe2.jpg


Freebie lathe is coming along. At the moment, I'm degreasing/cleaning/lubing everything as I reassemble it and making repairs as needed. IF I decide to keep it, I'll worry about cleaning up the legs and the bed and painting it. Initially, all I've done on the bed is recondition the ways.

sblathe3.jpg


The head stock was in pretty good shape, just REALLY grungy. It had been partially disassembled chasing down an apron problem (more on that in a minute) and some of the gears have been repaired by brazing and re-cutting the teeth. One is still missing part of a tooth but it seems to run pretty quietly turning it by hand.

sblathe4.jpg


Apron had some issues but nothing that was outside my ability to repair. New intermediate gear shaft (chronicled above) a couple of missing drive pins and some lubrication issues. Compound tool rest needed a good cleaning, lube job, gibs adjusted and one drive pin replaced.

Last project is to rehab the motor bracket and upper drive pulley. Hope to get that done tomorrow and the motor remounted.

Motor is an ancient Century 1/2 horse. Sucker weighs 70 pounds if it weighs an ounce! Blew it out good, oiled the bearings and it runs like a watch.

Ordered a new flat belt for it ($20, I couldn't make one that cheaply). Hope to have it running by the end of the week or whenever the belt comes in.
 
Tool post wise, I whole heartedly agree with DE's comment about rocker posts being a PITA. My 11" Logan has been running with this kit built QCTP for more than a few years now, works quite well.
100_0462.JPG

Got the kit, materials & drawings, from a gentleman in PA.
www.mlatoolbox.com/MLA-23.html
Fun little project plus you end up with something you can use and expand as needed.
 
Downeaster said:
Ratranger, am I to understand that you started with that humungous slab of steel in the top picture and machined it into the piece in the bottom picture?

Horry Sheet!
Click to expand...

Yep, it started as a 5 1/4" diameter 6" long piece of 4140. It gave me a chance to try all different grinds on a HSS tool. Finally hit one that would let me take a .1" depth of cut on the little atlas. It's now a hub for a gilera cx125 fork to use a vfr400 wheel.
20190523_193742_HDR.jpg

I've also turned some large chunks of aluminum into parts on the little atlas too.
20190617_140420.jpg
20190621_190705_HDR.jpg
 
I'm impressed, Beags!

How much of a PITA is that 4 jaw to get centered up? The one on my new toy has independent jaws (I suspect they all do...) and I foresee a lot of fiddling to get the work to run true.
 
Getting a 4 jaw trued up is pretty easy. Eyeball it close, then use a mag base with dial indicator and with practice you'll have under .001" runout in a minute or 2.

I tend to spin the part and see which pair of jaws are the furthest off, get them to under .005, then move to the other jaws and get them down to .001-2 and then get the first pair down to 0, then check all around and fine tune.

Get it roughed in, then fine tune or you'll be chasing your tail, if it's raw stock expect a little runout just because it isn't perfect.
 
Ratranger said:
Click to expand...

The author of that video mrpete222 is amazing as well. I believe he is a retired shop teacher and has made probably thousands of extremely informative videos on youtube for free. Another good video series is the MIT Machine Shop Training Series, you can google that and the 10 parts of the series should come right up.
 
Yeah, I watch a lot of Tubalcain/Mr. Pete vids, along with Joe Pi and a couple of others.

Need to make me up another chuck key, that'll be a fun afternoon project.

Down to the short strokes on the lathe. Got the motor mounted, just have to wire it up and wait on the new flat belt to arrive.
 
Can't say I've seen a welding table set up like that. Can you provide some details and (oooooooooh) more pictures?
 
oldlathe.jpg


This is what it looked like when I went to get it.

sblathe7.jpg


This is what it looks like today after 4-5 days of cleaning, wirebrushing, repairing, lubricating and adjusting.

sblathe6.jpg


Made some chips with it just to check that things were in alignment and it didn't make any funny noises. All I had to do was snug up the end play on the spindle a tad and align the tailstock to the headstock. Chuck has ~.001 runout at the body which is good even for a new lathe, much less one likely over 100 years old! Chucked up a precision ground pin and was able to dial it in to about half a thou without too much fussing.

Need to shim the outer headstock bearing cap as I can't snug it down without it binding, but other than that, I'm happy with it as it is.

Total investment 1 tank of gas to go get it ($40), a new flat belt ($25) and some #12-3 cord to wire the motor and switch with (about $25, I bought 30 feet to have some on hand, didn't use all of it) so <$100 all told and a week of my time puttering at something I do for enjoyment anyway.
 

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