Mini lathe cart project

[99gst_racer]

Make some room for me! All I have is the back of a 2-car garage right now.

 

[snowborder714]

Can you imagine having a couple of knowledgeable DSMers from this site opening up a shop??? Man, that'd be the perfect setup for good times and great products/work/support



Anyone want to?

 

[BogusSVO]

BTW Racer... I love that you did a twin turbo swap on your tool box!!

 

[1983gsp]

A 2lb cylinder magnet with an aluminum sleeve works wonders for picking up metal shavings. Pull sleeve up, pick up shavings, slide sleeve down. Presto, shavings fall off and cleanup is done.

 

[ed1380]

ED... You are more than welcome to come clean around my machines!! OCD is welcome here!

If only you were closer. I'd be honored

 

[Gamble97]

The nice thing is I "THINK" you can use a 20% off coupon on the lathe.

So say you want to make a whole lot of bushings or something, can you set it up to be exact and make a lot of do you do it all my hand and having top and measure a lot?
Also say you wanted an offset hole can you do that on the lathe? Do you move the tailstock ?

Back on topic now...

 

[99gst_racer]

Can you imagine having a couple of knowledgeable DSMers from this site opening up a shop??? Man, that'd be the perfect setup for good times and great products/work/support

Anyone want to?

If a bunch of us lived in the same town, I bet it would have already happened.

BTW Racer... I love that you did a twin turbo swap on your tool box!!

One turbo just wouldn't have been enough.

A 2lb cylinder magnet with an aluminum sleeve works wonders for picking up metal shavings. Pull sleeve up, pick up shavings, slide sleeve down. Presto, shavings fall off and cleanup is done.

Great idea, but that wouldn't work for me most of the time. I primarily turn aluminum.

 

[99gst_racer]

The nice thing is I "THINK" you can use a 20% off coupon on the lathe.

So say you want to make a whole lot of bushings or something, can you set it up to be exact and make a lot of do you do it all my hand and having top and measure a lot?
Also say you wanted an offset hole can you do that on the lathe? Do you move the tailstock ?

IIRC, I gave $399 for mine. It was on sale for $100 off and I was able to use some sort of 25% off coupon for ordering online.

There is no one time setup. Infact, there are several setups involved to finish one bushing.

* Chuck it up and face one end
* Flip it around and face the other end.
* Pull it out and measure the length
* Chuck it up again and cut it too the finished length
* Ream/drill hole through the center
* Bevel hole edges on each end
* Turn step down to the proper diameter (this is time consuming if the bushing is long or there's a heavy step)
* And in my case, I had to press the aluminum into the steel and face it again.

Every time it goes back in the chuck, I have to center it using a dial indicator. So, the goal to save time is to do as much as you can before removing to measure or reposition. Larger lathes with larger jaws don't require a dial indicator for centering.

You can easily spend 30 minutes on one bushing if alot of material needs to be removed. Some CNC lathes can crank out several bushings with one setup and one program.

An offset hole isn't possible on a 3-jaw chuck. On a 4 jaw, you could set up your material off center though.

 

[mike96]

CNC would be a huge time saver for me. But I'd be happy enough with a DRO kit. They all had DRO's back when I learned in high school, and it sucks going without it now. I'd just have a hard time sinking a bunch of money into a small lathe, knowing that I already would like something larger sometime in the near future.

If you are anywhere as close to being electrically enclined as you are mechanicly enclined here is an effective/inexpensive DRO for your lathe. I have seen it done where just a digital micrometer is used but without moving the readout it can get kind of awkward (small display/wierd angels).

USB DRO

 

[Gamble97]

So say one of those bushings you made on page 1, how long would just 1 half of the bushing take you?
And is that 6061 t6? I looked at some at onlinemetals.com and there are quite a few different kinds of 6061 t6 and expensive too!

Can you put a 4 jaw vice on this machine? And if you do when you tighten will it center itself or do you have to recenter it as well?

Edit: What's a dro?

 

[knochgoon24]

DRO = Digital Read Out. It displays the position of the tool.

 

[99gst_racer]

So say one of those bushings you made on page 1, how long would just 1 half of the bushing take you?

I'm really not sure. Probably around 20 minutes for the aluminum and another 10 for the steel part. I'd have to time myself to be sure though.

And is that 6061 t6? I looked at some at onlinemetals.com and there are quite a few different kinds of 6061 t6 and expensive too!

Yup, 6061 extruded. Extruded is quite a bit cheaper than cold finish. That's where I order my aluminum too.

Can you put a 4 jaw vice on this machine? And if you do when you tighten will it center itself or do you have to recenter it as well?

Yup, they do make aftermarket chucks for just about any lathe. On larger lathes, the jaws of a 3-jaw chuck are pretty wide and will center a cylinder shape object very well. On a mini lathe like mine, the jaws are tiny and will allow the work to tighten up and be be up to .050" away from spinning true. So, I use a dial indicator and spin it slowly and tap it straight before I fully tighten it up. It usually only takes me like 10 seconds when I'm on a roll, so it's no big deal.

Now, a 4-jaw chuck comes in handy when you want to chuck up something square or chuck it up offset of center. A 4-jaw chuck requires you to tighten up each jaw independently, so it's more time consuming. It's always best to stick with a 3-jaw unless you specifically need a 4-jaw.

Edit: What's a dro?

Like Wes said, it stands for digital read out. It basically tracks distances on all 3 axis. So you can zero out each one and easily keep track of where you're at on the screen. Without a question, my next lathe will have DRO. I could work twice as fast if I didn't have to stop and measure all the time.

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[99gst_racer]

If you are anywhere as close to being electrically enclined as you are mechanicly enclined here is an effective/inexpensive DRO for your lathe. I have seen it done where just a digital micrometer is used but without moving the readout it can get kind of awkward (small display/wierd angels).

USB DRO

I'm not even close, but I wish I was!

I've seen the micrometer ones, but never liked using 3 small screens like that. I suppose learning on a true DRO system has really spoiled me. And a real system is pretty expensive. Most of them cost more than the lathe itself, and it seems a bit silly to spend that for a cheap benchtop lathe.

I do like that USB system though. I have a junk laptop that I could use as well. I just wish I were electrically intelligent enough to be able to make that system work. This stuff is hyroglifics to me.

 

[H@xtGSX]

Referring back to the clean up comments.... A big ol' subwoofer magnet works wonders for getting up all those tiny slivers that always manage to get into your sock and stab you in the bottom of the foot for an hour before you finally decide to take your boot off and find the offending shaving by brushing your hand over the spot and getting it lodged in your finger instead..... Well...... At least you're not getting stabbed in the foot anymore, right?

That happens a lot in my shop.

...since you're working aluminum... It will only stab you in the foot for a little while and then bend up and fall out. No need to worry.

 

[Gamble97]

Whats the difference between extruded and cold finish? If my shear I got from HF ends up sucking and I return it I may end up with one of these.

 

[99gst_racer]

Whats the difference between extruded and cold finish?

I googled it and found this reply:

"Cold finished is put through a rolling line. Makes it more resistant to surface cracks, higher tensile strength, etc. It is also a bigger pain to machine; the stress rolled into the surface of the aluminum means the part's going to bow towards the cut as soon as you take any serious material off it.

I'm not sure why you'd want it for hobby purposes if you're just tooling around, extruded is fine for most tasks. I'd pick cold rolled if I was expecting a bit of fatigue on the part and cared about that, or if I wanted a bit more strength for whatever reason and couldn't just up the part size using extruded."

 

[lowell]

My 3 jaw centers near perfect. Give this a try.

Grinding inside jaws of a 3 jaw chuck - YouTube

 

[mike96]

I'm not even close, but I wish I was!

I've seen the micrometer ones, but never liked using 3 small screens like that. I suppose learning on a true DRO system has really spoiled me. And a real system is pretty expensive. Most of them cost more than the lathe itself, and it seems a bit silly to spend that for a cheap benchtop lathe.

I do like that USB system though. I have a junk laptop that I could use as well. I just wish I were electrically intelligent enough to be able to make that system work. This stuff is hyroglifics to me.

Ha, I found an even more cost effective DRO for a Mill/Lathe. One that doesn't require making or modifying any electronic devises.

T23012 12" Digital Scale with Remote Readout, Inch/Metric/Fraction

 

[99gst_racer]

Thanks for the link. I might scoop up the 6" kit. T24360 6" Stainless Steel Remote Digital Readout
Just need to do some searching to see how people are installing them.

 

[Gamble97]

How do you make your own AN fitting on a lathe? i've seen people do that, but don't get how you put the "flange" on it for lack of a better term where you put the wrench on it.

 

[99gst_racer]

How do you make your own AN fitting on a lathe? i've seen people do that, but don't get how you put the "flange" on it for lack of a better term where you put the wrench on it.

You'd just turn them from hex bar: Order Aluminum Hex Alloys 2011, 2024, 6061, 6262, 7075 in Small Quantities at OnlineMetals.com

 

[Gamble97]

OOOO i thought it was a way you turned it. That is easy

 

[ed1380]

Whats the travel on the hf lathes?

 

[99gst_racer]

Mine is the little 7x10, to 10" between centers.

 

[99gst_racer]

My 3 jaw centers near perfect. Give this a try.

The HF lathe comes with two different sets of jaws. One set for small diameters and one for larger diameters. The contact area of the small diameter set measures at .650". These center the work up nicely. The contact area for the larger iameter jaws measures at .250". That set never centers up perfectly without using a dial indicator. The benefit to a larger lathe is that there is ony one set of jaws, and they always center the work great.


Small diameter jaws:

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Large diameter jaws:

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