Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
Reply |
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
I'm looking for some inspiration here... I've played with a bit of simple
drill press wood turning, found turning addictive, and I'm planning to purchase a lathe sometime soonish. I have a small shop, and I favor small projects. I'm thinking of a "hobby lathe" since I'm more likely to turn spindles for doll furniture than people sized stuff. The spread on the Taig lathe in the Lee Valley catalog got me thinking about buying a *metal* lathe instead of a wood lathe. I've since done a bit of reading about that one, and the similarly sized Sherline. I'm always building things out of whatever materials I can scrounge for free (not much budget), and I constantly run into situations where I wish I could fabricate a bit of something. I have a $200 bandsaw, and have built a lot of things out of angle iron and bar stock (using fasteners... I can't weld), but that's about as far as my metalworking experience goes. So what I'm looking to get out of this post is a sense of just what people *do* with metal lathes, and what I could learn to do on something like a Taig lathe. Other than issues of scale, what can I do with one of those big $20,000 industrial lathes that I couldn't do with a small hobby machine? I've been googling around, but I just don't have much of a sense of this. Other than a few really obvious things, like the turned brass finials on my fireplace, I can't look at the world around me and say "that was made with a lathe." Most of the FAQs for this group are just too far beyond my experience to make much sense. Bookstores have woodworking sections, but I've never seen diddly squat about metalworking. I've been thinking about taking some classes at the local community college, but I'm a truck driver, and my schedule is extremely irregular. Plus they don't seem to have anything that's geared toward the weekend swarf maker. Anyway, I'm sorry I'm blathering on so. I've about decided to get a metal lathe no matter what, but it would be nice to have a list of things I can tell SWMBO I can make with the thing. Thanks... -- Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621 http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/ |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
In article , Silvan wrote:
I'm looking for some inspiration here... I've played with a bit of simple drill press wood turning, found turning addictive, and I'm planning to purchase a lathe sometime soonish. I have a small shop, and I favor small projects. I'm thinking of a "hobby lathe" since I'm more likely to turn spindles for doll furniture than people sized stuff. The spread on the Taig lathe in the Lee Valley catalog got me thinking about buying a *metal* lathe instead of a wood lathe. I've since done a bit of reading about that one, and the similarly sized Sherline. for tiny non-steel parts, preferably synthetics, these s/b okay. I'm always building things out of whatever materials I can scrounge for free (not much budget), and I constantly run into situations where I wish I could fabricate a bit of something. I have a $200 bandsaw, and have built a lot of things out of angle iron and bar stock (using fasteners... I can't weld), but that's about as far as my metalworking experience goes. So what I'm looking to get out of this post is a sense of just what people *do* with metal lathes, and what I could learn to do on something like a Taig lathe. Other than issues of scale, what can I do with one of those big $20,000 industrial lathes that I couldn't do with a small hobby machine? well, you could actually reduce the dia. of a 1/2" steel rod, maybe even key it and thread it. that doesn't take a $20k tool, but the taig won't do it. .... Anyway, I'm sorry I'm blathering on so. I've about decided to get a metal lathe no matter what, but it would be nice to have a list of things I can tell SWMBO I can make with the thing. Thanks... my first project was to thread an acme nut to repair a dish mover. big grins and saved a dime. later i found out where to buy the nut and did so rather than make another. still was big grins, i really didn't know anything and that nut is still working. the replacment ones are fiber/Delron, mine is steel. actually, that's the only "real" project i have completed, and it _could_ have been done in fiber on a Taig. mostly, i just grin everytime i walk past my (Grizzly 4015), more of a possession these days than a tool. --Loren |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 01:19:27 -0400, Silvan wrote:
So what I'm looking to get out of this post is a sense of just what people *do* with metal lathes, and what I could learn to do on something like a Taig lathe. Other than issues of scale, what can I do with one of those big $20,000 industrial lathes that I couldn't do with a small hobby machine? One thing you can do on even a $399 Harbor Freight lathe which you can't do on a Taig or Sherline is cut single point threads. To do that, the carriage has to be geared to the spindle so that the cutter's advance is timed to the rotation of the work. This is done either via change gears or a quick change gearbox (preferred) on most metal lathes. Neither the Taig nor the Sherline are built that way. All cutter motions are achieved by manually advancing handwheels. This also means it is sometimes difficult to get a fine finish on the workpiece, ie because you aren't as smoothly advancing the cutter as a lathe with power feeds would. Fortunately this isn't often a drawback because, for the size work the Taig or Sherline is capable of doing, ordinary tap and die sets are sufficient to cut standard threads (you're still in a bind if you need a non-standard thread), and a high finish can be obtained with a wrap of emery cloth applied by hand to the turning work piece. Taig and Sherline machines are 1) very small 2) not very rigid 3) not very powerful 4) need to turn fast. But they are well made and as precise as you care to be. You can do just about any lathe operation on one of them that you could do on bigger machines, except threading. But the size of the work you can do will be *much* smaller. Mostly, the advantage of larger lathes is that they *are* larger. The size work you can do on a Taig is really very small, considerably less than the published swing and center to center distance might lead you to believe. (Anything over about 1 inch in diameter will really be a challenge.) I have a Taig, and I use it frequently for very small parts which need to be turned very rapidly, ie high spindle speed is needed for very small diameter parts to get the surface cutting speed up into the right range for good cutting performance. But I also have a 13x40 2 hp bench lathe, and a heavy 15x60 7.5 hp lathe, so when projects won't fit on the Taig (which is often), I've got suitably larger and heavier equipment to handle them. These latter machines won't turn as fast as the Taig, and their chucks won't close down on as small work, so for the tiny stuff, the Taig is the machine of choice. For everything else, the bigger machines are better. Bigger machines don't have to cost $20,000 either. My 13x40 came from MSC's scratch and dent sale for $1500 (new, dropped once). My big 15x60 Clausing I got in a trade for an import 3-N-1 machine and $650 cash. (Note that the Clausing *was* an $18,000 machine when it was new, but I didn't buy it new.) Still, the Taig only cost me $500, brand new, with every (then) available accessory. I consider it a very good machine for work appropriate to its size, and the package I bought was a very good value (the cost of tooling will often double the price of the basic machine). Gary |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
In article , Silvan says...
So what I'm looking to get out of this post is a sense of just what people *do* with metal lathes, and what I could learn to do on something like a Taig lathe. Other than issues of scale, what can I do with one of those big $20,000 industrial lathes that I couldn't do with a small hobby machine? Gary's post pretty much covered the differences between the big 'uns and the small 'uns. FWIW I could say that I do two things with my metalworking tools as a general rule. First off they are used primarily to make parts for other metalworking tools. There, I said it, and if anyone tells my wife I'll be really unhappy. The other think I do is tinker with vintage motorbikes, and having machinery to do so makes *that* hobby a good deal cheaper. The lathe and mill allow me to do things like: Re-work stripped exhaust port threads on cylinder heads Repair stripped out idle air screw threads in carbs Fabricate custom fasteners Make special purpose tools and wrenches Re-surface brake drums Repair turn signal stalks Repair broken carb bodies That's a quick run-down on the types of jobs that get done in the home shop, just to keep the bikes on the road. Jim ================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ================================================== |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
|
#7
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
Keith Marshall wrote:
So that's one thing you can do with a lathe. :-) Thanks for the food for thought. I can't afford to go in for much more than the Taig at the moment, but perhaps I should wait until I can. I've learned why having a real drill press is the way to go, even though 90% of the jobs I do could have been done on my old, small one. It's probably the same lesson here. Some day I'll need the extra capacity, so I should buy the biggest machine I can possibly manage. There's tooling to consider too. I don't even know what I would need, but I'd imagine I could spend quite a lot. I'm due to be allowed to buy a new computer soon. If I use this one for another four years (not really a problem, since I don't play games anymore, and I run Linux, where there's nothing exciting to do with high performance anyway), I could spend $1,000 on this wild hare. I can already hear my wife screaming. Are there any good books I should look for? Maybe go to the library... -- Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621 http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/ |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
Not that the Taig and Sherline machines aren't small, and relatively
low powered, and as people have noted, and the Taig won't single point threads as it comes stock from the factory (The Sherline has a threading accessory though). Both will work steel with little problem though, as long as you keep within some reasonable size constraints. I have turned steel rod up to 1" dia. on the Taig, and worked discs of steel about 3" dia for certain projects. The work envelope is considerably smaller than a bigger lathe (no surprise there). To see what people do with the Taig, go to my website www.cartertools.com and look at the pictures section, where I have pictures of various customer's work. Join the various yahoogroups dedicated to the various lathes, taigtools, sherline and 7x10 Nick On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 22:45:08 GMT, Loren Coe wrote: well, you could actually reduce the dia. of a 1/2" steel rod, maybe even key it and thread it. that doesn't take a $20k tool, but the taig won't do it. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
I have a nice 6 inch Craftsman lathe you can have for $500
|
#10
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
On Sun, 12 Oct 2003 02:11:36 -0400, Silvan
wrote: Thanks for the food for thought. I can't afford to go in for much more than the Taig at the moment, but perhaps I should wait until I can. I've learned why having a real drill press is the way to go, even though 90% of the jobs I do could have been done on my old, small one. It's probably the same lesson here. Some day I'll need the extra capacity, so I should buy the biggest machine I can possibly manage. NO! Buy the Taig now and get some fun out of life, you will never learn younger. Whatever you are able to afford by way of a larger lathe in the future, I doubt that you will let the tiny lathe go as it is so handy when you need that small part done "just so" Gerry :-)} London, Canada |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
Gary Coffman writes:
One thing you can do on even a $399 Harbor Freight lathe which you can't do on a Taig or Sherline is cut single point threads. To do that, the carriage has to be geared to the spindle so that the cutter's advance is timed to the rotation of the work. This is done either via change gears or a quick change gearbox (preferred) on most metal lathes. Neither the Taig nor the Sherline are built that way. All cutter motions are achieved by manually advancing handwheels. This also means it is sometimes difficult to get a fine finish on the workpiece, ie because you aren't as smoothly advancing the cutter as a lathe with power feeds would. That's true of the basic lathes as delivered. But Sherline sells a threading attachment that drives the leadscrew from the spindle just like any other change-gear lathe. (It is designed to have the work turned by hand crank, not under motor power, which is a problem in some cases). Sherline also has a power feed option that will give you consistent finishes but won't do threading. Or you can get the CNC-ready version of the lathe, put a stepper motor on the leadscrew, and control it either with Sherline's CNC linear controller or a computer and drive electronics. Again, this doesn't do threading, but it does provide controllable carriage speed (and distance) - all using Sherline accessories. Then there is the Frog, for both Taig and Sherline. It's a stepper motor plus electronic controller. It drives the carriage via the rack on the Taig and the leadscrew on the Sherline. The Frog provides variable speed/distance power feed like the Sherline indexer. It also does threading, using a spindle rotation sensor to synchronize carriage movement to spindle rotation. Dave |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
|
#13
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 01:19:27 -0400, Silvan
wrote something .......and in reply I say!: Sorry. "To every season: Turn turn, turn," ************************************************** **************************************** Whenever you have to prove to yourself that you are not something, you probably are. Nick White --- HEAD:Hertz Music Please remove ns from my header address to reply via email !! ") _/ ) ( ) _//- \__/ |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
In article ,
Gary Coffman wrote: On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 17:23:52 +0000 (UTC), (Dave Martindale) wrote: Gary Coffman writes: One thing you can do on even a $399 Harbor Freight lathe which you can't do on a Taig or Sherline is cut single point threads. To do that, [ ... ] I was going to mention all that, but decided not to. All of what you say is true, but none of it applies to either basic machine as delivered, and requires retrofitting by the owner. For someone just buying a first lathe, I thought that was asking a bit much. OTOH, the HF minilathe will cut threads right out of the box, and it works the way all the lathes in the metalshop textbooks work, so the novice isn't confounded with concepts that are a bit unorthodox. Well ... I believe (from what I have read here) that lathe does not have a tumbler to reverse the leadscrew, and I also believe that it is difficult to get it going slow enough to deal with cutting threads to a shoulder, but other than that, it is a choice. Enjoy, DoN. -- Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564 (too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero --- |
#15
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
I appreciate all the comments, folks. I've come to my senses and decided
not to acquire another money-sucking habit just yet. -- Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621 http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/ |
#16
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
In article , Silvan wrote:
I appreciate all the comments, folks. I've come to my senses and decided not to acquire another money-sucking habit just yet. hmmm, i think i responded earlier, but you describe it perfectly for many of us. still, i get big grins just _knowing_ i have some amount of machinery. maybe a macho thing? most likely tool "deprivation" as a young man. grin regards, --Loren |
#17
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
|Most of the FAQs for this group are just too far beyond my experience to |make much sense. Bookstores have woodworking sections, but I've never seen |diddly squat about metalworking. Check out the used bookstores, usually in the "Industrial" section. I've found a number of metal shop textbooks that have been invaluable. If you luck out you might also find a "Machinery's Handbook" Rex in Fort Worth |
#18
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
|
#19
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
And lo, it came about, that on Tue, 21 Oct 2003 22:07:10 GMT in
rec.crafts.metalworking , (Rex B) was inspired to utter: |Most of the FAQs for this group are just too far beyond my experience to |make much sense. Bookstores have woodworking sections, but I've never seen |diddly squat about metalworking. Check out the used bookstores, usually in the "Industrial" section. I've found a number of metal shop textbooks that have been invaluable. If you luck out you might also find a "Machinery's Handbook" Rex in Fort Worth That's where I got one of my copies [the 7th edition (1940).] -- pyotr filipivich The cliche is that history rarely repeats herself. Usually she just lets fly with a frying pan and yells "Why weren't you listening the first time!?" |
#20
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
|If you luck out you might also find a "Machinery's Handbook"
|Rex in Fort Worth | | That's where I got one of my copies [the 7th edition (1940).] I noticed MH available for download in alt.binaries.e-books.technical I don't have a clue how one would reassemble all the files though Rex in Fort Worth |
#21
|
|||
|
|||
What can I do with a lathe?
In article , Rex B wrote:
|If you luck out you might also find a "Machinery's Handbook" [ ... ] I noticed MH available for download in alt.binaries.e-books.technical I don't have a clue how one would reassemble all the files though Almost certainly a violation of copyright, and whoever uploaded it, and everyone who downloads and uses it are potentially subject to prosecution. (The most likely one to be prosecuted would be whoever uploaded it -- if he can be identified.) I can't have a try, because I don't receive any alt.binaries.* newsgroups on my news server (by choice). Since there is no advertising in _Machinery's Handbook_, they depend on sales for all of their income. If everybody downloaded this one, and didn't buy a copy, they would go out of business, and you would have no such resources available. I don't object to scanning and posting (on a web page) of things long out of copyright, and unlikely to be re-published (e.g. Rose's two-volume _Modern Machine Shop Practice_, but things still in copyright, and still in publication are a different matter. Enjoy, DoN. -- Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564 (too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero --- |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Logan Lathe Tool Gloat | Metalworking | |||
What lathe must I get to duplicate this fog horn part? | Metalworking | |||
Book for Turret Lathe | Metalworking | |||
Moving a Lathe | Metalworking |