According to :

O.K. The first of the ones which I got also as e-mail.

*Please* don't send me e-mail copies of your postings.
Especially so, since the "From: " address is bogus, so a reply would be
wasting my time.

You could spend part of the time doing the traditional Asian"
machine tool mantra" of taking it apart, stoning or filing burrs off of
sliding parts, replacing the screws with ones of good metal and the
like.

This will make it a better machine. The sort of thing which the
factory *should* have done, but the Asian factories typically do not.

Yes. I'll be following the advice at the mini-lathe pages.

*Now*!

The "modified compound" was what the web site you pointed me to
was offering to allow the use of an AXA sized toolpost on this small a
lathe. With the standard compound, the toolpost will be too high, and
you won't be able to adjust the tools to centerline.

Ok. There are several sellers of this tool post/holder set on Ebay. And
it has to be "milled to fit". :-( Perhaps I should hold off on the tool
post. BTW. I found the AXA-16N in the MSC catolog(for $152.25).

No -- the plate which slides into the T-slot on the compound has
to be milled to fit. You don't *have* a T-slot on that lathe, unlike
most larger (and some smaller) lathes.

So, you unscrew the center rod from the T-head blank, and screw
it into the threaded hole in the top of the *modified* compound which
you purchase.

There *may* be a different center rod, which should be part of
what comes with the modified compound.

So I'd have to decide wether or not to stick with end mill holders or
get another set of collets(3C) for the spindle. Hmmm. The end mill
holders would seem to be more reliable, but the 3C would allow me to
work hold.(I did win that 5C collet chuck on eBay that I may be able to
use for light work at least).

Yes!

Hmmm. Ebay: 7593078186

Hmm ... you note that it is intended to fit a 5C lathe spindle
socket? And the only way *you* can provide a 5C socket is with this
thing which you already got from eBay. And the only way to hold *that*
is in a three-jaw or 4-jaw chuck on the lathe's spindle. There seems to
be little point to getting a chuck to hold in a chuck via an adaptor. :-)

Granted, people have held much smaller lathe chucks for tiny
workpieces in gigantic lathe chucks, but the size of *this* chuck is one
which is probably already available for your lathe spindle.

I have one of those, which I use sometimes when the lathe is set
up for collets, and I want to work on a small workpiece and don't want
to heave around the heavy larger chucks for my lathe. But mine is set
up for 5C collets.

Now -- you *could* use this in the spin indexer which you
mention somewhere below (from what I remember from reading the e-mail
earlier in the day). But that spin indexer is probably not as small as
you think it is. :-)

(Perhaps I can make a "collet block" tool holder for indexing). :-)

Yes -- that would be a good task to get started learning your
lathe and its capabilities.

It's limitations make me wonder if I should bother getting precision 5C
collets or just regular 5C collets.(Even after a tune up).

Regular for that. Probably regular for whatever you're going to
be doing. Save on buying the good ones until you have a machine which
can benefit from them.

Ok. Let's see. No "DoveTail Drill Chuck Tool Holder".All I need is the
Morse Taper #2 toll holder to allow me to use the center and regular
drills that I'd normally use on the tail stock, correct?

Yes -- with the problem of getting lateral centering each time
you use them which I mentioned before.

I'd like to mention that reamers, taps, ect. can also be put into that
holder.

They can. Taps, under power, are asking for trouble. I tap
under power in my lathe, but:

1) It has a bed turret, so the tool holders are always on center.

2) I have some releasing tap holders to mount in that turret.

When the tap reaches a pre-set depth, it pulls part of the
holder to release the coupling to the rigidly mounted part in
the turret. This allows the tap and part of the holder to spin
freely until I can stop and reverse the spindle to back the tap
out of the just made threads.

You don't have the releasing tap holders, and I don't think that
your spindle can be run at reasonable speeds and torque for
this -- depending on the size of the tap, of course.

I still don't know what a "chip breaker" is.

Oh -- I thought that you were asking whether you should get one.
It is a geometry in the insert or toolbit which causes the chips to curl
more than they can tolerate, so they break off frequently. Otherwise,
you can wind up with long spiral chips, which look pretty, but which can
get tangled up in the spinning workpiece and the chuck. And they often
have rather nasty sharp edges. Your stainless steel is probably one of
the flavors which will make the nasty ones.

I'll also have to come up with a good system for waste disposal.

Yes. You may have the trash pickup people really mad at you,
and you *may* be violating some ordinance where you live if you toss
metal turnings into the general trash.

An end mill grinding fixture is only for the square ended end
mills. For a ball end mill, you will need a serious tool and cutter
grinder, and quite a bit of time to learn to use it properly. I don't
have one, and have never had a chance to learn one. It will be a lot
cheaper to just buy new ball end mills as needed -- or if you are
dulling them a lot, find a service which will sharpen them for you.

Good. One less worry. BTW, the guide in the MSC catalog points to 3
flute end mills as the best choice for what I want to do with stainless
steel.

O.K. Two-flute or three-flute plunge fairly nicely though
either may take more power than you have in stainless depending on the
diameter, so you may need to pre-drill the holes to depth at a smaller
diameter first.

I guess that I can plunge jussst about any 1/4" ball-end mill
into Delrin. But the depth would have to be consistent between holes.
Which reminds me, I also need to get a carriage stop.

Yes.

* MT2 Rotabroach Arbor(@#$%! And I just brought a Rotabroach).

?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7591760352
I was discussin it in another thread.("Using A Rotabroach Cutter In A
Lathe")

*Please* -- when you post eBay auctions, just post the auction
number (7591760352 in the above), rather than the whole URL. That is
all that *I* use, and nobody else seems to be following this thread any
more.

Did you notice that this one is in England? The currency
exchange can be a pain, and shipping can take forever.

Yes, I noticed. But there doesn't seem to be another supplier.

It looks interesting -- though it is probably made for a mag
base drill, not a lathe.

I assume you mean the cutter portion and not the shank.

I mean the shank, which is a Morse taper to fit the spindle in
the mag base drill (or at least in *some* mag base drills), and the
other end is designed to hold the Rotabroach.

Yes -- it can be used to fit a Rotabroach to a lathe spindle,
though I'm not sure about the torque available from your lathe spindle
for running a Rotabroach in stainless steel.

* Steady Rest(Micro-Mark OEM)
* Follower Rest(Micro-Mark OEM)

Good.

* Face Plate

Does this not come standard with the lathe? The other two
*should* come standard with it, but probably don't.

You mean the rests?

The face plate should come standard with the lathe. The steady
and follower rests will have to come from the importer (Micro-Mark in
this case) as they don't cross over to other machines very well.

Yes. I'll be getting only the items that I have to get from Micro-Mark.

O.K.

And the 60 degree center reamer set was for when I was thinking of
making a tool holder that could be centered by having a rear hole in
the smae shape as the tail stock center.

That is the function normally performed by the center drills.
(Also listed as drill and countersink in the catalogs.) That reamer may
be needed for precision center holes when working on a precision
grinder, but not for normal lathe work.

Ok. I'll just stick with getting over/under hand reamers where
needed.(And just line the center drill up with the tail stock center).

Individual reamers as you need them -- unless you luck into a
nice price on eBay -- and can be sure that they are in good condition.
*Don't* bid on a batch of loose reamers. They have almost certainly been
beating against each other and have dulled the edges. If they are in
individual tubes, or in a roll-up tool pouch, the chances are better.

And *never* run a reamer backwards in the hole. It breaks down
the edges very quickly.

lathe Dog?

Not *one* lathe dog, but a set of lathe dogs to handle the range
of sizes which you expect to turn between centers.

And this is the one commonly mentioned item that I've not yet read
about a purpose for.

O.K. Think of a workpiece held between centers (a ball bearing
live center in the tailstock, and a solid center in the headstock).
This holds the workpiece perfectly on center -- but what turns the
workpiece. The surface area of contact between the headstock center and
the workpiece is too small to put any significant torque into it. A
lathe dog has a hole which slips over the workpiece, with a setscrew to
clamp it to the workpiece. The dog typically has a bent tail which
engages a slot in the driver faceplate. Some have straight tails, and
are driven by a bolt run through the faceplate and held by a nut.

Ok. I assume that each will encompass a small range of diameters so I
won't have to buy one for every 1/16" of an inch. :-)

Correct. The range is limited in part by the length of the
screw which grips the workpiece -- though there are other thing which
also play a role in deciding.

Rotary Table?
Dividing Head?
Index Plates?

Once you get a milling machine -- and the machine's size will
determine the size of what you want to get.

Actually, I've been studying these items because I've been working on
designing a small indexing jig for drilling/slotting plastic(Delrin),
and I'll probably pick up some index plates to use in it's design.

Note that the typical index plates are designed for different
gear ratios on different index heads. Mine is a 40:1 ratio, some are
20:1, and some are 90:1. You need to match the index plates to whatever
gearing is present in the index head which you buy or make.

My idea is actually a little different. Basically all I need is a plate
with 36 equally spaced holes and another with 10 holes. Actually it
probably would be best to just make what I need.(The only other end
mills I'll need will be for gear cutting).

Hmm ... 36 and 10. How about 36 and 40? The index head for the
Emco-Maier C5 mill (not to be confused with the 5C collet size) has
those two, plus two other counts -- all build into the one fixture. You
simply shift the spring-loaded pin from one threaded hole to another to
select the number of positions available.

And even the really tiny index head for the Unimat SL-1000
(long out of production) had available four index hubs with those four
hole counts. But they typically came with only the 36 hole one, and you
had to buy the others as accessories.

You'll have to look on eBay for these, and beware that the
pricing on the Unimat stuff has started into "collector's item" range.

The only thing found on eBay at the moment with a search on
"emco index head" is:

7594760412

which is probably too big for your purpose, but which is a very nice
one, with a rather unusual 4-jaw universal chuck -- that is, the jaws
move inward at the same rate, just like a 3-jaw. That might be very
nice for mounting on your lathe for turning truly square plates --
except that I don't see the outside grip jaws for it.

BTW. Since it was cheap and I'm getting a lot of other stuff from the
seller, I bought a little 5C spin index to experiment with.(#)

O.K. You may find it larger than you think. :-)

And as far as milling machines go. I was going to get the Micro-Mark
cousin to my lathe, but I've seen too many of them show up on eBay
broken.(So I'll wait).

The plastic gears, I suspect. I've seen lots of postings about
those giving way in some of the import milling machines.

Trammel

This suggests delusions of grandeur. Think of that as a very
large compass -- and none of your machines are large enough to take you
beyond the range of a normal machinist's divider.

Actually, the items I was looking at int he HF catalog are quite small.

Hmm ... normally a trammel is designed to take the place of a
compass or dividers where a standard design is too large to be easy to
use. There are trammel point sets designed to clamp onto a standard
yardstick for a cheap way to do it. I have a nice Starrett one with a
spare bar to allow handling a radius of up to 18", IIRC.

I'll be using a ruler. :-)

For scribing a circle?

[ ... ]

Beware of carbon steel dies. They are too brittle, and will
break or will chip teeth. You want HSS taps and or dies. The dies are
only needed for making external threads, which you should be able to do
on the lathe. The taps are more useful to you because internal
threading on a lathe of the smaller sizes is quite difficult.

I have still not figured out the corresponding tap diameters for those
numbers under 1/4".

Buy a *good* drill index filled with number-sized drills. You
will find a table embossed into the metal of the top tray which lists
the body and tap drill sizes for common number-sized screws.

Or -- look up the proper table in your _Machinery's Handbook_.

Or prepare to compile (language is 'C') a program which I wrote
some time ago:


================================================== ====================
number-screw 3 56
For a #3-56.000 screw:
Clearance diameter: 0.099
Tap drill diameter: 0.081
================================================== ====================

And you'll still need the drill index to convert those decimal sizes to
the number size. :-)

Also, I'm still keeping my eyes open for a good
bench block.(They seem to range from just over 2 inches to jsut over 4
inches).

Mine is a 3" one, IIRC. Made by Starrett.

The dies can be used to smooth down a thread which was cut just
a little oversized.

Ok. But I guess that I wouldn't *need* them if I cut the thread
correctly.

Yes -- if your *machine* is rigid enough to cut the threads
correctly.

[ ... ]

Well, the floor can support me and I weight well over three times what
the basic lathe weighs.(And well over twice it's length). :-)

But the bandsaw and the bench grinder are of similar weight to
your lathe -- or heavier.

The basic machine is only 90lbs(which I think is lighter than most in
it's class). So much for that "more massive bedway" statement in their
advertisment.(They do call it's .47 hp motor powerful).

:-)

Anyway, The bandsaw would be for cutting that 1/4" thick stainless I
mentioned.

So you would need a vertical bandsaw for that. The horizontal
ones are good for cutting overlength stock to a reasonable length for
what you intend to do with it.

And a vertical bandsaw which will run at speeds appropriate for
stainless will be big and heavy. Proably 600 pounds or so, at a rough
guess.

600?!?

Yes -- in part just to find a bandsaw which will run slow enough
to cut stainless steel. Most inexpensive (and light) bandsaws have
speeds only appropriate for wood or metals like brass or aluminum. They
are *way* too fast for mild steel even -- let along stainless.

What about 4" long cuts through 1/16" thick stainless steel?

The same rules apply. It is the blade speed which is the major
problem. (Actually, you *might* be able to get away with the
horizontal/vertical bandsaw in vertical mode -- if you don't need to cut
too far from the edge of the workpiece, as the clearance for the other
side is rather limited.

Enjoy,
DoN.

P.S. I'm getting to dread weekends, since that is when I get hit by
several of your long postings.
--
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