"Damian Huckle" wrote in message
news
Hi guys,

I've just set up a Victor 16 x 40 lathe and did some practice turning on a
2" hot-rolled mild steel round. No matter what variables I played with I
never got a satisfactory surface finish. The tooling seemed to pick-up or
drag metal, and this would lead to small gouges in the finish. I tried
various things, but never could eliminate it consistently.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Damian



As Roy said it can be hard to get a good finish on hot rolled steel. I've
found the same as you - try finding some "free-machining" steel it turns
well with a nice finish. I don't know exactly what "free-machining" means,
perhaps some one else will enlighten us. I guess the alloy composition gives
it nice machining properties.

rob