It seems to me you'd want the bed of a lathe to pretty flat, so why not
start with ground flat stock? Tool steel is not that hard to work with its
annealed.

The bigger question is why go to so much trouble? Spend a hundred or two on
a decent basic watchmakers lathe and learn to turn like a real man (or
woman) - with a t-rest and hand gravers. The eyes and hands are wonderful
things and can be trained to work together (with brain in between) to turn
out very percise work. They didn't need a cross slide back in the day and
these days people are paying way too much for them. Learning to turn by hand
is very rewarding and may be a simpler entree into metal working than making
a little aluminum lathe from scatch.

"mongke" wrote in message
...
Today I went scouring the steel supply area in my city. Oceans of 1/8" CRS
sheet. Mountains of HRS 1/4" and more. No 1/4" CRS with adecuate
dimensions.
Actually I found a 3ft x 3ft plate of CRS but it was quite warped. A
major bummer.

After a whole day of walking I decided to buy several pieces of CRS of
2.5" width, just in case the stuff goes scarce. Would these be adecuate
for the ways of the shaper and the milling machine?

OTOH, I found that I can get a piece of O1 tool steel 5/16"x3"x24" for
about
$28. I suppose it comes ground "flat". Can it be drilled with carbide
tipped masonry bits or do I need cobalt?.
Also inquired about S type steels, but it seems they cut the stuff from
large blocks, so it could be a bear to scrape.
Will be buying tomorrow before prices climb more. Any thoughts?

Regards,


Mongke