"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
Ok, I am ridiculously satisfied with myself at the moment. I took a
perfectly good stainless steel bolt and turned it into a worthless example
of Vise Grip activity.

Santa brought a mini lathe to the La Londe household. Unfortunately the
fat bastidge didn't bring any tooling. Wanting desperately to play with
the new toy I cleaned all the grease off today and then began to think
about different things I might use as a cutter. I can tell you
definitively and with authority that a stainless steel bolt is harder than
a cheap cold chisel. LOL.

HOWEVER, a broken 3/8 HSS end mill can be turned into a crude XXXX bit by

^ lathe

liberal free hand application of a bench grinder and quenching
periodically in oil as it takes shape. I then proceeded to turn a
perfectly good 2 dollar bolt into 10¢ worth of scrap stainless. I managed
to turn the head into a nice cylinder, and even face the end square to the
sides before my home made cutter got too dull because I pushed it too
fast. OOooh! AAaaah!

So what was the first thing you ever turned on a metal lathe?

I have used a wood lathe to duplicate spindles and made dowels in my drill
press in a pinch, but that was a whole different experience. I am
entirely too satisfied with myself.