One failing with Sherline - if they have any failings at all - might be the
maximum speed of the lathe spindle. While centering a piece of drill rod
with one of the sub-sized center drills ( about 3 sizes below #1) I was
quite perplexed when all of a sudden, it quit cutting and went to "buzzing".
Close examination of the work piece revealed the tip of the center drill
broken off and deeply imbedded in the, errr, "center" of the aborted
indentation on the drill rod. All this after prescribed "peck drilling" of
the center hole. Problem was, the center drill's tiny tip was so small as
to require either super delicate pecking or super fast spindle speed. Of
course, I had neither. Carbide to the rescue! The offending HSS center pip
was conveniently drilled out with my smallest solid carbide drill bit, about
1/8". Mr. Sherline didn't object in any way as carbide chewed away the
imbedded HSS center drill tip. Not going too deep with this rescue
operation left enough meat to effect proper, and very careful, center
drilling of the new "carbidized" spot on work piece. Besides the sloping
sides of the rescue hole left a nice oil-retention socket. It almost looked
as if it was planned that way.

Bob Swinney

That's the reason the old-timers got rid of the tip on small centre
drills when they first introduced them to their bench grinder.

"Robert Swinney" wrote in message
...
| One failing with Sherline - if they have any failings at all - might
be the
| maximum speed of the lathe spindle. While centering a piece of
drill rod
| with one of the sub-sized center drills ( about 3 sizes below #1) I
was
| quite perplexed when all of a sudden, it quit cutting and went to
"buzzing".
| Close examination of the work piece revealed the tip of the center
drill
| broken off and deeply imbedded in the, errr, "center" of the aborted
| indentation on the drill rod. All this after prescribed "peck
drilling" of
| the center hole. Problem was, the center drill's tiny tip was so
small as
| to require either super delicate pecking or super fast spindle
speed. Of
| course, I had neither. Carbide to the rescue! The offending HSS
center pip
| was conveniently drilled out with my smallest solid carbide drill
bit, about
| 1/8". Mr. Sherline didn't object in any way as carbide chewed away
the
| imbedded HSS center drill tip. Not going too deep with this rescue
| operation left enough meat to effect proper, and very careful,
center
| drilling of the new "carbidized" spot on work piece. Besides the
sloping
| sides of the rescue hole left a nice oil-retention socket. It
almost looked
| as if it was planned that way.
|
| Bob Swinney
|
|

Robert Swinney wrote:
One failing with Sherline - if they have any failings at all - might be the
maximum speed of the lathe spindle. While centering a piece of drill rod

Sherline will sell you a new set of pulleys that will push the
spindle speed to 10k. I tried them out and the motor has barely
enough power to get to 10k even after adjusting the bearing pre-load.
I was going to play with grinding wheels but didn't need it after all.
chuck

Agreed, Chuck. Also, better to not mess with abrasives in the general
vicinity of precision machine tools.

Bob Swinney
"Chuck Sherwood" wrote in message
...
Robert Swinney wrote:
One failing with Sherline - if they have any failings at all - might be
the
maximum speed of the lathe spindle. While centering a piece of drill rod

Sherline will sell you a new set of pulleys that will push the
spindle speed to 10k. I tried them out and the motor has barely
enough power to get to 10k even after adjusting the bearing pre-load.
I was going to play with grinding wheels but didn't need it after all.
chuck

Agreed, Chuck. Also, better to not mess with abrasives in the general
vicinity of precision machine tools.

I will do jobs on the sherline that I would not do on my other nice
machines because the sherline is MUCH cheaper and easier to replace.

I turned some machinable ceramic on the sherline
with a vacuum cleaner running to catch the dust. Better to abuse
the sherline than my nice myford that cost so much more.

Does that tell me you do not ordinarily work to the precision that your
Sherline is capable, errrrr, used to be, capable of?

Bob (a'grinnin')
Swinney
"Chuck Sherwood" wrote in message
...
Agreed, Chuck. Also, better to not mess with abrasives in the general
vicinity of precision machine tools.

I will do jobs on the sherline that I would not do on my other nice
machines because the sherline is MUCH cheaper and easier to replace.

I turned some machinable ceramic on the sherline
with a vacuum cleaner running to catch the dust. Better to abuse
the sherline than my nice myford that cost so much more.

Does that tell me you do not ordinarily work to the precision that your
Sherline is capable, errrrr, used to be, capable of?
Bob (a'grinnin')

Life is full of choices. Given a choice, I prefer to expose the sherline
to possible wear from abrasive dust than my very nice Myford. This
way the myford is always ready for precision work.

Reguardless of what machine I use, I do my best to keep the dust
off the machine and I clean it up afterwards.

I use to have an OLD craftsman/atlas lathe that I used for cast iron work.
I have since replaced it with a very nice rockwell 11 inch lathe and
it will bother me to turn CI on it but I guess thats life.

"Chuck Sherwood" wrote in message
...

I use to have an OLD craftsman/atlas lathe that I used for cast iron work.
I have since replaced it with a very nice rockwell 11 inch lathe and
it will bother me to turn CI on it but I guess thats life.

Interesting thought... I wonder if anyone here has actually experienced wear
on their machine, based on excessive use in a harsh environment.

At work, we have large radial arm drill presses (roughly 15ft high, perhaps
8ft reach). We're constantly grinding (with disc and die grinders) around
them and they've been there for many years. They're still very capable
machines, even with their exposed boxways.

I'm not saying I'd want to have my machine exposed to a similar environment,
but I wonder if cutting the odd chunk of cast iron would greatly affect the
capability of most machine tools...

Regards,

Robin

I once saw a lathe with extensive shielding, so there were no visible
sliding ways or screws. Really changed the look, and probably the price.

Jordan

Robin S. wrote:
I wonder if anyone here has actually experienced wear
on their machine, based on excessive use in a harsh environment.