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

I don't believe that tool steel comes hardened. You should be able to drill
it with HSS bits. It will work harden, so you will not want to dilly-dally
through any holes.

"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

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

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 02:16:10 +0000, Rich McCarty wrote:

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Subject: steel for gingery ways continued
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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





Actually I'm also learning hand turning. It's a joy. Problem is, small
bench lathes are practically non-existant in my country. All second hand
lathes I've seen are industrial types. Way too costly for my very shallow pockets
plus I simply dont have space for one of these. So building one is the only way
to get one. Plus I want the experience in casting and putting together an
usable device. Actually a lathe is a (relatively) simple device. Its just
that I did not expect trouble finding steel for the ways (as per Gingery).
Anyway $28 for a slab of tool steel is not unreasonable, given that I
already scrounged all the other materials from junk.
When I'm finished I'll add a t-rest so I can hand turn or use the cross
slide as I please. Why getting one whe I can do both?

Regards,,

Mongke

"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


I wouldn't use cold-rolled for any machine ways, there's way too much
stress locked up from the finishing process. Ground flat stock is the
stuff, you can get it either as mild steel stock or "tool" steel, O1,
W1, or the like. In the the Commonwealth countries, I believe they
refer to it as "gauge plate". The stuff is supplied annealed,
machines beautifully with normal tools.

I've got plans for a small screw-cutting metal lathe made with regular
bar stock sizes, I priced it out once for both ground flat stock and
cold-rolled. In the quantities needed, the price wasn't that much
different. For about $75 more, I could get a 7x10 ready to go with a
much bigger swing, longer bed and larger spindle hole, no assembly, no
gear cutting or modifications needed. I'm one of those guys that
wants to get projects done, not spend my time making the tools to do
them, so I went that route.


Stan

Hello Stan,
Any way of getting a copy of the plans?
Regards
GeoffH
Norfolk - UK

On 14 Apr 2004 11:14:26 -0700, (Stan Schaefer)
wrote:

"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


I wouldn't use cold-rolled for any machine ways, there's way too much
stress locked up from the finishing process. Ground flat stock is the
stuff, you can get it either as mild steel stock or "tool" steel, O1,
W1, or the like. In the the Commonwealth countries, I believe they
refer to it as "gauge plate". The stuff is supplied annealed,
machines beautifully with normal tools.

I've got plans for a small screw-cutting metal lathe made with regular
bar stock sizes, I priced it out once for both ground flat stock and
cold-rolled. In the quantities needed, the price wasn't that much
different. For about $75 more, I could get a 7x10 ready to go with a
much bigger swing, longer bed and larger spindle hole, no assembly, no
gear cutting or modifications needed. I'm one of those guys that
wants to get projects done, not spend my time making the tools to do
them, so I went that route.


Stan