Feeling a little restricted.

[Richard.]

Yep. Lathes anonymous here I come.
I know this sort of thing is school play to some of you guys but I'm very pleased with this afternoons achievement.
I'm never gonna make money with it that's for sure as you have no idea how long this took me to make and yet it is a useless item.

 

[Pete.]

Terrific job there Richard. Is that turned in steel?

 

[Richard.]

Terrific job there Richard. Is that turned in steel?

No pete its Alu. I bought a great lump of bar to practice with.
I'll move on to steel once I get a firm understanding of its limits with soft materials.

 

[Pete.]

Aah, it was the slightly dull look that made me think it might be steel. Still a cracking job as aluminium has it's own challenges, raised crests and tearing is quite common.

When you start on steel try some En1A it has lead in it and machines very nicely. Won't weld worth a damn but it's good practice material.

 

[MattH]

Getting a tooled finish is the one thing I didn't struggle with right from the off. That to me suggests the machine needs attention cod if I can do it in a day or two any one can
Ive been playing a lot with the gearing to get my feed speed as perfect as I can.
Alu is the best material for learning the art of finishing IMO. This is what I have mine down at now.

Put one of the positive rake inserts in and you'll be amazed with the finish.

 

[Richard.]

Put one of the positive rake inserts in and you'll be amazed with the finish.

Got to take a shave off the shaft first Matt. Then I'll be trying those out.

 

[WorkshopChris]

En1A it has lead in it and machines very nicely. Won't weld worth a damn but it's good practice material.

Sounds like i am not the only one to get that sinking feeling when you first start the weld then realise its a lump of 1A as said lovely to machine but!!!
I don't know how strong the resulting weld is but i never have any confidence in it, its normally when someone has grabbed a bar end or offcut to make a quick puller or special one off tool.

as you have no idea how long this took me to make and yet it is a useless item.

The important thing is you made it, and its only going to get quicker and come more naturally.
I think you have already progressed in a few weeks with that lathe than many people achieve in a few years.

 

[MattH]

Got to take a shave off the shaft first Matt. Then I'll be trying those out.

If it's Ali you can use them for roughing. I've taken 100thou per side cuts with them with no issues (5mm off the diameter in one pass).
Your lathe probably can't do that but the tool can.

 

[MattH]

P.s. Great work so far. If you can master and internal thread then there's not really much more to it. It's all about layering basic operations to build up complex parts. The workflow is what comes with practice and speeds everything up. As you are no doubt learning, preparation is everything. Most of the time the actual turning operations are the quicker bit.

Milling machine next ;-)

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@Richard. That's terrific progress in the short time you've had the lathe, keep it up!!

 

[Richard.]

P.s. Great work so far. If you can master and internal thread then there's not really much more to it. It's all about layering basic operations to build up complex parts. The workflow is what comes with practice and speeds everything up. As you are no doubt learning, preparation is everything. Most of the time the actual turning operations are the quicker bit.

Milling machine next ;-)

I read the whole internal thread section in that book you sent before starting work then followed the instructions to the letter. Made no scrap either.

 

[addjunkie]

Next challenge....get any old screwed pipe fittings and measure them and make bits to fit...or is it cube in a cube ?

The skill once you can turn an mill is the sequence you do the different stages. Most annoying when you have 30 hours into some thing and you wreck it., holding it in the chuck, or it flys out.....becasuse you did things in the wrong order.

 

[Newlands]

Rchard - you might enjoy this.

 

[Richard.]

Well I had a go at using the milling slide tonight.
Mixed results. I had a practice with some Alu to get a feel and as you can imagine just like the lathe it machines easy it finishes up great. My intention was to use it to mill down some 12mm square tool bars because they are too big for my quick change post.
Now this stuff is hard. I don't think the machine is up to it. Even the tiniest cuts with sharp bits the vibration was too much and I don't want to start putting unwanted pressure on the little lathe. I got one almost done but I chose to stop.
Is my machine undergunned for this hard material?
If so who wants the job there is 4 to do if your up for quoting me. I'll keep mine for softer materials like mild steel etc.

 

[MattH]

Just get them on a bench grinder. No different to grinding HSS tool bits.

 

[optima21]

if you're using a vertical slide, you'll need to lock the other slides that arn't being moved to cut down on the vibration. it can make a big difference when milling compared to turning on the smaller lathes.

it will depend in how hard the tools bars are, but you might find you have more success by reducing the cutter speed and increasing the speed of cut.

Do you need to machine the tool bars, if you're only wanting to reduce the height, you could use a file and hacksaw or an angle grinder. it might be a bit crude but would work.

another source of info is the model engineers handbook (please delete if against the rules)

http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/content/books/TheModelEngineersHandbook_TubalCain.pdf

see page 89 for machinability groups and page 95 for milling cutter speeds (assumed they are hss cutters)

 

[Richard.]

Just get them on a bench grinder. No different to grinding HSS tool bits.

I'm taking them down on the full length by 2mm. They need to be flat.

 

[Richard.]

Hss tool bits I grind the head part . Not the length. That's not right they need to be machined.

 

[addjunkie]

You should be able to machine hard steel on your lathe. Instead of milling set them up in a 4 jaw chuck and face them off.

But the tip about locking all the slides is a very valid one. When you say hard steel what type of steel do you think it is?

Did you try a tipped cutter or an hss one?

 

[Pete.]

You're machining HSS? Bloody fair play if you can manage that on a vertical slide. Must be hell on the cutters.