nice work there, these smaller machines have turned out hundreds, if not thousands of precision parts around the globe for years and are great for folk that dont have a lot of room. its all about working to your limitations and finding ways to work around not having the size.
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addjunkie
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what a difference a digital readout makes, makes it so much easier to use, I wish I'd done it years ago. Over Christmas I've made a travelling and fixed steady, I started off with a piece of 200mm x 100mm x 20mm aluminium plate for the steady bodies, 300mm length of 1/2" brass for the finger, some ball bearings to act as rollers on the finger and some 1/8" dowels to mount the bearings. I couldn't decide of it was better to use roller bearings or not, so made fingers that could be used with or without bearings.
when I first started thinking about making them I was going to use fine adjustment for the fingers like on this one
but decided against if due to the amount of extra work involved and how much I am likely to use a steady.
the first thing I did was to make the fingers, I could have faced the ends of these in a 4 jaw chuck on a lathe, but decided to mill them instead. to make this easier to set up I got a cheap angle plate off ebay milled a step off two sides so that small bars can be accurately mounted on it vertically so I could face the ends accurately without having to do much setting up. they were squared off using a small flycutter and then slots milled for the bearings to go into. originally I was going to use a slitting saw for cutting the slots, but didnt have a 1/8" wide slitting saw and then found that the bearings were 5/32" wide.
the slots were then milled out of the fingers. as my vice is narrower that length of the slot I used another finger either side to prevent the finger being milled for being compressed in the middle when the final cut was being made and jamming the cutter (or becoming loose in the vice)
the ended were then milled at an angle. the easiest way for me to do this with repeatable accuracy (and 20 chamfers on 5 fingers), was to use the small angle plate I'd modified earlier and mounted it on a rotary table.
the holes for the dowels to hold the bearings were drilled and reamed and the dowels were pressed into the holes.
the saddle was removed from the lathe and couple of holes drilled and tapped in it, so the fixed steady could be fastened to it.
the blank for the fixed steady was then faced on 2 edges to square them up, and a step was milled so that it would mount on the lathe saddle and a couple of holes for the fixing bolts were drilled (using an old bearing outer race as a parallel so I didnt drill the milling machine table
the lathe was then re-assembled and the fixed steady blank was fitted and hole drilled in it so that there was a reference for the centre of the lathe
the two slots for the fingers were then cut, this is where the digital readout makes such a difference, square the plate up in the milling machine, set the readout to zero for the x and y axis on the centre of the hole and cut the slots in stages from the centre.
the centre was then bored out using a boring head and a slot drill as the cutter. (it gives a better finish than my home made cutters and are cheap enough on ebay.
and another bit of milling, again using a bearing race as a parallel
and the completed fixed steady
when I first started thinking about making them I was going to use fine adjustment for the fingers like on this one
but decided against if due to the amount of extra work involved and how much I am likely to use a steady.
the first thing I did was to make the fingers, I could have faced the ends of these in a 4 jaw chuck on a lathe, but decided to mill them instead. to make this easier to set up I got a cheap angle plate off ebay milled a step off two sides so that small bars can be accurately mounted on it vertically so I could face the ends accurately without having to do much setting up. they were squared off using a small flycutter and then slots milled for the bearings to go into. originally I was going to use a slitting saw for cutting the slots, but didnt have a 1/8" wide slitting saw and then found that the bearings were 5/32" wide.
the slots were then milled out of the fingers. as my vice is narrower that length of the slot I used another finger either side to prevent the finger being milled for being compressed in the middle when the final cut was being made and jamming the cutter (or becoming loose in the vice)
the ended were then milled at an angle. the easiest way for me to do this with repeatable accuracy (and 20 chamfers on 5 fingers), was to use the small angle plate I'd modified earlier and mounted it on a rotary table.
the holes for the dowels to hold the bearings were drilled and reamed and the dowels were pressed into the holes.
the saddle was removed from the lathe and couple of holes drilled and tapped in it, so the fixed steady could be fastened to it.
the blank for the fixed steady was then faced on 2 edges to square them up, and a step was milled so that it would mount on the lathe saddle and a couple of holes for the fixing bolts were drilled (using an old bearing outer race as a parallel so I didnt drill the milling machine table
the lathe was then re-assembled and the fixed steady blank was fitted and hole drilled in it so that there was a reference for the centre of the lathe
the two slots for the fingers were then cut, this is where the digital readout makes such a difference, square the plate up in the milling machine, set the readout to zero for the x and y axis on the centre of the hole and cut the slots in stages from the centre.
the centre was then bored out using a boring head and a slot drill as the cutter. (it gives a better finish than my home made cutters and are cheap enough on ebay.
and another bit of milling, again using a bearing race as a parallel
and the completed fixed steady
on another thread there were comments about how smaller lathes lack rigidity compared to the larger machines. on the hobbymat the main bed is 40mm diameter cast iron, with an cast aluminium bed under it and a plastic end plate that connects the two together. when its stripped down there isnt much strength to them, but I can live with it, and its still pretty accurate.
this is definately a fixed steady
its not a travelling one, just incase I get mixed up again later
you used to be able to buy them for my lathe years ago, but they were held in place with a U clamp, which I dont think would be the easiest of things to use as space is pretty tight between the leadscrew and circular bed. I decided that it would be easier to use and set up if it was only clamped from one side instead.
the fixed steady started off as a block of 100mm x 125mm x 20mm aluminium.
first it had the edges squared off and then the bottom was machined to fit on the bed and give clearance where necessary. as the bed has a flat top the recess that sits on the bed needed to have angled sides for better location. Id recently bought some C clamps for mounting things on angle plates rather than using G clamps as they are easier to adjust for lighter work and dont have a twisting action when tightened
this was then mounted on the lathe bed and the centre marked using a dead centre in the tailstock.you can also see how I was going to do the clamping from one side (in the same way as I clamp items to the milling machine)
this was then mounted on a the rotary table my milling machine and centred on the mark from the dead centre (using a dead centre in the milling machine). the slots for the fingers were then cut using an endmill. if you dont need to plunge into a workpiece to cut a slot I normally use an endmill as they cut faster and have less vibration that slot drills (due the the movement of the head assembly).
the centre was then bored out using a milling cutter in a boring head again. I do need make a shorter bit, good job the cutters are cheap on ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141638326085
and the two completed steadies side by side
I did start to do some drawings before I made the steadies,but got as far as working out the dimensions for the fingers. I then made them and everything else was done as I went along. the centres of the steadies were marked out by the lathe, so are in the correct place. if I tried to work it out the centres by measuring and then working from a drawing I'd probably have ended up with them being in the wrong place. I wonder how long it will be before I need to use them as Ive managed for 20 years without them
this is definately a fixed steady
its not a travelling one, just incase I get mixed up again lateryou used to be able to buy them for my lathe years ago, but they were held in place with a U clamp, which I dont think would be the easiest of things to use as space is pretty tight between the leadscrew and circular bed. I decided that it would be easier to use and set up if it was only clamped from one side instead.
the fixed steady started off as a block of 100mm x 125mm x 20mm aluminium.
first it had the edges squared off and then the bottom was machined to fit on the bed and give clearance where necessary. as the bed has a flat top the recess that sits on the bed needed to have angled sides for better location. Id recently bought some C clamps for mounting things on angle plates rather than using G clamps as they are easier to adjust for lighter work and dont have a twisting action when tightened
this was then mounted on the lathe bed and the centre marked using a dead centre in the tailstock.you can also see how I was going to do the clamping from one side (in the same way as I clamp items to the milling machine)
this was then mounted on a the rotary table my milling machine and centred on the mark from the dead centre (using a dead centre in the milling machine). the slots for the fingers were then cut using an endmill. if you dont need to plunge into a workpiece to cut a slot I normally use an endmill as they cut faster and have less vibration that slot drills (due the the movement of the head assembly).
the centre was then bored out using a milling cutter in a boring head again. I do need make a shorter bit, good job the cutters are cheap on ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141638326085
and the two completed steadies side by side
I did start to do some drawings before I made the steadies,but got as far as working out the dimensions for the fingers. I then made them and everything else was done as I went along. the centres of the steadies were marked out by the lathe, so are in the correct place. if I tried to work it out the centres by measuring and then working from a drawing I'd probably have ended up with them being in the wrong place. I wonder how long it will be before I need to use them as Ive managed for 20 years without them
many years ago I needed to reduce the hexagon size on 100 10BA nuts, so using a rotary table would have been a very slow process, so I ended up making a 12 way rotary indexing spindle, that allowed to to divide by 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12 ways. I decided to make another one using a ER20 100mm long collet chuck spindle, so that I could use any size of spigot upto 13mm and clamp on any diameter upto 13mm
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221981333271
I needed to make a clamp with 12 positions in it to allow me to to the dividing, so ended up making this
start off by boring a peice of 40mm bar mounted on spacers on the chuck jaws for clearance for the boring bar
the mounting it on a rotary table to drill and ream the 12 indexing holes
then milling the boss on the clamping part (again in the rotary table)
and slitting it with a slitting saw so the clamp can be tightened
the main block was squared up using a flycutter in a milling machine and then bored out so that oilite bushes could be used for the spindle to go in
and the spring loaded plunger using a sliver steel shaft as its a sliding fit in the reamed holes in the clamp
now I had made this I realised I could use it for indexing to sharpen my small shell end mills on my milling machine using an adaptor for the milling cutter. For doing the grinding I used a 100mm diamond grinding disc.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291268213175
i
in a slitting saw holder. the disc is good for one end mill, its past its best by the time I'd finished the second one
the thin aluminium wire between the rotary table and the body of the indexer is to get a dish angle on the cutting edges to give clearance in the centre of the cutter.
it seemed to work pretty well considering that Ive been wanting to sharpen the shell mills for 10 years. the biggest problem is the diamond grinding dust so I needed to keep as much of the milling machine covered as possible. then when I'd finished it needed vacuuming and cleaning carefully as diamond grit and oil make a very effective grinding paste.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221981333271
I needed to make a clamp with 12 positions in it to allow me to to the dividing, so ended up making this
start off by boring a peice of 40mm bar mounted on spacers on the chuck jaws for clearance for the boring bar
the mounting it on a rotary table to drill and ream the 12 indexing holes
then milling the boss on the clamping part (again in the rotary table)
and slitting it with a slitting saw so the clamp can be tightened
the main block was squared up using a flycutter in a milling machine and then bored out so that oilite bushes could be used for the spindle to go in
and the spring loaded plunger using a sliver steel shaft as its a sliding fit in the reamed holes in the clamp
now I had made this I realised I could use it for indexing to sharpen my small shell end mills on my milling machine using an adaptor for the milling cutter. For doing the grinding I used a 100mm diamond grinding disc.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291268213175
i
in a slitting saw holder. the disc is good for one end mill, its past its best by the time I'd finished the second one
the thin aluminium wire between the rotary table and the body of the indexer is to get a dish angle on the cutting edges to give clearance in the centre of the cutter.
it seemed to work pretty well considering that Ive been wanting to sharpen the shell mills for 10 years. the biggest problem is the diamond grinding dust so I needed to keep as much of the milling machine covered as possible. then when I'd finished it needed vacuuming and cleaning carefully as diamond grit and oil make a very effective grinding paste.
addjunkie
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I concur.....awesome.....
ohh its been a while since I updated this, but tonight I used a lathe mounted grinder that I made over 20 years ago, and don't think I've used it for 15 years. I decided to true up the jaws of my independant 4 jaw chuck. after seeing some videos on youtube, I decided to loctite the jaws in place using loctite 243, which is strong enough to hold the jaws in place, but easy enough to remove the jaws afterwards (before cleaning them up). I mounted some nylon in the chuck, centred it, applied loctite to the edge of the jaws and left overnight. the nylon bar was then removed by tapping out out with a rod though the lathe spindle.
and some pictures of the grinder I made
using a 1/4 chuck with a 1/8 shaft grinding point
not sure of the spec of the motor but think I was approx 2500 rpm
in the days before I could weld there was silver soldering, the different sections were "fabricated" using silver solder
I originally used an O ring as a drive belt, but that had perished years ago so tonight I tried an old lathe drive belt. well it worked, not sure what rpm I ended up with
and once the jaws were trued they were easy enough to remove before cleaning.
so I think it might be worth doing a rebuild of this grinder with the following
1) a new spindle using er11 collets (will have a higher speed rating than a drill chuck)
2) new drive pulleys to get a faster grinding speed
3) a new mounting for the motor, so that it goes to the tailstock end of the lathe when in use
might be another 10 or 15 years before I try and use it again...and yesterday I was thinking of using a dremel type rotary tool as a grinder
and some pictures of the grinder I made
using a 1/4 chuck with a 1/8 shaft grinding point
not sure of the spec of the motor but think I was approx 2500 rpm
in the days before I could weld there was silver soldering, the different sections were "fabricated" using silver solder
I originally used an O ring as a drive belt, but that had perished years ago so tonight I tried an old lathe drive belt. well it worked, not sure what rpm I ended up with
and once the jaws were trued they were easy enough to remove before cleaning.
so I think it might be worth doing a rebuild of this grinder with the following
1) a new spindle using er11 collets (will have a higher speed rating than a drill chuck)
2) new drive pulleys to get a faster grinding speed
3) a new mounting for the motor, so that it goes to the tailstock end of the lathe when in use
might be another 10 or 15 years before I try and use it again...and yesterday I was thinking of using a dremel type rotary tool as a grinder
Wow you have really gone to town on that little lathe!
I bought one when I was a teenager. Did you have a problem with the base of the tailstock casting cracking? The one I had did. Bad design - uses a bolt to force the cast iron apart! I was very very careful with it but it still cracked. I sold it to a friend after that - too limited for me but you have obviously transformed it!
I bought one when I was a teenager. Did you have a problem with the base of the tailstock casting cracking? The one I had did. Bad design - uses a bolt to force the cast iron apart! I was very very careful with it but it still cracked. I sold it to a friend after that - too limited for me but you have obviously transformed it!
I've not had that problem, there are two bolts, one clamps the tailstock and the other wedges it open. the one which wedges it open is set so that the tailstock can slide along the bed, and the other one is used to clamp it. the only bolt I use is the one that does the clamping. its easy to get the bolts mixed up though, maybe they should have used different sized cap head screws.
It was a very long time ago - mine was prob about 1988 ish. The casting was very very thin at one point. Perhaps mine had a slight flaw in it in the wrong place or else they beefed it up a little.
Richard.
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Well I’m very impressed. I’ve just read this start to finish and dam your good mate.
I’m going to try hard not to sound to insulting here towards other lathe mill owners but you see and hear about people’s lathes and milling machines. Folk with thousands of ££££££ of kit sitting there. Folk that can talk the talk, know there stuff yet you never actually see a single thing turned out on it. You’ve got two bits of kit that most members on here wouldn’t want to go near yet you’ve turned out work that I doubt most would be capable of on there posh machines.
You’ve also made that kit incredibly good with that kit. Top man you. I just hope you haven’t finished yet as I’m ready to read more.
I’m going to try hard not to sound to insulting here towards other lathe mill owners but you see and hear about people’s lathes and milling machines. Folk with thousands of ££££££ of kit sitting there. Folk that can talk the talk, know there stuff yet you never actually see a single thing turned out on it. You’ve got two bits of kit that most members on here wouldn’t want to go near yet you’ve turned out work that I doubt most would be capable of on there posh machines.
You’ve also made that kit incredibly good with that kit. Top man you. I just hope you haven’t finished yet as I’m ready to read more.
@Richard. thanks for those kind words 
I saw this video on youtube a couple of weeks ago and made me think that I need to make a slow feed attachment for the quill
I ordered a tap to hob a worm wheel on when I mentioned it earlier.
Im waiting for some indexable lathe tools from the far east that use ccmt060204 inserts asds and was hoping they would be here by Christmas.
when they arrive I want to make a er20 collet chuck that mounts on the spindle nose of the lathe.
with the recent cold spell I ended up looking into remaking the grinding spindle, using a 12v motor, 1mm pitch timing belts and pulleys and an er11 collet chuck with an 8mm spindle (the bearings I used in the original spindle are 8mm bore), so its a straight swap. as the motor specs seem to be a bit random I ended up getting an optical rev counter to check the speed.
I was originally looking at making some v pulleys, but the chunk of aluminium to make them with costs more than the timing pulleys and the toothed belts wont slip on the timing pulleys either.
my problem is that I spend far too much time working out how to make things than doing the making, I need to spend more time working on my cars and geting the hang of the tig welding
I saw this video on youtube a couple of weeks ago and made me think that I need to make a slow feed attachment for the quill
I ordered a tap to hob a worm wheel on when I mentioned it earlier.
Im waiting for some indexable lathe tools from the far east that use ccmt060204 inserts asds and was hoping they would be here by Christmas.
when they arrive I want to make a er20 collet chuck that mounts on the spindle nose of the lathe.
with the recent cold spell I ended up looking into remaking the grinding spindle, using a 12v motor, 1mm pitch timing belts and pulleys and an er11 collet chuck with an 8mm spindle (the bearings I used in the original spindle are 8mm bore), so its a straight swap. as the motor specs seem to be a bit random I ended up getting an optical rev counter to check the speed.
I was originally looking at making some v pulleys, but the chunk of aluminium to make them with costs more than the timing pulleys and the toothed belts wont slip on the timing pulleys either.
my problem is that I spend far too much time working out how to make things than doing the making, I need to spend more time working on my cars and geting the hang of the tig welding
God mode restorations
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This is a great thread. Fantastic work.
MattF
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That's where most of the enjoyment is, IMHO. It's like when you mend or restore something. Is the main enjoyment in using it afterwards, else in the actual mending/restoration? I've oft wondered that myself, as the latter seems to get more hours spent on it.
I decided that I could do with a new backplate for my 4 jaw and 3 jaw chucks, and unlike most of the smaller lathes, the backplate for the chuck doesn't screw onto the spindle, it gets bolted to it by 3 cap head screws. so the backplate for the hobbymat is basically a flat plate with a hole bored though the middle of it. My original plan was to face up a 100mm dia steel plate, centre drill the plate and then mount it on a rotary table to drill the 3 holes that it is mounted to spindle with. I managed to start drilling the centre bore, and it was too large. it took me a while to figure out that I have a digital readout so I could use an edge finder to find the centre of the hole like this
and here is me doing it using an old bearing outer race underneath as a parallel
and the pcd for the 3 mounting holes could be calculated using this web page (which calculates the co-ordinates for any number of holes on a pcd)
https://littlemachineshop.com/mobile/bolt_circle.php
and counterboring the holes
with hindsight this was easier than my original plan, so it looks like you can teach an old dog new tricks
and then turning the step on the backplate that chucks mount onto. (its handy having 4 jaw and 3 jaw chucks with the same size recess)
and with the mounting holes drilled and tapped for both chucks, with the old backplate on the right.
I decided that instead of grinding some new hss turning tools, I thought I'd buy some of the cheap indexable tools from the far east.
so for 8mm square tools that use CCMT or CCGT carbide inserts I used these
for right had cutting
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222538954272
for left hand cutting (couldnt find any on ebay but found them on aliexpress and it was my first order with them)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SCL...32817775865.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.HrB9fc
and boring bars
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192244611161
for steel and stainless steel Ive got these inserts (CCMT0600204
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm//322520370951
and for aluminium Ive got these inserts (CCGT060204)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10pcs-9-...var=562060595154&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
only time will tell if I like using them or not. Ive only used the ones for steel, and wasnt too impressed with the first few cuts, but then when the speed was turned up the finish did improve significantly. 1000rpm at 3.5" isn't something that I'd have used with hss or even my old brazed carbide inserts. just wondering how much better the branded inserts are than these cheap ones.
and here is me doing it using an old bearing outer race underneath as a parallel
and the pcd for the 3 mounting holes could be calculated using this web page (which calculates the co-ordinates for any number of holes on a pcd)
https://littlemachineshop.com/mobile/bolt_circle.php
and counterboring the holes
with hindsight this was easier than my original plan, so it looks like you can teach an old dog new tricks
and then turning the step on the backplate that chucks mount onto. (its handy having 4 jaw and 3 jaw chucks with the same size recess)
and with the mounting holes drilled and tapped for both chucks, with the old backplate on the right.
I decided that instead of grinding some new hss turning tools, I thought I'd buy some of the cheap indexable tools from the far east.
so for 8mm square tools that use CCMT or CCGT carbide inserts I used these
for right had cutting
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222538954272
for left hand cutting (couldnt find any on ebay but found them on aliexpress and it was my first order with them)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SCL...32817775865.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.HrB9fc
and boring bars
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192244611161
for steel and stainless steel Ive got these inserts (CCMT0600204
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm//322520370951
and for aluminium Ive got these inserts (CCGT060204)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10pcs-9-...var=562060595154&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
only time will tell if I like using them or not. Ive only used the ones for steel, and wasnt too impressed with the first few cuts, but then when the speed was turned up the finish did improve significantly. 1000rpm at 3.5" isn't something that I'd have used with hss or even my old brazed carbide inserts. just wondering how much better the branded inserts are than these cheap ones.
this time its an er20 collet chuck, I've got on on a 2MT taper that I've used in the past, but you cant use it to hold longer lengths of metal in it (unless you want a large overhang. so first of all this is the spindle nose of the lathe where chucks and faceplates etc mount to
the chuck begins life as a 40mm long piece of 60mm dia steel bar which was turned down so that the mounting holes for the screws could be drilled and counterbored.
this was then clocked up in a 4 jaw chuck and the recess for mounting it on the spindle was made
the three mounting holes were drilled using the the same method as the backplate
and then turned over and counterbored, with the end of the counterbore going into the t slot. If I had used a MFD backing I could have drilled the holes and counterbores in one go.
the thread for the clamping nut was then screwcut
I then spent a while deciding on how go get the angle correct for machining the taper to hold the collets, so I ended up clocking up the my 2MT ER20 collet chuck, with a dial test indicator.
and boring out the taper. doing this makes you realise how flexible the topslide is, its very easy to lock it solid just by tightening up the cap screws that hold the turning tools in place. the two bolts in the toolpost are turned down from the factory so they will snap if the tools are over tightened.
and I thought I'd check the fit of a collet in the taper with micrometer blue.......think that will be good enough
and the finished item
one thing this has made me remember is how much I hate using dial test indicators (as opposed to dial indicators) as I get confused to which way I need to move the object Im trying to clock up. I never have this issue using a dial indicator though..... think I'll have to make a hole attachment like this one so I can use a dial indicator instead.
the chuck begins life as a 40mm long piece of 60mm dia steel bar which was turned down so that the mounting holes for the screws could be drilled and counterbored.
this was then clocked up in a 4 jaw chuck and the recess for mounting it on the spindle was made
the three mounting holes were drilled using the the same method as the backplate
and then turned over and counterbored, with the end of the counterbore going into the t slot. If I had used a MFD backing I could have drilled the holes and counterbores in one go.
the thread for the clamping nut was then screwcut
I then spent a while deciding on how go get the angle correct for machining the taper to hold the collets, so I ended up clocking up the my 2MT ER20 collet chuck, with a dial test indicator.
and boring out the taper. doing this makes you realise how flexible the topslide is, its very easy to lock it solid just by tightening up the cap screws that hold the turning tools in place. the two bolts in the toolpost are turned down from the factory so they will snap if the tools are over tightened.
and I thought I'd check the fit of a collet in the taper with micrometer blue.......think that will be good enough
and the finished item
one thing this has made me remember is how much I hate using dial test indicators (as opposed to dial indicators) as I get confused to which way I need to move the object Im trying to clock up. I never have this issue using a dial indicator though..... think I'll have to make a hole attachment like this one so I can use a dial indicator instead.
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