The Offcial Machinist Thread: Revised 01/04/2014

[Gippeto]

Good luck getting all the packing greese off, what a PITA!

100LL from the airport works considerably better than varsol or wd...open a door though.

[wyz2285]

Getting off the grease is the least of my problems, right now I've to get off all the trash I got in my tiny work shop and arrange space for both machines.
However, what type of maintenance do I need in order to keep them "healthy"?

[jrrdw]

Oddly enough you have to get the packing grease off so you can coat the ways (ground and polished surfaces) with 30 weight motor oil. Check out the owners manual for all the lubication points and keep them lubed with oil as you do the ways. As time goes on and you get to know it better the maintenance becomes second nature.

Keep it clean from chips, you will see where they build up.

Most importantly and by all means never ever fall pray to a friend who says "I know what I'm doing"!

Your friends may get pissed at you but don't ever let anyone else use your machinery unless they have a cash deposit to cover what a brand new one cost + the shipping.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Most importantly and by all means never ever fall prey to a friend who says "I know what I'm doing"!

Amen. Your tools, your rules.

[wyz2285]

The tool post on my lathe can move automatically on the x axis, will that help me making threads?

[jrrdw]

Only lathes with power feeds have tool post that will move automaticly. With a manual lathe you will learn to go by and trust going by the numbers after you have completed the set up of the work piece your working with.

Start watching Youtube video's and working with your lathe. It's the best way to learn how...

[Blitz]

jrrdw gave good advice here.

Also, it never hurts to keep a good caliper around.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

The tool post on my lathe can move automatically on the x axis, will that help me making threads?

*gasp*



That's one of the things the Sherline lacks... I have the hand cranked threading attachment thingy but never used it.

[wyz2285]

The tool post on my lathe can move automatically on the x axis, will that help me making threads?

*gasp*



That's one of the things the Sherline lacks... I have the hand cranked threading attachment thingy but never used it.

Unless it helps me making threads, I don't see what's the propose of this function.

[Zeus]

You can adjust the gearing to either cut threads, or if you leave it as is, it works as a power feed for turning. I use it all the time on my C2, you get a great finish, and when you have to remove a lot of material, it saves you a lot of trouble. Just set it up, engage the feed, disengage when it's nearly there, hand feed the rest of the way, and repeat.

[Technician1002]

If you have your manual, you should have info on how to set the feed rate. My dad's late has 2 sets of gears. One for Metric Threads and one for imperial units. There are some excellent videos on Youtube showing the process of cutting threads.

Some carriages have the option to lock the carriage in place and then the lead screw can be shifted to drive the slide instead. This is usefull if you wish to thread a new chuck part with spiral threads for the chuck teeth, or simply produce a very nice finish on the end of a piece.

My dad's lathe has this gearbox on the end of the leadscrew to set the leadscrew rate in relation to the chuck. The two gearboxes are cascaded so very low rates are possible for a fine finish or relatively fast for cutting threads.


On my dad's late which has a carriage almost exactly like this one, the far right lever engauges or disengages the drive. The locking 3 positon lever next to it places the carriage drive in forward, nutral, or reverse, so right and left hand threads can be cut. The bottom weighted lever engages the carriage brake. The 2nd wheel behind the main cross slide wheel engauges the drive to the cross slide. The dial indicator with the gear on the bottom is used to make a double helix gear. Use the same positon when returning the carriage to the beginning of your cut to cut the same groove deeper. Use it 180 out to cut the second helix if you are going to cut one.

[jrrdw]

@tech, Was that post courtesy of South Bend, Clausing or Bridgeport? My money is on Bridgeport....

[jakethebeast]

As i understood that Solidoodle leaves some burrs to the pieces i decided to make a small knife just for removing those burrs. Its forged from a tang of a file (yes just the tang ) and the blade lenght is a bout an inch or little more...

here is just forged and hand sanded blank, going to sand the tang tomorrow and do some normalizations (edit: and heat treating) before its ready for sharpenign and polishing



What ya think?

[Technician1002]

My post was a general post on using the threading feature on lathes. The photos are of Logan lathes.

On the tool shown, are you cutting wood or steel? The cutting angle is wrong for cutting steel. It will likely chatter leaving chatter marks. Look for a book on shape of lathe cutting tools for more info.

The tool is shaped more like a wood gouge for a wood lathe.

http://www.sherline.com/grinding.htm



http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/To ... inding.htm

[evilvet]

Some advice please

For some time I have been looking at replacing my existing pedestal drill press with a mill/drill unit.

I have the opportunity to purchase this
http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/L159
at a somewhat discounted price but have no idea about lathes and am still at baby steps with my CNC mill.

• Presumably my existing tooling will work as far as milling goes but I am going to be up for lathe tooling
  
  My current mill has an ER20 collet chuck, this appears to have a standard drill chuck which I presume is not going to be that accurate as far as run-out etc
  
  **Insert lots of other questions here**

For a thousand bucks its in my shed, but am I buying 220kg of trouble ?