Some properly old school heavy metal [Archive] - SV650.org

yorkie_chris

30-08-10, 03:03 PM

I've been after a lathe for a while. Always been fascinated with making things, especially out of metal.

So, this slightly sorry looking example came up on eBay. Perfect size considering the space limits in my garage ruling out "proper" tackle (which is gutting since I had to pass up a well used but bang accurate colchester with DROs and all the tooling for £600) and the small size and ridiculous price ruling out the bench top types like the myford and boxfords.

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/8161/22039848.jpg

"Slight damage" to the compound slide, hmmm...

Of course, I asked the wise council of DavieSV, who's basically a swarf-filled coolant-scented machining version of Yoda, who agreed it was probably a can of worms and not to bother. Of course I didn't get the message until after the end of the auction, which I'd won :mrgreen:

So, with the lid slowly loosening on the can of worms, I rustled up my Dad (wearing a suit!), and a van to go and collect it and transport it to the garage of doom.

£122 poorer and a few hernias apiece later, we managed to get it into the van. And a 6 million point turn and 20 minutes later, we managed to extract the long wheelbase sprinter from the blokes 3 foot wide driveway...

Using some skillful bribery and only minor threats of violence, some more help was secured to carry the (bloody heavy) bed casting down my driveway without hernias :)
And in the morning, the stripdown began... The can of worms fully opened!!
I'd love to show you before and after photos, but suffice to say the previous owner had NOT been shy with the grease gun and I suspect the pound and a half of dried up heavy grease was a full 30 years worth of accumulation!

About a gallon of paraffin later...
The bed, nice surface finish still. Yet to see if it is straight :-P
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/4784/p1010020f.jpg

The (powered :cool:) cross slide and (massive!) carriage assembly.
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/3319/p1010019nc.jpg

The right of the apron, leadscrew and power feed shaft
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/2040/p1010021n.jpg

The exterior and cleaned up workings of the leadscrew and power feed gearbox. Reversing mechanism for feeds strangely absent though the lever is present :confused:
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/8325/p1010018n.jpg
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/1354/p1010017d.jpg

And finally for the moment, the prehistoric motor it came with. Never seen one like this before, it actually has an adjustable brush mounting plate to adjust the electrical timing of the motor!! :smt120
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/3940/p1010022xc.jpg

IP65 conforming of course!!!
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/6186/p1010023ao.jpg

orose

30-08-10, 03:12 PM

About time as well, I reckon... Nothing like a bit of old-school heavy to lighten the mood. Whats on your mind if it turns out to be straight?

yorkie_chris

30-08-10, 03:17 PM

This and that :-P
Nah, useful bits of kit. Allsorts; spacers for wheels, swingarms, shock and fork tools that you can buy for a small fortune etc.

I'm quite fascinated by model engines, but not sure I have the time or inclination for projects of that size. I'd rather make bikes go faster.

P.S these messings around set to the tune of "to hell and back again" by Saxon :mrgreen:

Speedy

30-08-10, 03:17 PM

I'm jealous.

I'd love a lathe, only trouble is, A, I have zero experience in operating one, B, not enough room for one!

yorkie_chris

30-08-10, 03:19 PM

I did not have room for the TIG or oxy set either... no excuse!!

Speedy

30-08-10, 03:30 PM

Before I bought one, I'd have to make sure I could operate one, or there'd be loss of fingers and such like!! Haha!

Night school I suppose, bit gutted really, when I was at school, they had lots of lathes, big ones too! But the National Curriculum didn't include metal work at that time, they just sat there idle. Doing nothing.

I wonder if they're still there.....

yorkie_chris

30-08-10, 03:34 PM

Same here when I was at school, pair of decent size boxfords (made a mile from my house :)) which never did owt.
Lucky, I had friends in the staff and could basically make what I wanted while I was in 6th form :)
Shame really, all the new "design technology" stuff is a load of bollox.

Keep your fingers out of the gears then :-P
Not complicated machines, just expect to make a lot of scrap in your first attempts!

Speedy

30-08-10, 03:52 PM

Yeah, that will probably be the case!!

cuffy

30-08-10, 03:54 PM

Before I bought one, I'd have to make sure I could operate one, or there'd be loss of fingers and such like!! Haha!

Keep your fingers out of the gears then :-P

And don't try and pull the swarf off when the lathe is spinning, bloke at work de-gloved his thuimb by doing the above. :shaking:

Speedy

30-08-10, 04:06 PM

And don't try and pull the swarf off when the lathe is spinning, bloke at work de-gloved his thuimb by doing the above. :shaking:

OUCH!!!!

Thats made me balls shrivel just thinking about it!!!!!! :smt103

lukemillar

31-08-10, 01:36 AM

OUCH!!!!

Thats made me balls shrivel just thinking about it!!!!!! :smt103

My dad has worked in fabrication all his life and has loads of these stories. The one which makes my skin crawl is the large piece of swarf that fell off and got caught around the operator's ankle. When he walked away from the machine it tightened around his ankle - cigar cutter stylee!

Fab shops are nuts. I did a 3 week stint shot blasting at my dad's firm and even in that short time saw a steel box frame slip from a work bench onto a guys thumb, literally splitting it open on both sides! :o

timwilky

31-08-10, 07:32 AM

I miss my dads lathe and milling machine, went when he snuffed it and the house sold. Lathe was a colchester something and a bridgeport vertical miller.

As for using a piece of urine. Then again I did start an apprenticeship as a toolmaker and spent years driving lathes, milling machines, shapers, borers, surface grinders etc.

So imagine my surprise when I joined GEC and saw the big stuff they use for turbines and generators.

I keep looking for a decent bench size lathe, single phase, at least 24" between centres and able to swing about 6". Want to be able to offset the tailstock for taper turning and have both metric and imperial screw cutting gearing. Oh most important, as cheap as chips. Anyone help

Lozzo

31-08-10, 09:19 AM

I was lucky enough to have a really good metalwork teacher at school who let us into the workshops in lunch breaks to fabricate stuff. I then went on to do an intensive apprenticeship (4 years crammed into 2 1/2) in Electrical Engineering before I joined the mob, which included 25% of my time at a local engineering training centre learning how to fabricate stuff by hand and on machines with a bit of sheet metalwork as well. You don't forget stuff like that because it's so useful in later life, it's about the most useful time I spent learning anywhere.

A small lathe like the one Tim describes would do me fine here for knocking up the sort of things Chris needs one for.

yorkie_chris

31-08-10, 09:22 AM

AndyBrad

31-08-10, 11:05 AM

Oh jesus h christ! I feel sorry for your poor family and maria may well never see you again!

Watch those bloody fingers!

timwilky

31-08-10, 11:11 AM

I guess you don't pay the leccy bill?

yorkie_chris

31-08-10, 11:12 AM

It's a smaller motor than the compressor!

Stig

31-08-10, 11:13 AM

I thought this thread was about music.

andrewsmith

31-08-10, 09:22 PM

haha

That is a piece of old school metal, the motor looks about 60yr old

missyburd

31-08-10, 09:44 PM

Oh jesus h christ! I feel sorry for your poor family and maria may well never see you again!

Lol, not far off there, but fortunately we're well used to it, he's always been a garage hermit, if it's not lathes it's forks and carbs ;)

The pic just after they'd managed to get the thing down the drive... Pantrasher on the left looks like his eye's just popped out :D

http://a.imageshack.us/img28/1396/dscf2774k.jpg

Oh and JUST for you Chris babe ....

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ah've gotta laaathe! :-D :-D :-D

yorkie_chris

23-09-10, 10:53 AM

Well stone me... the motor actually runs and DIDNT GO BANG!!! :o

Geodude

23-09-10, 05:55 PM

Nice one yc, now make us some nice shiney things ;)

andrewsmith

23-09-10, 06:01 PM

Nice one mate. That motor did look donald duck'ed
I'm guessing YC performance parts are coming our way!!!

Specialone

23-09-10, 06:20 PM

I always wanted a colchester student, had one at my last place, damn good lathes.
I take it your motor was 240v single phase? trouble with a lot of the good ones, they are 3 phase, then you need an invertor.
I have been offered a few colchesters before but didnt have the room or the spare cash at the time.
My wife used to work at a college for the blind and their metal work shop was selling off a couple of their old lathes a few years ago, but they needed them shifting quick so passed on them.

My neighbours an old guy who restores old classic bikes (hes 80), hes a old time engineer / fitter and has a lathe in his shed and makes all his own stainless bolts etc for some old sizes he cant get hold of.
Couple of his bikes were used as replacements for the damaged ones at the motorcycle museum close to us that burnt down a few years ago.

Anyway after my epic post, good luck with the new toy and hope the backlash in the screws isnt too sloppy.

DarrenSV650S

23-09-10, 06:26 PM

My wife used to work at a college for the blind and their metal work shop was selling off a couple of their old lathes

That sounds like the opening line of a joke :lol:

Specialone

23-09-10, 06:32 PM

That sounds like the opening line of a joke :lol:
I thought it was when i first heard they had a metal work shop, but i tell you, blind and partially sighted people have a unnatural ability to cope extremely well with stuff you wouldnt believe, like metal bashing as its called in the midlands.

Probably show quite a few of us up tbh.

svrich

23-09-10, 09:05 PM

I taught a blind lad to swim once. He was brilliant, especially at diving off the two metre board, head first :shock:
So, what's going to be the first 'make and do'?

Sly

23-09-10, 10:05 PM

Dam, I miss having access to a decent lathe. I used to make up service tools for my old Brit bikes and bushes and the like. Hours of satisfying fun. Just don't leave the chuck key in ;)

timwilky

24-09-10, 07:21 AM

Dam, I miss having access to a decent lathe. I used to make up service tools for my old Brit bikes and bushes and the like. Hours of satisfying fun. Just don't leave the chuck key in ;)

Sounds like yet another who has been there. I think every apprentice training centre has seen if lucky a flying chuck key with each new batch of pups. if unlucky a clunk as key hits the bed and snaps off the square drive and the embarrassing request for a replacement key.

Well chris, you bought a DTI yet. Time to knock out a test bar, you will need it anyway for taper turning. Just a thought, what is a pup like you going to make of imperial threads? or can you get a gear set to convert to metric.

At least the thread profile is 60 degrees for both metric and unf/unc but 47 1/2 degrees on BA threads, 55 degrees for Whitworth/BSC so dont mix up your tooling. and chasers are a pain in the bum for going walkies

yorkie_chris

24-09-10, 09:21 AM

I actually had it running yesterday. Seems fine, little noise from gearbox countershaft and motor under load but headstock itself seems fine.

DTI on way along with a proper level when my mate gets back off his jollies.

It is on changewheels and using a 127t gear converts it to metric. Problem I will have is they only went down to 1mm pitch which may be a little coarse for fork stuff, so maybe I will need to get some different gears made.

fastdruid

25-09-10, 12:18 PM

Heh, welcome to lathe ownership!

What is it btw?

Now you find that the lathe is the cheap thing, tooling adds up rapidly.

You may find http://www.lathes.co.uk/ and then http://www.aluminiumwarehouse.co.uk/ useful. :-)

Druid

fastdruid

25-09-10, 03:58 PM

This one I have is 4.5x24... gap bed so can turn some bigger pieces if they are short.

It has some of the set of changewheels with it to cut metric apparently from huge to 1mm pitch, would actually like smaller than that but we see what we can make with the gears here...
Problem is no table to tell you which is which, that'll be a laugh figuring out!!

Not that tricky with a bit of excel work[1].

Work out the pitch of your leadscrew (in my case 4tpi) then fire up excel and a simple bit of maths will give you the answers. Obviously you just always need to have that 127t gear in there.

Only problem is the screwcutting box but at a guess its the same as mine and is just a simple 1:2 1:1 and 2:3 ratio (ie 1*, 1.5* and 2*).

In my case according to the screwcutting chart
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/4961682315_b1c12a88e1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastdruid/4961682315/)
Screwcutting chart (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastdruid/4961682315/) by fastdruid (http://www.flickr.com/people/fastdruid/), on Flickr

my lathe 'only' goes down to 1mm pitch but a bit of excel work shows that it should go down to 0.3mm

You could also try the program on http://www.lathes.co.uk/latheparts/page14.html

I do hope you have an electrical reverse on there, its a pita to cut metric on an imperial lathe without it...

Druid

[1] PM me with your email address if you want a copy of my workings, its crude but functional.

yorkie_chris

25-09-10, 06:39 PM

No electrical reverse... or, strangely any reverse gear on the feed/screwcutting gearbox.

It's a denham junior mk2 AFAIK.

fastdruid

25-09-10, 07:17 PM

No electrical reverse... or, strangely any reverse gear on the feed/screwcutting gearbox.

It's a denham junior mk2 AFAIK.

Nice, I presume you've seen http://www.lathes.co.uk/denham/ already?

More importantly it has the chart for screwcutting for it
http://www.lathes.co.uk/denham/img7.gif

No tumble reverse was fitted: instead both gearboxes contained a reversing mechanism by which means the carriage could be moved in either direction.

No reverse on the feed/screwcutting isn't the end of the world unless you're doing LH threads, no electrical reverse means you'll have to manually wind it back to the start when cutting metric threads. If its 1p worth rigging up a swapover contactor to have an electrical reverse.

Do you know what speed range yours is? You ideally want the 70-1400 version if you fancy doing small aluminium...

Druid

yorkie_chris

25-09-10, 07:29 PM

No idea what speed range it is, I presume the motor is 3000rpm so I can work it out from that.

Yup, small aluminium is going to be the main function, spacers, bits of forks etc.

fastdruid

25-09-10, 07:40 PM

Depends what motor it is, My Harrison (http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=157951) I believe had a 1000rpm motor originally with a 500rpm at the headstock input (I think this was originally a training model) but as there were 1500/3000rpm dual speed models which ran at 750/1500rpm headstock speed I'm confident in winding the motor up in speed should I want it. As yours had the option of the 70-1400 and is ball/roller bearings rather than plain you can always bump up the drive pulley size to up the speed, you know the headstock should be able to run at that speed. Of course the option you *want* is 3p motor and VFD but that's pricey!

Righty then, I'm off to make some footpegs... ;-)

Druid

embee

27-09-10, 12:38 PM

I inherited this Super7 from a mate who died 3yrs ago, it's mint and was originally a demo machine for Myford, hardened bedways etc. Loads of tooling too.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh268/Hi-vis/IMG_3446Small.jpg

Myfords are as said, generally over-priced for anything decent. The plus side is they are ideally sized for small workshops and spares/tooling are readily available.

The rest of his workshop included a nice little mini-mill (small but ideal for benchtop where space is very limited), Meddings pillar drill, and a good stock of material. A full set of expanding reamers, measuring equipment, surface table, band saw, keeps me off the streets anyway!

fastdruid

27-09-10, 12:50 PM

Nice! I'm not overly convinced with the cheaper/lower spec myfords, they go for way too much imo but the Super7 is a nice bit of kit.

D

Paul the 6th

30-09-10, 11:24 AM

fooking hell this thread is far far far beyond me... I'll just do the branding for YC and if you need any cad cut parts designing in EPS/DWG etc. I'll be in my cupboard

Bluepete

30-09-10, 06:23 PM

Chris, what's the max diameter of ally bar you can turn?

Pete ;)

fastdruid

30-09-10, 08:27 PM

For the denham its about 9" and with the gap removed up to 15.5" in diameter and 4" thick.

Mine is annoyingly *just* too small to take a 17" wheel as it'll *just* do 17" by 4.25" so wouldn't take a rear wheel even if I had inch larger L5A/L6.

Druid

fastdruid

01-10-10, 09:24 PM

Although I can at least manage some useful large bike bits!

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4106/5042814046_0b77d14c7e.jpg
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastdruid/5042814046/)DSC06591 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastdruid/5042814046/) by fastdruid (http://www.flickr.com/people/fastdruid/), on Flickr

Druid

21QUEST

02-10-10, 02:53 PM

Nice one bud...I'd always thought it'd would be nice to learn to use one properly.

YC, re tooling, I don't know what your 'contacts' are like on that, but I have a mate who could be persuaded to do you a good price on some bits...used and new. Depnds on what you'd be looking for and if what he has, would fit.

You can PM me if of any interest to you.

yorkie_chris

01-12-10, 08:05 PM

Detail of top slide
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/2189/dscf4283.jpg

Damage to compound slide
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4711/dscf4285o.jpg

Running it at full speed, in highest gear makes an odd noise from the headstock. Not sure whether it is a bearingy rumbling or a gear grinding noise, so decided to open the headstock up and have a look.

It makes the noise only in the higher (of 2) second stage reduction gears. (Bottom right of pic)

Headstock innards
http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/9069/dscf4288f.jpg

Closer look at suspect gears
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/4018/dscf4290w.jpg

Which look fine to me, and it is a definite continuous noise, not a part-time rumble as if a shaft is bent and taking up all the lash in the gears.

Which leads me to a second theory, that the noise is there all the time and it's only in top speed that it becomes loud enough to seem a problem. So I reassembled everything (including b*stard heavy motor which mounts on top of the headstock cover! :smt092) And fired it up again.

On applying resistance to a faceplate in any gear there is an increase in noise. So, it could be any of the gear shafts which are making noise.

Spindle is lovely and smooth, as is the countershaft. But, the input shaft is quite hard to turn and has 2 bearings on it's right-hand (chuck) side. The outer one does not spin when the lathe does!

So, the theory is that one or all of the input shaft bearings is toast, and under the side loads imposed just by running friction they make a grumbling.

The offending (maybe!) bearing, on right. Not sure why this shaft needs keyway on it, no idea what you could drive from it. Toolpost grinder maybe?
http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8625/dscf4287p.jpg

fastdruid

01-12-10, 10:42 PM

Oooh, nasty damage. I'll go measure mine now for you...

The Harrison drives the (optional) coolant pump off the input shaft, could be something like that.

Druid

yorkie_chris

02-12-10, 04:53 PM

Progress... ish

A quick trip to a local spot, basically a massive toybox of goodies in no particular order, with a guy who seems to know where everything is nontheless :confused: Despite it being a 3 floor mill with tables, machines, boxes, and shelves everywhere!

A small sum sees me the owner of this monster of a compound slide and toolpost.
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/6162/dscf4357.jpg

Which happens to be low enough (just about) to get the tool roughly to center height.

This is the cross slide of my lathe.
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9343/dscf4358x.jpg

And this is the bottom of the compound slide base
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/9936/dscf43590.jpg
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5614/dscf43600.jpg

That ain't gonna fit!

Well, not without a little bit of help. The two stud holes on the base are too far apart by a couple of mm. But there is plenty meat in it to enlarge them a bit. There should also be enough room to sink the 0.5" spigot on the cross slide into it and even drop the whole thickness/height by a few tenths just for more tool clearance.

So, time to double check all the measurements and go find a mate with a mill...

fastdruid

02-12-10, 05:02 PM

Nice, at least its a QR toolpost but trust me you really want a Dickson (or similar) type toolpost, I got very tired very quickly of packing pieces and sorting out centre heights.

Druid

timwilky

03-12-10, 09:49 AM

Nice, at least its a QR toolpost but trust me you really want a Dickson (or similar) type toolpost, I got very tired very quickly of packing pieces and sorting out centre heights.

Druid

Just being nosey, what is this Dickson type toolpost of which you speak, I thought packing to raise the tool to centre was the norm. Cetainly was when I drove students etc. in the 70s. My only other lathe experience was with big capstans and I cannot remember how the cutting was set up, except it was called something like a chip breaker or similar.

fastdruid

03-12-10, 10:36 AM

http://www.lathes.co.uk/latheparts/page13.html

HTH

Druid

timwilky

03-12-10, 10:52 AM

Ahh, thanks for putting a name to that design, I had seen them on ebay ads, but thought them somewhat inferior to a traditional toolpost. I hadn't realised the height could be set. Maybe it is the victorian over engineer in me, but they do look flimsy and reliant on that cam to hold the setting. Does the centre mounting spigot pull in somehow to pull the tool holder tight against the tool post or are you simply using the fit of the slide ?

fastdruid

03-12-10, 11:06 AM

The height is set via a screw in 'top-hat', its then locked at that height by another bolt into the top.

The toolholder then drop on, the 'top-hat sitting against the cam activator which when turned both prevents the height from being changed and pushes out the toolholder to lock it solid.

Toolchanges are a matter of seconds when you have the centre hight correctly set, even when it isn't its much easier to set the centre height as you just partly tighten the cam and twiddle the 'top-hat' until at the correct height, fully tighten the cam and then tighten the locking bolt.

There are other QR designs that are even better but they are priced accordingly!

Druid

03-12-10, 02:30 PM

Chris I wish I understood what you're talking about. I'd love to see the machine in action one day.

Owenski

03-12-10, 02:38 PM

Chris I wish I understood what you're talking about. I'd love to see the machine in action one day.
+1 pictures look pretty tho dont they?

fastdruid

03-12-10, 03:25 PM

When it works you can make stuff like this replacement footpeg (the one on the right ;-) ):
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/5026048348_d50d2ffd65.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastdruid/5026048348/)

Druid

yorkie_chris

15-12-10, 11:07 PM

Progress, yarrrrr

So I moved it about a bit, stuck the drip tray on, got the base to within ballpark of level and bolted it down with some throughbolts
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1332/dscf4595m.jpg

Then faced the raised part from that new compound slide base, drilled it and reamed it .500" on same center and it drops straight on. Just need to open the holes up a bit to line the T slots up and it should be more rigid than new :)
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/708/dscf4596d.jpg

Only problem with it, I only have about 9mm of clearance from toolpost to center, so will need to machine the toolholder down a bit.

Next bit, making a motor mount

yorkie_chris

15-12-10, 11:12 PM

Chris I wish I understood what you're talking about. I'd love to see the machine in action one day.

Pretty easy to get your head around what they do and how, it's the details that take years to learn all the nuances of.

Have a read through this site, some cool stuff
http://www.5bears.com/index.htm

yorkie_chris

20-12-10, 10:17 PM

Limited progress in last few days, lash together a quick motor mount.

Should be easily modifiable if I feel the need to get rid of the prehistoric lump of motor.

Some lumps on motor mount plate run in the unistrut like tracks, and there's a bit welded on top to put an M10 threaded bar in to tension the drive belts.

In other news, my shed is bloody FREEZING. It's too cold in there for the butane for the gas fire to vaporise out of the bottle :rolleyes:

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2927/dscf4738z.jpg
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9382/dscf4737f.jpg

Owenski

20-12-10, 11:05 PM

so is the motor going to sit in the wall mounted brackets as well as be attached to the lathe? is this to stop it rattling its self to bits or is that just how its meant to be done?
Maria must be really looking forward to the time u 2 get a place of your own and you wake up one morning and decide to "improve" certain things ;) looking good anyway pal (even if im still not 100% on what it is).

yorkie_chris

20-12-10, 11:11 PM

They are not wall mounted at all (would likely just transmit more vibration and noise to house, if there is any from cutting)
The horizontal parts of the L shapes are bolted directly to the headstock cover on the lathe with 2x 3/8" whitworth apiece.

Originally the motor would have been mounted below and behind the headstock (bolted to the bed casting), but this would have meant moving the lathe out from the wall a few inches which would cost me valuable floor space!

I'm hoping that the motor will not have any influence on the headstock in causing any flex/chatter. It is a pretty massive iron casting so I'm hoping not.

missyburd

20-12-10, 11:15 PM

Maria must be really looking forward to the time u 2 get a place of your own and you wake up one morning and decide to "improve" certain things ;)
Nah, then I would be forced to take revenge and "improve" various parts of his body....with a sharp metal tool ;-)

Hehe. The amount of time he's spent on this bloody lathe, if he hadn't wanted one since he was 5 I'd have itchy feet by now :p Hope he makes something decent with it when it roars into life properly!

andrewsmith

20-12-10, 11:17 PM

Nah, then I would be forced to take revenge and "improve" various parts of his body....with a sharp metal tool ;-)

Hehe. The amount of time he's spent on this bloody lathe, if he hadn't wanted one since he was 5 I'd have itchy feet by now :p Hope he makes something decent with it when it roars into life properly!

and shakes the garage to pieces :D

20-12-10, 11:18 PM

Now, I thought they were attached to the wall too. Closer look, I can see what you mean.

We need an org trip to the YC house to inspect the monster:D

Edit - hope this isn't a stoopid question. If you remount the motor, what happens to the drive belts?

yorkie_chris

20-12-10, 11:38 PM

The mount that came with the lathe and motor was a bodge up anyway. Not a stupid question at all, the drive belts are a standard thickness and you can simply buy two more of suitable length.

This lathe is not a monster at all, it's a baby. A friend of mine used to work one round here that could turn 10' between centers!

We have one at work that will drill a 15/16" hole through mild steel, really hogging into it at a fair rate, the "duty cycle" meter hardly even nudging 10%. That is a bit of a beast, dims the lights a bit when you fire it up but I suppose it would, spinning a motor the size of an SV from 0-1500rpm in about half a turn!!

timwilky

21-12-10, 07:28 AM

The mount that came with the lathe and motor was a bodge up anyway. Not a stupid question at all, the drive belts are a standard thickness and you can simply buy two more of suitable length.

This lathe is not a monster at all, it's a baby. A friend of mine used to work one round here that could turn 10' between centers!

Oh only a baby, imagine the lathes we used to turn turbine or generator rotors or the vertical ones that could swing 20 ft we used for turbine housings. I will have to go looking for piccies

Owenski

21-12-10, 11:21 AM

They are not wall mounted at all (would likely just transmit more vibration and noise to house, if there is any from cutting)
The horizontal parts of the L shapes are bolted directly to the headstock cover on the lathe with 2x 3/8" whitworth apiece.
I'm hoping that the motor will not have any influence on the headstock in causing any flex/chatter. It is a pretty massive iron casting so I'm hoping not.

Ahhhhhhhh ok, those rectangular sections about an inch up from the smaller L brackets I assumed were nuts holding onto some ancor bolts in the wall. The noise transfer into the house did cross my mind, but I figured the YC household would be pretty used to the v-twin roar so much so that another vibration wouldnt make much difference lol.

Sounds like ur gonna have to make maria a keyring or something else all shiney shiney once its alive. ;)

fastdruid

21-12-10, 02:28 PM

I made an awful lot of swarf, not sure if that counts :-)

Oh and YC if your lathe is somewhere where you can walk straight into the house its worth having a set of work shoes. Otherwise you *will* tread swarf throughout the house (it hurts when you step on it in bare feet, not to mention the grief from the missus).

Druid

timwilky

21-12-10, 03:20 PM

fastdruid

21-12-10, 03:29 PM

Sometimes you don't have a choice, eg turning square to round or milling. Also depends on what you're machining, the type of tooling and if you've got the lathe at the correct speed.

Worst I've done is let the swarf get too long at which point it got tangled round the chuck, and flailed the swarf on the bed/under the chuck everywhere!

Druid

embee

21-12-10, 10:04 PM

Very much recommend a workmat, something like these (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Anti-Fatigue-work-place-rubber-mat-1500mm-x-900mm-/230562191939?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item35ae93da43). I picked up a couple from a place in Brum, they look exactly like the ones in the link, about the same price too. I think they're all from the far east anyway.

They do a great job in insulating your feet from the cold floor, and allow a lot of the swarf to sit in the holes so the amount which gets stuck in your soles is reduced. Pick the mat up, sweep, mat back down.

Also if you do happen to drop something it minimises the chance of damaging it.

21-12-10, 10:21 PM

This thread gets a 5* rating from Edski:D

hardhat_harry

21-12-10, 11:01 PM

We if were gonna start unveiling lathes here is my winter project.

God knows what it is but the chain drive and gearbox is coming off and a 1hp 3 phase motor is going in with a speed controller so I dont have to mess with pulleys

The chuck is huge and it came with loads of tools.

fastdruid

21-12-10, 11:25 PM

Cor, thats something else. Any names on it or anything identifying features?

Try http://lathes.co.uk/ to identify it.

Druid

yorkie_chris

06-01-11, 04:24 PM

Wow, that is old school.

No particularly interesting progress to report other than have got the compound slide fitted, some tools and such ordered, the motor mount is nearly done and have found a company called muffet gears who supply 16DP imperial gears for pretty reasonable prices. About £12 for a 30t, so not cheap if you need a full set, but will allow me to fill in the holes in the set I've got and make any other drivetrains I need.

fastdruid

06-01-11, 04:28 PM

Cool, so DRO's next? ;-)

Druid

yorkie_chris

06-01-11, 04:32 PM

Let's just get to the point of making a bit of swarf first eh :)

fastdruid

06-01-11, 04:34 PM

Hehe, I've got some plans to add a DRO mine but waiting for it to warm up a bit first!

Druid

yorkie_chris

06-01-11, 04:46 PM

What I really want to get sorted is all the thread cutting stuff so I can make some metric screws.

But I can't cut gears so the cross slide screw could be interesting, I may have to make the screw a press fit with a purchased gear and braze or pin it for security.

Then comes the interesting question of where to find square section taps to make the nuts, or whether to make those too.

On a separate note, do not try to TIG braze with ordinary brazing rods as it doesn't work and I've given myself a shot of zinc fume. Yurgh.

andrewsmith

06-01-11, 04:53 PM

Glad to here its coming along YC.

You got much left to do?

yorkie_chris

06-01-11, 11:34 PM

Always lots to do, lathe is never "finished" as there is always new tooling to make.

It has landed with 11.8mm of space for the tool-to-center distance. Not sure whether to machine the toolpost to increase this at the expense of strength, or to use tools from 1/2" stock and grind them to suit.

07-01-11, 10:48 AM

Hehe, I've got some plans to add a DRO mine but waiting for it to warm up a bit first!

Druid

DRO:confused::confused:

yorkie_chris

07-01-11, 10:55 AM

Digital read out. Normally to determine a distance you use the micrometer collars, like the cross-slide screw on mine has a 4 teeth-per-inch screw... so a single turn of the screw moves the collar 1/4" and would therefore knock 1/2" off the diameter of whatever you're turning. The collar on the screw is graduated so you can move it slightly, generally graduated in 0.001" intervals.

But with DRO you have a digital display to tell you how far each axis has moved from the zero point (you can set that anywhere). Makes it much easier to work as you don't have to count turns on a screw or rely on markings from manual measuring and marking out.

yorkie_chris

07-01-11, 11:55 AM

Want to be able to offset the tailstock for taper turning

What tapers are you turning that need to be longer than top slide?

Icanopit

07-01-11, 12:07 PM

Hi CHRIS, what size square section taps do you need, I THINK I may have some "old skool" ones tucked away if I can get through the proverbial haystack that I call the garage-workshop floor storage area!!!

JOHN

yorkie_chris

07-01-11, 12:09 PM

In metric?

fastdruid

07-01-11, 12:32 PM

Digital Read Out, my lathe (and I suspect YC's) are imperial which makes metric a little trickier, DRO's allow both better accuracy and make life all round easier.

Druid

fastdruid

07-01-11, 12:35 PM

What tapers are you turning that need to be longer than top slide?

Only use I've found so far is for tapered screwthreads.

Druid.

07-01-11, 02:10 PM

I think I asked the quezzie that everyone else was afraid to:D

I love this thread. I'm learning a lot:smt023

hardhat_harry

07-01-11, 11:40 PM

Yay my motor is in the suppliers I just need to pick it up.

Icanopit

08-01-11, 11:21 AM

CHRIS, had a rummage sadly only have small size BSW 4 flute taps "square" and Imperial ACME "square" cutting tools.
Have found the following company that stocks ACME metric taps and flanged+plain nuts if it help. www.marchantdice.com (http://www.marchantdice.com)

JOHN

yorkie_chris

10-01-11, 11:28 PM

Motor mounted and wired up nearly safely :smt119, shopping list for tomorrow;

couple of V belts
some bits of 1/2" tool steel
5/16" chuck key
Shim stock
A few foot of inch bar.
Annnnd try find a DTI and stand somewhere but I'm not getting my hopes up finding one local.

Test bar tomorrow hopefully :smt023

CHRIS, had a rummage sadly only have small size BSW 4 flute taps "square" and Imperial ACME "square" cutting tools.
Have found the following company that stocks ACME metric taps and flanged+plain nuts if it help. www.marchantdice.com (http://www.marchantdice.com)

JOHN

Cheers mate, will give them a call when I get the bits and bobs needed to attack making the bits.

By the way, could you suggest a material for the leadscrews and nuts? I was thinking of using silver steel but am considering using mild and case hardening it?

Icanopit

10-01-11, 11:43 PM

Old skool "my era" would suggest tool steel and case hardened, BUT I am sure that I have seen somewhere selling leadscrew by the length in varying sizes. I will have a search on one or two of the sites I have been looking at, tomorrow.
Take delivery of a new lathe/mill on Thursday, second childhood thing heho.

yorkie_chris

10-01-11, 11:54 PM

One of those combined things? There are some pretty good threads on mad modder forum for getting the best out of those.

fastdruid

11-01-11, 01:00 AM

Motor mounted and wired up nearly safely :smt119, shopping list for tomorrow;

couple of V belts

Cheapest place I found was http://www.bearingshopuk.co.uk/

I don't think mine is technically SPZ but close enough. :-)

Druid

yorkie_chris

11-01-11, 08:55 AM

There's a local place and the last one was IIRC £4, not going to save much from that with carriage etc.

Icanopit

11-01-11, 12:18 PM

Leadscrew, type into fleabay search 2 pages.also www.moore-international.com (http://www.moore-international.com) and www.abssac.co.uk (http://www.abssac.co.uk) but everything at a price.
Have looked through mad-modder also there is a site more dedicated forum to what I have purchased http://www.chesteruk.net/store/model_b_super.htm more suited to my needs, 420mm over bed, looked at another Colchester 2nd hand but too expensive for little use.
Value retention is also a consideration (model makers) when I move on.

yorkie_chris

12-01-11, 07:09 PM

Progress :)

Went down to oilswell (local oil place I use for all sorts including bike oils, nice chap), got some slideway oil, lith complex grease and a new grease gun, brushed all the slides with oil, gave the lot a good few squirts of grease and set up a fine feed.

Mounted the motor and acquired some lucas toothed belts for nowt :smt023

Managed to cut some metal. It's alive :mrgreen:

Still needs a considerable bit doing at it, I need to get a DTI and level it up precisely, need many more tools and bits and bobs. But it is pretty much ready to start doing some useful stuff.