Metal Working Projects on Mill and Lathe

[1FATGMC]

   

I've finally been taking a little time in the evening off from house building and have been trying to figure out how to use the mill/drill and lathe I bought this past year.  I've done a few simple projects and have decided to post them on my site  (  Metal Working Projects     ).

C9 I read all of your posts on using a lathe and look forward to more.  Do any of you guys have metal working projects on your sites?  I've looked at the stuff you've done enjenjo and want to make a copy of your english wheel when I can find time.  Thanks for taking the time to post the info.  Also do any of you have sites that you like on the Internet devoted to mills and lathes?  Care to share them with me?

For some of you looking to build an inexpensive press brake I've got some information on my site on how to make one (  Press Brake     )

c ya, Sum[/b]

[hotroddder]

Here is a great link for the novice machinist........

I don't think it got it from this site..........  

http://www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/tc/9-524/toc.htm[/url]

[river1]

here are some sites

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi


http://www.kanabco.com/virtual/VMS/


http://www.homemetalshopclub.org/


http://www.chaski.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?Cat=


hope they help jim

[enjenjo]

Here is a great link for the novice machinist........

I don't think it got it from this site..........  

http://www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/tc/9-524/toc.htm[/url]

That is a very good read for a novice, my second favorite. My favorite is a 1940 edition of "Machine Shop Practices for Boys", it's actually a high school machine shop text book I picked up at a used book store. It's about the same era as my equipment, so the pictures match. LOL

[C9]

I'm at a bit of a loss as the to use of the welded on bolts and nuts to your mill.
Maybe a place to hand a dial indicator for center finding?

Looks too like you're milling a socket?

Anyhoo - I recommend you get a book titled, "Advanced Machine Work."
It's a reprint by Lindsay Publications (they have a website).
The techniques described are right out of a 1930's machine shop which is about the era most of us home machinist guys are working in so the book fits well.

Get a subscription to "Home Shop Machinist", an excellent magazine exactly about what the title describes.
They have an excellent selection of specific topic books relating to home machining.
You will be amazed at what some people turn out.

Be careful though, you'll find yourself immersed in the hobby and turning your back on the cars if you're not careful.
I ended up letting my 32 sit for a year while I dinked around with lathes etc.
Some guys get so involved with lathes that they spend all their time making tools for the lathe and mill and never do a - for want of a better word - real project.

Once you get a Lindsay book, you'll see a lot of reprints available for not much $$ that will help in many areas.
One of the best small ones - under $5.00 - is the one devoted to holding work in the lathe.
Sounds simple, but simply setting up a particular piece for a specific job can be mind boggling at times.

[1FATGMC]

I'm at a bit of a loss as the to use of the welded on bolts and nuts to your mill.
Maybe a place to hang a dial indicator for center finding?

Looks too like you're milling a socket?

   

Jay the nuts and bolts aren't welded to the quill.  They are a tool (see picture) I just made to mount the test indicator, as you guessed, to the quill without having to remove the cutting tool.  I just put the socket in the vise to see how it would work and to practice locating the center of a hole (the socket).

Thanks to you and the rest of the guys for the suggested reading materials and the Internet sites   .

So far you are pretty much right, most of the things I have made have been tools for either the mill or lathe, but I have made two useful projects so far.  One is a press tool to press the links out of a chain saw chain.  The other was  a bushing so my wife's daughter could mount an "8" Ball to her pickup shifter.

I can see where I'm going to get a lot of use and fun out of the mill and lathe.

c ya, Sum

[C9]

Got it.

I didn't think about an adapter ring.
Looks like part of the machine.

It's amazing what some machinists do.
Most good, some a little strange and some really off the wall.

They get kinda ballsy too.
One guy in the Home Shop Machinist magazine converted his 6 x 18" Atlas lathe to collets only.
He machined the chuck threads off the spindle nose, cut it down a touch and cut new threads to adapt the lathe to a collet holder.
A little spooky when you only get one chance to do it right.

Beats heck out of me why he did that.
It's not too difficult to knock out a collet holder that adapts to spindle as-is or chuck.

Incidentally, I have one of the little 6 x 18" Atlas lathes.
I was lucky enough to find one that had hardly been used.
It's really handy having a second lathe to knock something out for a project you don't want to pull out of the bigger lathe and spoil the accuracy etc.

In fact, the little lathe is so handy that I mounted it on two slabs of 3/4" birch veneer plywood (veneer chosen for the lack of voids) glued together making a 1 1/2" plywood base and a sheet of corprene - cork/neoprene combo - glued under that.
Made the lathe portable so dad could take it home now and then.

Runs very smooth and doesn't require bolting down.

I think I've talked about them before, but stay away from the Chinese chucks.
They ain't so good.
Jaws out of parallelism etc.
The Bison brand chucks made in Poland are excellent.

[Dave]

Why would anyone convert a lathe to collets only LOL. He must be making watches.. Ive been a tool maker since i was about 13. My dad owned a shop and thats how i started. I dont have any equipment here at home but i can make stuff at work. Some day if i can save enuff to add on the garage ill have a mill and a lathe. I had a discussion with a setup man in the drilling dept where i work abiut a year ago. He passed away a short time ago. I tried to get him to use an indicator when setting up the drilling machines. he told me he had one but didnt need it. I told him he was my hero and he asked why. I told him how long ive been a tool maker and how some days I just couldnt work without a dial indicator. I smiled and walked away and we never had that discussion again..I still spend a lot of time in the drilling dept setting up stuff they cant handle and my indicator is on my cart.. 1 of 3 i own...
Dave

[C9]

Why would anyone convert a lathe to collets only LOL.

I think for the same reason that some guys get an idea in their head and follow it to a conclusion.
The conclusion, sometimes good and sometimes like driving over a cliff.

When I was running my sailboat, Sweetie and I were up on the Marina lawn, folding the sails neatly for insertion into the sailbag and this softly spoken gentleman comes up.
Seems he'd invented a plastic quick release gadget for quick connection of the sheets for the sails.  Sheets being the lower control lines at the rear bottom corner of the foresails.

I pointed out two things to him - not that I was so smart, but practical.

First, I had sheets spliced onto my foresails because they fed into blocks in different places on the boat due to the foresail - working jib and 150% genoa - being different lengths along the bottom.

The second, tying knots is a point of pride with most sailors and they tended to tie the sheets on with the proper knots.
The definition of a proper knot being one you can untie without a knife.

It was a point of pride with me that I could splice rope and liked having separate sheets for each sail cuz sometimes I ran three sails at once.
The boat was simple to start with, but once we started racing the cockpit looked like an explosion in a rope factory.

I kept an eye on the whole thing, never saw the plastic goodies - even though they were well thought out and well made - in the marina supply store or in the magazines.
I'm guessing he ate the molding and development costs.

And guessing as well the guy who carved the spindle nose off the lathe was chasing his own demons.

The pic below, on a close reach for Santa Barbara just up the coast from Ventura....