Thread: No holiday down south, but a new lathe!!!

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Originally Posted by Don Dalton

Pat, WHEN I served my apprenticeship we had 2 south bend lathes in the shop with the leather belts. When taking to much of a cut the belt would squell and slip off the pulley.Those were the days.

I sold my Shop in 97 , I wish I had taken some of the older equipment and set up a shop in my garage,oh well hind sight.I didn't know I would be building another rod.

Brian, with that size lathe you can make a lot of nice parts.I envey you. Do you have a machinist manual?

Don---I have a "Machinery's Handbook 23rd Edition." and I bought a couple of books on "speeds and feeds". I used a lathe for 6 months during my apprenticeship 40 years ago, and surprisingly enough, I remember most of what I learned then. I also remember REALLY WELL the sound that the compound rest makes when it encounters a spinning chuck---

C9X---Yes, it came with a 3 jaw chuck as standard equipment. I've waited 62 years, and I ain't tall yet ---Come from a long line of short fat people!!!

Brian

I know you said you have some manuals, but here is a link to an Army machine shop manual in PDF format.

http://www.metalworking.com/tutorial...524-index.html

Hope it helps.

Mike

Originally Posted by brianrupnow

C9X---Yes, it came with a 3 jaw chuck as standard equipment. I've waited 62 years, and I ain't tall yet ---Come from a long line of short fat people!!!

Thought I'd toss that in there.
I set my 12" x 36" lathe up on 6" channel on side welded into a box.
The added weight helps make it run smooth as well.

I'm 6' and I had a boss who was 6'3" tall.
He had the same lathe and stood on a 1" thick grating made out of oak.

Neat floor and kept the crud from under foot, but he was forever getting a crick in his neck when machining cuz he looked down at his work.
You can see just as much from the side.

I told him his height and standing on the 1" thick grate was contributing to the problem and told him what I'd done to help with the problem.

He just gave me one of those "boss" looks and went on machining stuff like he always did.

Anyhoo, you'll find lathes an interesting hobby.
Don't let it take you away from the hot rods.

I lost a year on my 32 dinking around with lathes.

Except for a serious coat of dust it didn't hurt the 32 any, but at the time I wish I would have stayed with the 32 and had it on the road a year earlier....

It will sure beat spinning the stock against a 4" angle grinder...

Mine is a 9"x3' South Bend. It's amazing how many uses you can find for a lathe when it's sitting right there, ready to use.

If the price is not too far out of sight and they have them, get a milling vise attachment for your lathe.

I did some surprising stuff on mine.

Worked well until I got one of the 750# Mill-Drills.

I can't tell in the pic, but it looks like your carriage may have T-slots.
If it does it's easy to make your own milling attachment hold down gizmo.

QUOTE=C9x]If the price is not too far out of sight and they have them, get a milling vise attachment for your lathe.

I did some surprising stuff on mine.

Worked well until I got one of the 750# Mill-Drills.

I can't tell in the pic, but it looks like your carriage may have T-slots.
If it does it's easy to make your own milling attachment hold down gizmo.[/QUOTE]
C9X---yes, a milling vice is part of "the plan".

The 2 books I bought are "The Amateurs Lathe" written by L.H.Sparey (circa 1948) with reprints up to and including 2005, and 'Milling Operations in the Lathe" by Tubal Cain (circa 1984) and reprinted in 2006. Both books seem to be a wealth of knowledge.

Well, I got the beastie home, out of my pickup, and in thru the door to my office, then up and mounted on a temporary table. (the metal base/cabinet is on backorder). This was not a small enterprise--it weighs about 450 pounds, and I work alone. Thank God for cherrypicker engine hoists. First thing I did was plug it in, and yes, it definately runs. Now I get to unpack all the little boxes of goodies that came with it----Brian

Wow, that beast exudes heaviness. Nice lookiing unit, looks like hours of fun.

Hi Brian I am sure you will enjoy your lathe I sure enjoy mine bought it eight years ago its a little bigger I do some custom gun work and needed one I could get one and a quater inch through the head stock and a taper atachment . Found friends I didnt know I had. I am not a machinist but I get by if I can be of any help let me know. Francis

Okay, Francis---You asked for it. How does one go about locking the carriage in place on these lathes, for something like a facing operation, where you don't want the carriage to "back away" from the cut? There are two M6 bolts thru the carriage, vertically. on the side nearest to the chuck (you can see them in the photograph ), but they don't seem to do anything---I have tightened them down semi-tight, but they don't seem to impede the movement of the carriage along the bed. I checked to see if they make any mark on the ways when tightened "semi-tight", and they don't leave a mark (thank God).---I'm not sure what they are for.

Ah so---Thats why I didn't crank on them. I did find the carriage lock---tricky little bugger is underneath at the other end of the carriage. Swing it crossways and crank the bolt up tight to lock the carriage in place, or, turn it lengthwise and snug up the bolt to keep it from swinging around and locking up when I don't want it to. You could be right Denny---both of the M6 bolts were loose when I got the lathe home. As said before, snugging them up didn't seem to do anything. The literature that came with this thing doesn't tell you squat!!!

Nice looking lathe.

Contrary to what some think and contrary to the old wives tales you can get some good machinery out of China.
(And I'm the first to call em names on some stuff.)

Trick is, the outfit selling the stuff in Canada or the US has to have their people on site in China to keep an eye on things.
Turn your back and the shortcuts start flying.

I understand Grizzly is very good about this and the old US 'favorite' Harbor Freight is not.

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Hang a piece of plastic over your shelving in the pic background or the chuck will throw its lubricating oil all over the paper I see stored there.

This site used to have some excellent instructions on leveling your lathe and probably still does.
http://allshops.org/
As Denny notes, very important.

A machinists level is a handy tool to do this with, but a short digital level would work ok as well.