Material for turning on lathe?

[gishooter]

I'm a new lathe owner(12X36) and looking for inexpensive material for various projects. I have access to several dumpsters full of scrap metal tossed by our military unit mechanics. Mostly trash but I've seen some nice big machine bolts, short drive shafts, broken drill bits, etc.
What have you guys used? Any nice to salvage items for practice/learning?

[e15cap]

Some of the nicest steel I played with was from a front end shop, idler arms and such. Price was great, FREE. Best, Roger

[Morrison Machine Shop]

If it's free, then use it, I use all kinds of scrap, I even turn big bolts into smaller bolts.

[trevj]

Grit your teeth and scrape together the cost of a stick of 12L14 hex or round stock. It'll only hurt until next payday, but the things you will find yourself able to do!

Nothing like a success to give you some confidence!

I have always used bolts for welding to stuff. The material is usually miserable stringy stuff that does not cut very well or finish nicely. You can get decent finishes, but it takes a fair bit of playing around with geometry and speeds/feeds.
1018 (regular mild steel) is miserable too. Again, it can be finished up, but it is not a confidence builder...

Got a copy of Machinery's Handbook yet? If not, hunt one up. It's not a how-to book. More like the mother of all wall charts, full of reference material. LOTS of reference material. Older than current versions are just fine, and cheaper. Anyway, there are a couple places in the handbook that describe common alloys and their common uses. Stuff like axles and the like, that one might find around a wrecking yard, that are often made of 4140. Etc. Etc.
That does not get in to details like the stresses that may have been added to the material when it was in use.

If it was machined a lot in making it, chances are good it will machine reasonably well. It may be hardened, a file will tell you that info, and almost all the alloys that are commonly found around vehicles that are hardened, will soften up if chucked in the coals of a bonfire, and fished out in the morning, after cooling down.

Got a gun-plumbers shop around? Ask about cut sections of barrel from destroyed firearms. Good stuff. Machines well, threads well, already has a fairly straight hole, reasonably near the middle...

Cheers
Trev

[Buckshot]

...........Using scrap is fine for projects, so long as no one has to 'count' on it. As others have mentioned low carbon 1018 - 1020 is fine. Has good weldability but doesn't turn well, meaning it's finish might be less then desired. There used to be a guy on E-Bay with a machine shop and he sold his drops of 12L14 at very reasonable prices. Best yet, he wasn't fixated on UPS and would ship in the USPS flat rate boxes. That was GREAT! Via UPS you'd pay more for shipping then the material. 12L14 is a leaded steel that machines like cheese but doesn't give up any of it's strength. Welds like crap though.

Struts and shock absorber rods make good stock.

http://www.fototime.com/FEB48295FDD2804/standard.jpg

I made these dies from front struts off an 87 Chevy Celebrity. They were 7/8", but hard chromed so to thread them I had to use carbide. Internally they machined with HSS nicely. The problem with all this stuff that you gather up is that you simply do not know what it is. It's all mystery metal so as I said, don't use it for anything you have to count on.

...............Buckshot

[gishooter]

Hmm. Lots of good info. Thanks for all the replies. Yes, it would not be anything to count on. Just practice. But I understand about the possible frustration of dealing with unknowns.
I was looking at some of the smaller suspension/drive stuff. I assumed that the steel was of known quality of some type. The machine bolts appear to be all higher graded bolts for commercial application. These all came off LARGE military vehicles.
Buckshot, that die set looks nice!

[lathesmith]

Like Buckshot said, 12L14 machines so easily and looks so good afterwards that even an amateur looks like an expert using this stuff. That harder material that you are talking about isn't nearly as easy to handle, and may require annealling before you can machine it at all. If you have access to a torch or even a place where you can build a decent-sized wood fire this wouldn't be hard to do, but it's just something to be aware of.
lathesmith

[Lutzy48]

gishooter,

I buy 12L14 from Speedy Metals. Also, if you are new, I suggest a subscription to Home Shop Machinist. There are always one or two gunsmithing articles in this magazine. Personally i would stay away from trying to machine discarded bolts. It will not machine as freely as leaded steel (12L14). Keep an eye out for discarded aluminum. You can always find uses for that.

[looseprojectile]

So I will tell you how to not commit a felony. Remove the barrel from the action before you start cutting pieces off of it.
I always use old take off barrels for stock to turn on the lathe.
I had a cheap .22 barrel that I had been cutting pieces off of for years until I discovered I had an illegal short rifle. Was one of those .22s that was made with a one piece action and barrel.
It is gone now and I can sleep without worrying about the alphabet troops descending on me. There is a time limit on Federal felony prosecutions isn't there?
Stupid laws!
As has been said gun barrels are a good source of material for turning and you get so you recognize prospective stock at a glance.

Life is good

[Cactus Farmer]

1144 (stress proof) turns nicely and the chips break up into very small pieces. In my area it's a lot cheaper too. I keep small sizes of both 12L14 and 1144 (1/4 to 1in.) handy. I buy 12 foot lengths and saw them into 3 foot sections for ease of handeling. Paint the ends orange for 12L14 and blue for 1144 so no mix-ups on what I grab.
I still scrounge metal too, I just hate to waste a $2.00 bolt for 1 inch of sttel when $2.00 will buy nice known quality metal.
A stalk of 5/16 1144 is only a few (3 or 4) dollars and well worth the investment. If anyone has any trouble finding it PM me and I'll get pricing and shiping info...

[3006guns]

Here's a subtle hint.......if you can file it, you can turn it. That at least gives you an idea of machineability, if not finish capabilities. You haven't lived until you put a piece of unknow metal in the chuck and watch in amazement as the tool backs away in terror!

[machinisttx]

Here's a subtle hint.......if you can file it, you can turn it. That at least gives you an idea of machineability, if not finish capabilities. You haven't lived until you put a piece of unknow metal in the chuck and watch in amazement as the tool backs away in terror!

You need better cutting tools. I've cut stuff that was 60+ Rockwell C on mills and lathes. Not hard at all with the right tools. RPM makes a big difference too.

[Red River Rick]

Problem with the small lathes is they lack "Rigidity" and "HP". Since a lot are bench mounted, you can't keep them rigid enough to prevent "vibrations" from transferring thru to the workpiece. And you don't have the HP to take heavy cuts.

With that in mind, using "Exotic" tooling such as Carbide inserts and or Cermits, will not work well. The vibrations transferred thru, tends to chip and damage the inserts, resulting in premature wear and finally, failure.

Since most Carbide indexable cutting tools are negative geometry, the HP needed for these tools to function properly, is not there. SPEED requires HP.

RRR

[Morrison Machine Shop]

You need better cutting tools. I've cut stuff that was 60+ Rockwell C on mills and lathes. Not hard at all with the right tools. RPM makes a big difference too.

I've done the same cut material that was +60HRC ,and I agree with the right tools, it can be cut.

[Big Dave]

If you need larger size stock, check with a local truck repair garage. Rear axel shafts from large trucks are good high strength steel just be cautious as they tend to be hardened in bearing areas to the point of requireing carbide tool bits to remove the outer 1/8 to 1/4 inch of stock, Areas in the mid section are still somewhat harder than mild steel but are readily machinable. I have also salvaged shafts from scrap automotive transmissions. Rear axels from junked rear wheel drive cars to.
Good Luck

[Sprue]

For small brass projects I found a source on another forum that has or had, 1" round brass rod sold in 1 foot pcs for $8 each plus shipping.

IIRC, he also had some 1.5" hex brass rod too for a few more nickles.

Let me know if you are interested and I'll see if I can locate him again. He had a lot of footage at one time ..........