Attempt to make a Taper Crimper on my new Lathe

[Longwood]

Looking good Bill.
It appears your "Online Apprenticeship" is coming along nicely.

A short drill, may work a little better

[DoctorBill]

Ya, every new project is scary until I actually 'do it'.

Having a Lathe sure is nice !

I think I will form a 'snub nosed' D-Bit for the second bullet in that mold....
and yes, some Screw (Short) Drills would be nice to have.

Someone here did one.
I'll have to find that shape and post it, although I kinda like bullet shape
number three below...



Don't know...should do some reloadin' an shootin' now !

Edited in Later:
Here is the shape (Rojelio's) -


DoctorBill

[Longwood]

Ya, every new project is scary until I actually 'do it'.

Having a Lathe sure is nice !

I think I will form a 'snub nosed' D-Bit for the second bullet in that mold.

Someone here did one.
I'll have to find that shape and post it, although I kinda like bullet shape
number three below...
Don't know...should do some reloadin' an shootin' now !

DoctorBill

You can also mill on your lathe with a simple attachment. Then you can work with weights by milling the top of your experiments.

[DoctorBill]

On the 9x20 Lathe Yahoo Group,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/9x20Lathe/
I have read that by the time you get that all set up, you might as well
buy a Mini-Milling Machine for around $600...

New or 'used'.

Hmmmmm.

DoctorBill

[Longwood]

On the 9x20 Lathe Yahoo Group,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/9x20Lathe/
I have read that by the time you get that all set up, you might as well
buy a Mini-Milling Machine for around $600...

New or 'used'.

Hmmmmm.

DoctorBill

They sell the attachments used also.
You can then use them on a machine that you already know the quirks of.
I see them on ebay a lot but the vices often get sold separately and the vice has more demand and seems. to sell high.
Mine is an older one but a good one and I can set it up in about 5 minutes then put it in a draw when I am done with it.
I saw one at a road side sale, a few weeks ago, that had a badly chewed vice but it was nice and tight still.

[Buckshot]

..............Dr.B, A gentle suggestion. You might want to think about splitting this portion of your thread off and re-naming it. You're now doing something different with your lathe. A new project, and it probably would attract so more posters. Just a thought.

Those boolits in your post #102, the ones pictured numbered 1-4 are for a Whitworth ML'ing rifle, and intended to mechanically fit the bore.



I have one (Parker-Hale repro), 100x as many conicals were fired from them then the 'shaped' slugs.

Longwood,
You can also mill on your lathe with a simple attachment. Then you can work with weights by milling the top of your experiments.

Ah now, don't you know those things are dangerous!?



I had a dual toolpost cross slide and used that to mount a Palmgren toolpost milling vice.



It's all I had before I got my turret mill and I did a LOT of stuff with it. So long as you work within it's envelope they do a fine job, and when you need a slot and you have to use a lathe they're a lifesaver. Sure you can creatively cobble something else up to get it done, but they sure make it simpler. If you think you might be interested in it (it's now excess to my needs ) shoot me a PM.

Dr. B, you might want to buy yourself a piece of ground flat stock, say 3/16" x 1.5". A piece 18" long will give you twice the material you need. Cut 4 suitably sized lengths to use between the chuck jaws and the mould blocks. It will keep the jaws from marking the blocks. You can also leave the 2 jaws bearing on the sides of the blocks snugger, while you use the jaws bearing on the ends to traverse the blocks for boring consecutive cavities. The blocks will slide easier between them then with the jaws bearing.

Also the plates on either end will be extra beneficial in spreading their load, instead of javing the jaws bearing directly on/across the parting line. Looks like your setup did a fine job. Good job! Looks like you're on your way.

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

[DoctorBill]

Tomayto - Tomaahhtow.

I wondered about a new thread.....

There are more opinions than hairs on your head. Take your pick !

I am going to a Craig's List Garage sale tomorrow morning with a Milling Machine for sale.....

In the end it is the cost or price that talks the loudest.

I wonder what is in store for me ?

All these new things I have to learn !
I wish I had done them when I was 40 instead of near 70 ! Am I too old ?

DoctorBill

[DoctorBill]

Buckshot - From what I have been reading about my Chinese 9x20 Lathe,
I wonder if my Saddle and Cross Slide is strong enough to mount a vice
on for milling ?

I bought a Steel 90° Block with the intentions of mounting a Drill Vice



and also bought a cross vice from Harbor Freight to use with my Drill Press.



I just don't know.

DoctorBill

PS - Splitting this part off - Don't know how.
Anyway this Mold part is pretty much done with.

[Buckshot]

Buckshot - From what I have been reading about my Chinese 9x20 Lathe,
I wonder if my Saddle and Cross Slide is strong enough to mount a vice
on for milling ?

I bought a Steel 90° Block with the intentions of mounting a Drill Vice

.............You have those nice "T" slots in your cross slide with which to mount your angle plate. So far as your cross slide's strength goes, I'm sure it would be just fine as you won't be doing any heavy (or even moderate) milling with it. If you did need a deep and/or wide slot, you'd simply do it in steps.

So far as being almost 70, as long as you're willing to you can still learn.

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

[DoctorBill]

I would like to ask you fellows in the know.....

Would this be worth buying for the price asked ?

http://spokane.craigslist.org/tls/3126354385.html

DoctorBill

PS - "So far as being almost 70, as long as you're willing to you can still learn."
The flesh is willing, the brain is.....what was I going to say ?
Time for my nap.....

[smokeywolf]

I would suggest you put that $425 toward something a little bigger and more rigid. I'm afraid the lack of rigidity of a machine like that will be very frustrating to you when trying to produce a good finish on anything other than aluminum or soft brass.
I would hold out for a used Bridgeport or Bridgeport clone. Yes, it will probably cost you $1800 or better, but the jobs you can do on it are limited more by your knowledge, patience, and imagine than by the machine.

smokeywolf

[dragonrider]

I would also say no,

[Longwood]

It would be a fairly decent home shop press. I would be hard pressed to pay over $300.
A milling machine? Not quite,,, but it would do light stuff fairly well. By "Light stuff", I mean stuff like we do a lot of. Small shallow cuts with little end mills and you could do some nice stuff with it. Buckshot's aluminum and brass point was right on.
A Brideport or even a used Chinese mill would be a lot better as you learn to use it for bigger and better things.

Have you had a chance to do any tests with bullets from the molds you made.
I loaded up some hard, large diameter, bullets then some soft, small diameter bullets, that have a small flat on the nose from the molds I made last year and will shoot them in a day or two.
Looking forward to the tests and the results. It will be my second attempt at paper patched and after a year here, I know what I am doing this time.

[DoctorBill]

OK - I shall pass it over.

Just wanted some opinions before I went off half-cocked.

As to shooting - I have shot some of the cast PP bullets.
Not many - not enough to judge them yet.

I was all ready to shoot up a storm this summer, but the heat is killing me.

Long story short - not much shooting - or anything else.
Just becoming an old, sweaty phart.

DoctorBill

[HollowPoint]

When I first started looking into buying a mill and lathe I was limited as far as funds and the room to put machinery in.

I ended up buying a Harbor freight Mini mill and a mini mill. I bought each of them with a 20 percent off coupon. I learned on them while I saved up to buy the 9x19 lathe I have now. I sold the mini lathe and used the money from that to buy new tooling for the slightly larger lathe I bought from Grizzly.

I still have and use the mini mill. It's more than adequate for the stuff I use it for. You just have to take smaller bites out of you metal stock that's all.

Since acquiring my CNC hobby mill I use the Harbor Freight mini mill more as a drill press than anything else. There's time when using the mini mill is a whole lot faster than setting up the CNC mill for one-off small stuff.

It's always nice when you can afford bigger and better machines but, not everyone can. I was happy with the cheaper Harbor freight stuff to get me started. I'm still glad to have the mini mill.

HollowPoint

[smokeywolf]

Wish I'd been actively reloading and a member of Cast Boolits 10 years ago. I sold off 6 mills, 7 lathes, 3 surface grinders, 1 cylindrical grinder, 4 pedestal grinders, numerous surface and lapping plates, a Rockwell hardness tester with diamonds for "C" scale and balls for Brinell.
As an example, one of the mills was a Bridgeport clone (Summit) with probably less than 20 thousand hours on it. It went out the door for $450 dollars. Most of the lathes went for around $800 dollars.

DoctorBill,
Watch your newspaper classifieds for machine shops going out of business. All that machinery and tooling I sold off was out of the Sony Pictures Studio Machine Shop.