Sorry XCB

[RED333]

So you gona make your your cutter bits?

[runfiverun]

I made up my mind long ago not to get a lathe.
i'd never leave the garage except to go to the range or the reloading room.

[Eutectic]

I made up my mind long ago not to get a lathe.
i'd never leave the garage except to go to the range or the reloading room.

In all honesty Lamar; I don't know how a cast boolit shooter/experimenter can do without one!!! It's worth having a little one just to do "professional" hollow points!

Eutectic

[detox]

Your wife asks....... "How much did that damn thing cost?"

[cbrick]

[oldred]

Now ya dunit!!!! I hope you have room for that milling machine, BTW are you looking for one yet?

Then of course there's all the necessary accessories and other toys, in fact you and the UPS driver will become very acquainted in a short time. This is an insatiable addiction, even worse than pouring lead if you can imagine that, there's no cure and no turning back! JK of course, actually the only regret you are going to have is not buying it sooner.



If I may I would like to add another safety tip, one that I have known to cause two injuries. Using sandpaper or a sanding strip can be very dangerous (also REALLY bad for the lathe!), in both cases the guy was pinching down on a cloth sanding strip when it grabbed his hand. One guy was fortunate and only caught the tip of his thumb resulting in a rather painful but not permanent injury, the other guy lost a finger and had several other broken bones in his hand but both could just as easily have lost an arm or even been killed. Sanding or grinding grit can be death to the ways on a lathe anyway and if sanding or grinding is done on (or even grinding near) a lathe care should be taken to prevent this grinding/sanding grit from ending up anywhere on the lathe especially on the ways!

[geargnasher]

A drill press will wind your clock too doing the pinch-method sand/polish. I think we lost Brad for a while

Gear

[cbrick]

I think we lost Brad for a while

Gear

Yeah but he hasn't used it yet, he's too busy standing over it drooling.

Rick

[oldred]

A drill press will wind your clock too doing the pinch-method sand/polish. I think we lost Brad for a while

Gear

Any spinning stock is like a snake about to strike! Those sanding strips (and even sandpaper) can cause a person SERIOUS hurt in the blink of an eye! Besides it gives me the bejeebers just thinking about getting grit on my lathe although I have been guilty of using sanding strip on occasion. The way I do it is to first cover the ways and cross slide, make sure the cover itself can't get snagged, so grit can't get on the lathe, then I use a long piece of cloth strip held only at the ends several inches away from the spinning stock with the ends held several inches apart so there's no possibility of the strip grabbing.


A tool I would highly recommend that's sort of along the lines of using something besides a lathe bit/cutter to remove metal is a lathe file, a long angle lathe file is way less likely to gouge the work than a regular file plus it clogs a lot less and cuts faster. A light touch with a good sharp long angle lathe file that has been freshly chalked will often leave a finish as slick as sandpaper, one of those files should be near the top of the goodies list for tooling.

[btroj]

I will look for a lathe file this week.

Gear, I'm not lost, just in a different dimension.

If weather looks right I may shoot Tuesday, until I get some tooling in it is hard to make much.

Anyone want some Chinese cosmoline? I have a bunch!

[btroj]

Made a punch for a Lee push thru sizer. Other than the fact it is .010 undersized it turned out well enough.

What did I learn?

Cheap steel rods from the hardware store aren't easy to turn with a decent finish. It will take some learning to see what feed rate and depth of cut with give a smoother finish.

Learned to measure more often and remove metal slower as I get close.

Learned lots about tool angles, power feed, and general lathe use.

I'm pretty happy for a first attempt. Will get some better steel and try again.

[MarkP]

Nice addition, I need to start looking as home projects are becoming a thing of the past at work.

12L14 (leaded machine stock) will machine well for you as will resulfurized or free machining steels. I make my Star dies out of O1. If you do polish on your lathe place a cloth over the ways to protect them from the abrasives.

An expensive but nice option are collets.

There are several stories about lathe operators with pony tails getting snagged within the check jaws. I am bald so need to watch loose clothing. Always use a file handle, the file can a will instantly bite into the material without notice.

[btroj]

Long hair is not an issue for me.

Is is there a good place in Omaha to get a variety of steel for turning?

Mark, since you are in Omaha I may need to invite you over for a few hands on lessons.

[runfiverun]

In all honesty Lamar; I don't know how a cast boolit shooter/experimenter can do without one!!! It's worth having a little one just to do "professional" hollow points!

Eutectic

hollow points pshaw,, your gonna have to come up with sumthin better than that.
now if I cast much colder than I do now and had sprue nibs to turn off..

[btroj]

Come on Run, you can find an excuse to get one. You know you want one, just go do it.

[country gent]

LOng angled lathe files are great for a finish and removing stock but will grab occassionally and the travel fast as the angled teeth pull them ussually the chuck. Another trick is to set an indicator on the ways to the tool holder and learn to take play out of gibs threads and to see if .001 on the diall is .001 on the dia. 0-1" indicator should read .0005 for .001 on dial. Old machines dials read .001 and gave .002 on dia. .001 on a side. A little time moving crossfeed and compound watching the indicators measured movement helps alot.

[btroj]

I need to get an indicator and magnetic base for same. Learning how much to move the dial will help a bunch.
Right now it is mostly a game of "what happens if". I am learning new things daily. Is weekend it is chuck tear down day to clean them up. If the chucks have metal shards like the rest of the lathe did then they need it.

I can see that we really don't own a lathe, they own us. Almost like a wife.

[cbrick]

I can see that we really don't own a lathe, they own us. Almost like a wife.

Really? Has that lathe asked you if those chucks make it look fat?

Rick

[btroj]

My wife doesn't me that either. She knows better and he father broke her of such stupidity long ago.

Good thing is that I can rest assured the lathe won't ask for new shoes!

[cbrick]

hehe, by the time you really get into buying tools you'll wish it was just shoes.

Rick