Mini lathes - possible to turn stainless?

[HankMcSpank]

What a splendid idea....do these soft jaws cost much? (cos it may be cheaper just to buy a 4 jaw independent chuck!

Perhaps I need to hold fire on this as there's stuff popping up that I'd never considered (& it's stuff that'll save me outlay!)

[HiltonSteve]

Soft jaws should only be about £20-£30 a set depending on the chuck manufacturer.

They do have more uses than just boring out the inside diameter to prevent runout, you can also bore out the face's with a shoulder for holding larger dia items. Say you had a 100mm dia circular bearing holder with a finish width of 20mm then you could bore the jaws at 100mm dia down to a depth of say 15mm, cut the 100 mm dia material a couple of mm's oversize in a saw and then when you put it in the chuck and tap it up to the shoulder it will run true and will be easy to get the width parallel.

Also if you bore them to the size of the part you are machining then it helps prevent marking of the workpiece that hard jaws can sometimes leave, specially on soft material like aluminum.

[Tom]

Having spent too long researching these over the past few days, I'd learnt that an independent 4 jaw was going to be the most useful, therefore I'll probably take the package & just flog the 3 jaw chuck on (most comments I've read suggest that you never go back to a 3 jaw after using an independent 4 jaw!).

Hank,

If you go the 4 jaw independent route, consider getting a larger chuck than standard. Standard is 75mm.
100mm and 125mm are both options. 125mm uses up a fair bit of bed length, but i've found myself boring holes in sheet that I wouldn't have been able to hold in a 100mm chuck. Also the large spinning mass has smoothed some of my cuts out (not to mention making the lathe significantly more DEADLY :twisted:)

[Swarfing]

I spent weeks looking at what i could buy. Scoured Ebay etc and ended up for piece of mind going to Machine Mart and buying the Clarke 430. A lot of people would not rate it but for my needs it was fine. If it goes wrong i can pop round the corner and bang on their door. If you've ever pick one of these up (it take two very strong people) you would NOT even consider trying to get it through a loft hatch. pop along to a tool place for a proper look before you do. A hurnia would seem like a child's ticlky throat in comparison...........If you was to look at machine mart and compare the size between the models they have, at least you would be able to see what you et for your money. All said and done they are a good price for they can do. Ask about the version with the milling drill? do forget they dont always include a table though :-)

[Swarfing]

hank almost forgot, don't forget to check what the diameter of through hole is behind the chuck. If it is not wide enough it can be limiting. my friends small lathe has a good size chuck but can only fit up to 6mm diameter through.

[HankMcSpank]

yeah...I think I got that one covered....

Power 550W
Distance between centres : 350mm
Swing Over Bed: 180mm
Swing Over Cross Slide: 110mm
Taper: MT3
Tailstock Taper: MT2
Chuck diameter: 80mm
Spindle Speed: 50 - 2500rpm
Spindle Bore: 20mm
Cross slide Travel: 65mm
Chuck diameter 100mm (Integral spindle plate is 100mm no adapter plate required)
Range of Metric Threads: 0.5 - 2.5mm.
Range of Imperial Threads: 12 - 52 TPI.
Spindle Accuracy: 0.01mm.
Size with packaging is L: 81cm W: 30.5cm H: 31.5cm
Operating instructions enclosed.
American circuit board
230v 50Hz motor
Actual dimensions of lathe - 29in.x 10in.x 9½ in.
Net weight/Gross weight : 42/45Kg.


I'll dismantle it to take it up into the loft!

[HankMcSpank]

If you're using 10mm tooling I have a "gret handful" of brazed carbide tooling (new) you can have as I never use it.

Wow, what a kind offfer, I'm starting from zip .....I'd like to take you up on that if the lathe turns out to take 10mm tools - thanks! (these will no doubt weigh a little bit...obviously I'll pay the postage!)

I'll let you know later!

You'll get a flavour for why I need a lathe from this set of photos, I've just completed this -





(those lines are on the lower surface - top is nice & smooth. That centre circle looks a little odd as I haven't come all the way through to the top surface with it . - also those little holes are meant to be different - there are two sizes of DIY pickups I need to mount, both of which have different pole spacings)


The cheapest/quickest traversing pickup winder I can dream up....




"What I learnt today" - biggish circular stuff is painful to do on a mill and doesn't look so neat after either!

(& I dare say not that 'true' either!)

[irving2008]

"What I learnt today" - biggish circular stuff is painful to do on a mill and doesn't look so neat after either!

(& I dare say not that 'true' either!)

To do circular stuff in a mill, mount the workpiece on the spindle and clamp the lathe tool(s) to the bed using a vice or purpose-made jig.

See [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbfXXeiSHsw"]YouTube - Taig mill turning bushings[/ame] as an example

[HankMcSpank]

But did you leave a little bit for finishing? A lot of the things I make I don't bother with a finishing pass as it's more a functional than aesthetically pleasing thing.....I just bought an Alimaster milling cutter made by Mitsubishi....just to see if it's better than the Alu Power I got given to try....Amazing finish by comparison to an old Hydra Al cutter....With a finishing pass it left a mirror finish!

Oops pressed the thanks button there by accident - have one anyway (for the offer of the tools!)


No I didn't use a finishing pass...1. becuase I've never used them (!) & 2. I've not bothered to work out how finishing passes would slot into my workflow!

This was just to get a cheap & dirty coil winder wheel in situ PDQ.

[HankMcSpank]

Couldn't get over there today (it's further than I thought & this is London!).

Called the seller - it seems it does take 10mm tools ....Kip I'll PM you!