Making chips, cannons next

[seacoastartillery]

     You guys are making us jealous!  All that new equipment and an overhead belt driven lathe too!  Great stuff and we are hoping for great projects as well.

Have fun!!

Mike and Tracy

[Double D]

     You guys are making us jealous!  All that new equipment and an overhead belt driven lathe too!  Great stuff and we are hoping for great projects as well.

Have fun!!

Mike and Tracy

You know what's nice about my equipment, it doesn't have to make money, it has no schedule or deadlines and runs when I wanna. 

[carronader]

Is Montana becoming the new Dubai ? Retiral Resort of the Rich and Infamous........ooooooooooo and I'm just waiting delivery of the new mill............Envious ?  you betcha...........good manners would have dictated leaving out the new mill for at least a couple of posts.Damn Carpetbaggers ! Not to Worry , I hear Tom Jones is looking for a new home.............ooooooooo please God...........make it Montana.  Hmm.I wonder if Englebert Humperdink has heard of the new Playboy Playground. Can see it now........ 
 " CUTBANK CASINO " proudly presents............the Senile Serenaders........all the way from the Valleys and the Dales..............at tremendous expense...........ooooooooo and by the Way , you two moneybags........are those machines made in America ?  hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
 Soot . ain't nothing wrong with old machinery..........I just got one from ebay........of the woodworking variety.............Made in England too......no contribution to the Chinese Economy. 

[1Southpaw]

Well , I do have a good old american made Southbend lathe , It is a flat belt underdrive on a nice wood base.  It needs some work and  a new home .   Perhaps a Chinaman would like to buy it .      

Problem here is ... That is the choice when looking . We are so far removed from the industrial areas of the US where the older equipment is avaiable . Then the shipping is quite unreasonable .  I recall a post a while back offering a free old 3 phase lathe . Be nice but the cost would exceed what the cost of the new Chineese equipment is.  For home hobbie fellows the chineese stuff looks good.

Now to make something that goes Bang ! 

[Double D]

THe American tools are far too expensive and English even more so.

[GGaskill]

The few kinds of manual machines still being made in the USA are high end heavy precision machines not at all comparable to the machines from China marketed by Grizzly and its competitors.  There are Chinese made machines of the same quality but they are almost as expensive as the American machines and three or four times as expensive as the above mentioned ones, which is why they aren't usually imported.

[dan610324]

as with everything else , you get what you pay for
the chinese makes a lot of very good machines , but the importers have learned today to not buy the cheapest stuff , at least the most of them
so most mid priced chinese stuff is of a good enough quality for most hobby use

the chinese companies still have a little problem when it comes to choose what steel quality to use for specific parts and the hardening of them
and the chinese steel manufacturers doesn have the same standard at their products as we are used to in the west

so my opinion is still that its better with an used old swedish machine in decent condition

I dont know how it is in usa , but here in sweden most schools that teached how to use this type of machines have closed down
most of them was larger companies own high schools
so now its plenty of high quality smaller machines on the used market
most of the machines comming from former schools is in a perfect condition
here in sweden you can buy a used high quality lathe for the same price as a chinese
between $3 000 and $4 000 you get an perfect hobby lathe of high quality with very low running hours on it
but the big investment isnt the machine , you can easily spend 5 times the money you pay for the lathe on tools and accesories you need to use it , ok 10-15 times is also possible   
accesories and tools for a milling machine is even more expensive
as an example I checked up a few years ago what it would cost if I should buy my drill bits today
its every half millimeter between 13 mm to 50 millimeter and every full millimeter from 50 to 70
approximately 5-7 years ago that set would have cost me 10 000 us dollars if I should have bought the Dormer brand (german high quality stuff)  and thats just the drills

[GGaskill]

That's some drill collection.  I have only a few drills over an inch (25.4 mm) and they are Chinese and cost over $100 each.

[dan610324]

yeah , its nice to have them when you need them
but many of them would probably still be unused when I die

as I dont got the money to buy this kind of stuff when I need it I have been collecting for many years , buying mostly on auctions when companies gone bankrupt
and of course many good friends working on the right places , especially one friend have helped me a lot to resharp any kind of tools as he work on a company who only do that kind of stuff

so most of my things have been very cheap , just pennies
its just to be at the right place at the right moment

I made an check 5-7 years ago on request from my insurance company on what the tools and accesories would cost to buy new , I must say that I was very surprised when I got the total .
it was over $200 K
I would guess that I payed just somewhere between 5 and 10 K for all of it during a very long period of time , today when I lives on my disability pension I would never be able to buy all this stuff again

so the cost for the machines is just the minor part of the total

[Zulu]

DD,
Did you lathe come with attachments to allow wood turning?  How are you going to turn your SAMCC axles?  Have you started yet?  I just checked this lathe out in my Grizzly catalog.  Very Cool!!!
Zulu

[Double D]

I have in the past grabbed the wood in the 4 jaw chuck and dialed it in witha an indicator or ruler. I used the 4 jaw to move the wood so the center mark I make on the end the wood for the axle aligns with tailstock center.

I have a wood driving spur center for the head stock but haven't used it yet. I have only seen it used.  I am going to order up Grizzly's cupped live center http://grizzly.com/products/Cupped-Live-Center-for-Wood-Lathe-MT2/H3404 to help do the SAMCC axles.  With these wood centers, I should be able to do away with dialing in and 4 jaw.

For a cutting tool, I just use what ever lathe cutting tool I have handy.

I play with speeds and feeds to get a clean cut.

If you do get the Grizzly machine, tell them I sent you...won't get me anything, but I can use it later if I go after them to be a sponsor.

[Zulu]

I don't know much about metal lathes.  Will this machine bore also? How deep?  Obviously, if you are boring, you can't use a tail stock to support the work piece.  How do you hold it up?
Zulu

[Double D]

I don't know that I would use it to bore wood.  Metal boring can be done depending on the depth and size of hole.  Small short work can be done by holding in the three jaw and using a drill chuck in the tail stock.  The hole can be opened up with a boring bar held in a tool holder on the compound. 

Longer work can be held with a steady rest and driven by grabbing in the chuck.  You can also run the work through the head stock.

But there are limits

[Double D]

9:30 this morning I went out to the shop this morning to work on the SAMMC Carriage.  Saw a can sitting on the work bench full of the material for the project I was working when the old lathe blew up...34 case holders for annealing 577/450 Martini cases.  That project never got finish. It's also a money project.  So no carriage work today.

12:30 the wife called me in for lunch.  Should have been suspicous, she usually leaves me to my own devices for lunch. Half way through the mnice tuna sald sandwich she tells  me I have to go to Mom in laws and install new door locks.

Back to the lathe 3:30 finished at 6 PM. 

Happiness is a chip covered lathe!!!!!

[1Southpaw]

almost ready to start making chips      





Good neighborDon was down , pushed , pulled every nob , opend all the boxes of accessories , then tells me . "I gave away all my father-in -laws  stuff "  His FIL was a hobbie gunsmith , had tooling up the zazoo for lathes . chamber reamers , mill cutters , micrometers , depth gauges , ball mics , you name it he had it .  Plus the Lathe  HE GAVE IT A WAY !  Man I was heart broke , I planed on using a bunch of the goodies     
His FIL always jumped in to a project first class , no cheap stuff in his tool box . Don burned down his FIL 's house  but did save the shop tools . If only I had known .......

[RocklockI]

What did you two do a group buy of sorts ?

[Double D]

We got in on the Cash for Geezer stimulus program!

And I have a project for the mill on Monday!

[carronader]

Best Geezer stimulus I can think of for you two is............next visit to John must include best red hot Mexican Chilli. one fat porcupine and a generous helping of broken glass.  Must be a rule somewhere about posting sweetheart pics of boy's toys before Christmass.