Let's See Your Lathe

[stevec]

Tom, when I get worked up and nervous I just bring up the pic of your Hardinge and it imediately sooths me! Thanks!
Steve

[TomG]

(06-22-2012, 09:53 AM)stevec Wrote: Tom, when I get worked up and nervous I just bring up the pic of your Hardinge and it imediately sooths me! Thanks!
Steve

It does sort of have that effect, doesn't it? Sometimes I just want to give it a hug.

[ScrapMetal]

(06-22-2012, 10:18 AM)TomG Wrote: It does sort of have that effect, doesn't it? Sometimes I just want to give it a hug.

Hmmm, somewhere I think we've crossed the line into the TMI* zone.

-Ron

* TMI - "Too much information"

[doubleboost]

Hi
Tom
That lathe is machine porn
John

[EdK]

Ed

[Rickabilly]

(06-22-2012, 03:04 PM)doubleboost Wrote: Hi
Tom
That lathe is machine porn
John

Oh Dear,
Crossing that TMI line again

Rick

[SnailPowered]

Well, this is the lathe I have paid for it but it hasn't been delivered yet. I bought it from a member of Weapons Guild that said he has had it for 20+ years and is the second owner. It fits the bill for me quite nicely as it is small enough to be moved by two young men, maybe three (I'm in the Army and most of my coworkers are in pretty good shape lol). It should also work just fine for gunsmithing and light hobby machine duties that I might throw at it. I already have more plans for it than I have any idea how long it will take to finish I figure that after my enlistment is up I will probably get a "real" machine. I have been drooling over the Smithy I-MAX 1340 for quite a while. It's just too big for me right now and I paid less than half the price of that one for this lathe. I have no idea what most of the tools are in the box but the thing looks virtually new. My dad used a Craftsman/Atlas when he was a foreman at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Tucson, Az years ago. I will try to glean all the knowledge I can from him and then use the heck out of my online info sources

Without further ado:                    

[Rickabilly]

Wow Smail man,
That is one sweet looking little setup,
I hope you get the tool cabinet as well as the contents, I will give you the name for those tools from left to right if that helps,

On the left wall, it seems you have 4 High speed steel tool holders and one knurling tool(it's a little hard to tell might be 5 HSS holders),

bottom left; Change gears for feeds and thread pitch changes,

Middle left; Travelling steady, mounts to carriage to support long work while turning,

top left; Draw bar, for pulling collets and milling cutters into the spindle taper, might be a collet chuck on the right hand end if it,

Below the draw bar; is the vertical milling slide with vice, used to do light milling in the lathe, you take off the compound slide and replace it with this, use the draw bar and collets to hold cutters in the lathe spindle and off you go, a little milling machine ,

next right on the bottom; revolving tailstock (dead) centre, used to support the end of long work,

next right on the bottom; tailstock vee block, used to hold round work at the centre height of the spindle for cross drilling, simply mount a drill in the spindle, clamp the round bar in the vee, put the unit into the tailstock taper and use the tailstock hand wheel the feed the work onto the drill,

next right on the bottom; tailstock drill chuck,

next right on the bottom, old style (lantern) toolpost, probably the original for this machine before the quick change toolpost was fitted, unfortunately in fitting the qctp often the mods mean the old toolpost may no longer fit,

Above the last four parts; is the fixed steady, it clamps to the bed and help to support long work,

two discs with 4 slots each are face plates, used to mount certain work on the spindle for turning having two sizes is very handy, you can easily bolt flanged bearings or similar things direct to these or for example an angle plate, to which you can mount even more difficult things, alternately these can be used as drive plates when turning between centres. one point to be careful of is balance, if you mount something heavy on the face plate and it is off centre the forces developed at speed can tear the lathe and it's surrounding apart, this includes your body,

Above the big face plate; you have three bent leg driving dogs, when turning between centres the work is held by drilling centre holes in each end and these locate on a centre in the spindle (live centre) and a centre in the tailstock(dead centre) to drive the work you mount one of the face plates on the spindle, and use the smallest dog that will fit over the end of the work and tighten the clamping screw onto the work in a location where the bent leg on the dog will locate in one of the slots in the face plate,

bottom far right; obviously this is the four jaw chuck, an absolutely essential device for holding irregular work or wherever accurate setups are required, with a little practice you can be far more accurate with this than with 99% of three jaw chucks.

just to the left of the four jaw chuck appears to be a toolpost jig of some kind probably for holding milling work, too be completely honest I'm not sure, and just above this is a chuck key, for either or both the three and four jaw chucks.

There are some bits and bobs on the bottom that I can't identify from the photo but I hope this helps you out with most of it.

In the chip tray you oviously have the QCTP tool holders a couple of turning holders one boring bar holder and a combined turning and knurling holder and of course the other chuck key.

Best Regards
Rick

[Rickabilly]

Hello Again Snailman,
I didn't mean to over do the detail, just from your post it seemed you might be starting from scratch, we like to help out newbies around here.
Best regards
Rick

[SnailPowered]

That is really awesome Rick thanks a ton!! It did indeed come with everything in the pictures to include the tool cabinet. The only thing that he isn't sending is the top of the table as it was too big to fit in the crate with everything else and should be fairly simple to make a table top. I have heard that there was a Department of Defense (I think it may have still been the War Department) letter that got put out during WWII about mounting these to a concrete bed for increased accuracy. That has me intrigued especially if I can make a table top that is concrete like I saw in another post here earlier.

I am literally starting from scratch. I know virtually nothing about machining but I think I'm basically jumping in with both feet lol. I have been interested in it but didn't realize until recently that a home shop wasn't a $100K initial investment. I actually would like to have a machine shop and be a stay at home dad after I get out of the military so this is where I will be starting!