Building The Steven's Favorite

[EdK]

(09-13-2012, 08:04 PM)TomG Wrote: ...Got 'em rough turned and parted off...

Tom

Tom,

Did you use the power cross-feed to part it off or did you do it manually? Cut-off operations are still scary for me.

Ed

[TomG]

Ed,

Don't feel bad, parting is scary for everyone. I always feed by hand on a manual lathe unless I'm using flood coolant. It let's you feel what the tool is doing and you can back off a bit if things start binding up. Here are a few parting pointers:

• Alignment is critical. Don't just eyeball the tool, square it up against the chuck or indicate it so it is dead perpendicular to the work.
  
• Set the RPM to about half what you would normally use for turning.
  
• Keep tool overhang to a minimum.
  
• If the center of the part is to be hollow, do that operation first before parting. It's much easier to cut off a part if you don't need to go all the way to center.
  
• Use a sulphur based cutting oil or flood coolant. It's important to keep your tool well lubed at all times (the parting tool that is).
  
• Set the tool height dead on center. Too high and it will bind up near the center, too low and it will pull in near the center.
  
• Raise your hands in the air and spin around three times before starting the cut (works for me).
  

Good luck!

Tom

[EdK]

(09-24-2012, 10:18 AM)TomG Wrote: [*]Raise your hands in the air and spin around three times before starting the cut (it works for me).
[/list]

Good luck!

Tom

So that's what I've been doing wrong. I've only been spinning around once, and probably in the wrong direction to boot.

Thanks Tom.

Ed

[Rickabilly]

(09-24-2012, 10:18 AM)TomG Wrote: Ed,
Don't feel bad, parting is scary for everyone.
Tom

Ain't that the truth,

A little tip I use when parting big diameters is to;
Plunge 10mm (3/8") at a time, and side step in Z by 1mm to widen the groove.
Then repeat this process right down to full depth.
The slightly wider groove prevents the chips binding.
Using this method, you can go much deeper than you might imagine.

Regards
Rick

[bobm4360]

I keep a piece of 1/8" welding rod in the chip tray to catch the parted pieces; poke it in just before the final cut, and you don't have to fish the piece out of the chips!

Regards,
Bob

[Rickabilly]

Sorry Tom,

I lost track of where I was, I didn't mean to start a parting off tips thread, But maybe we should have one in the tips section, so If we all agree on this, is there a way we can move these posts?

Regards
Rick

[TomG]

Rick,

Don't worry about the hijack, it's all good. I just need to get busy and start posting more material on the Steven's to keep the thread on course. Why don't you start a thread on parting tips. That sounds like a great idea.

Tom

[EdK]

(09-25-2012, 05:08 AM)Rickabilly Wrote: Sorry Tom,

I lost track of where I was, I didn't mean to start a parting off tips thread, But maybe we should have one in the tips section, so If we all agree on this, is there a way we can move these posts?

Regards
Rick

Rick,

There's no easy way to move individual posts. We can move a whole thread easily but not individual posts. It's a feature that has been requested by many to the software authors. Maybe the next version will have that feature, I hope.

Ed

[SnailPowered]

I finally got to see the pictures and all I can say is WOW! That is absolutely amazing Tom!!

[TomG]

Thanks! I'm glad you finally got to see the pics. Where are you at that allows such a thing?

Tom