I am tired, I don't want to deal with hunting shit anymore. I just want to input money and receive stuff without it being a knife fight over some old junk worn out machine that'd been out of production for 70 years and I have to get raped to get replacement part on ebay by some other boomer.Are chink mini lathes viable to get running well without needing another lathe or a mill to fix the brand new machine you just bought? I just want to make small steel items, maybe up to an inch in diameter but realistically 5/16 or smaller diameter machine screws.
>>2790669Harbor freight has a small metal lathe. Idk how it is, but i have their small wood one and it does a good job. The metal one is around $800. I would say buy a mid grade one. The cheap ones are going to require tinkering to work and the expensive ones are expensive. It's cheaper to buy a decent one than to buy a cheap one and then a decent one a month later.
>>2790669I hear they're pretty good as long as you bolt them down and have reasonable expectations about the kinds of speeds, feeds, and materials it can handle.
>>2790818>have reasonable expectations about the kinds of speeds, feeds, and materials it can handle.this. don't buy it unless you know pretty much what it can do. lol. this board kills me. not one fucking mention of materials or diameters, just those old reliable "reasonable expectations". I usually respond to these toy lathe threads with my actual experience with the HF version, but I'd just rather bitch today.
>>2790824there is literally dimensions and materials in the op
>>2790692A small lathe is only suitable for small pieces or for softer metal. You will certainly not be able to make parts of harder alloys to the right spec.
>>2790831Ok. OP specifically said he wanted to make small steel parts so what the problem?
>>2790669chink minilathes are crap. once you buy the piece of shit, then do a ton of work to make it only half a piece of shit, you might as well have just shelled out the money on something decent.jet's way overpriced, but grizzly or precision matthews would probably be the way to go. pm has a 12x36 on a stand for like 5k right now. grizzly has a 12x35 gunsmith lathe for less than that.but it all depends on what you want to do/make with it. if you think you're going to retire by straightening drive shafts on a 7x16 mini lathe, you're on drugs. if you just want to make projects and start a youtube channel to compete with quinn dunki and clough42, you'd be in business. still, both pm and grizzly have better minilathes at only a slightly higher price point.
>>2790669>I am tired, I don't want to deal with hunting shit anymore.My (rich, old, experienced) machine shop ownerbro makes a mint off his older version of this:https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/76316397He has many other machines but his specialty is repair machining and so many parts fall in its range it's faster for one-offs to use his Enco while his CNC and larger manual machines are making other parts.You can resell them for a nice chunk of purchase price when you age out of being able to do stuff so actual cost/year won/t be shit. The nice thing about being old is you can estimate your future and enjoy some of your income you might otherwise not.
keep in mind that while a small/flimsy machine can be shit for making chips, it may still be usable for grinding/lapping precise parts in very hard materials
>>2790692They require a lot of mods It’s basically a cordless drill and a carriage bone stock
>>2790907>>2790921This is decent advice - save a bit more for something with a quick change gearbox and power cross slide and you'll be okay. Don't cheap out on a model without them - it's worth the extra cost.
>>2792006>quick change gearbox and power cross slideHaving gone directly from a 7x14 to a 2-ton 17" LeBlond Regal, can confirm this. Swapping gears is ass, not even for threads as much as feed rate.Power cross feed is nice, but nowhere near the upgrade that a gearbox is. Facing and parting are usually a fairly small part of the operation, so don't get too fixated on it.
>>2792009>power cross feedthe real use is cutting nice 45 deg chamfers on part. throw both feeds in at the same time. take a little practice to figure out the slack and where to start cuts, but really handy once it becomes second nature
>>2792015>the real use is cutting nice 45 deg chamfers on partSounds sketchy as fuck, assuming you can even do it. The power feeds on my SAG 12 share a common lever, so that isn't even possible on some lathes.
>>2792021>sketchy not even in the top 10 sketchy things to do around a 200+ lb chunk of spinning metal. my axelson specifically called it out as a feature. monarchs are the same. leblonds stupid single shifter carriage clutch makes their lathes unusable to me
>spend $6000 plus getting 3 phase power so a hobbyist can make screws and bushingsGreat advice.
>>2792026Maybe it makes more sense with HSS/carbon tool speeds, but I can't help but imagine myself waiting just a split second too long and accidentally starting a way deeper cut than intended. Plus, most of the time I want a 45° chamfer, it's just cosmetic or to break an edge and a dedicated chamfer tool takes care of that. Actual features are taken care of with the compound easily enough.IDK, just seems kind of gimmicky to me, especially when the real deluxe option is a power compound feed.
>>2792041>expensive 3ph service no reason unless you're running a business, and even debatable thenyou literally only need a rando old 3ph motor larger than the one you want to run and a piece of rope to pull start it. yes, you can get much more refined, but it's not necessary. i've run brideports and most other things for years on the shitty little jump start capacitor in a box, static "phase converters" that everybody loves to hate. you can build them for under $25 per machine and the motor will rattle along on 1ph just fine, albeit at half power. which is fine for most manual machines
>>2792015lol, why would you do this? Just use an insert at 45 degrees.
>>2792044>just cosmetic or to break an edgethat's exactly where it shines. why tool change to some wide, flat chatter-o-matic when the the turning tool is already there>hss glacial speednot often on my machines. cnmg or positive rake ccmt/ccgt chomp away on most things much better than a hand ground toolbit
>>2792048>and the motor will rattle along on 1ph just fine, albeit at half power. which is fine for most manual machines>running a 3 phase motor on a single phaseDoesn't that fuck something up, electrically speaking? I would think the contacts for the 2nd and 3rd phase would add resistance at least, and probably act as a inductor in the circuit at worst.
https://littlemachineshop.com/Basically upgraded Chinese machines. They work well for what they are.
>>2790831You don’t lathe hardened metals.Might want to anneal it first, then machine, then re-harden.> hey bill, it’s taking forever to turn down this tungsten carbide part with the HSS cutter
>>2792553>using lathe as a verb
>>2790831Why not? With sharp tools and light cuts you can turn anything on any lathe.>t. has turned hardened steel with carbide tools on a 7x14 mini lathe
>>2792584This is just not true. You can't drill a 1/2"; through thick steel plate with a Dremel. You just don't have enough torque to break a chip.
>>2792553You certainly can but it requires high speed and carbide or other suitable tooling. Practical Machinist etc have all the details.
Okay, what about using a drill press as a lathe to get things turned roughly to size? I was thinking, have the table locked, have a cross slide drill press vise bolted to the table with a lathe cutter in it, and have the material spinning in the chuck. for actually moving along the part, I could move the quill up and down to act as the cross slide. Could get fancy and use one of the 10 dremels I pulled out the trash to use a a shitty surface grinder, clamp it in the vise and run a stone in it to clean up the part.I just want to turn down an annealed drill bit to the diameter to use a die to make a custom screw about 1.5" long.
>>2793953That sort of thing has been done, and the Dremel would be more of a toolpost grinder.
>>2792782You can if you do a spiral tool path with a 5 mm endmill.
>>2794398>dremel >.196" endmill >toolpath
>>2793962Would it be better to bolt a rocker tool post to the table, or just use a drill press vise? The stuff is pretty tough even after annealing, I tried to see how long it would take to take it down with a dremel or file and it definitely needs a proper cutter. Probably should just use a grade 5 bolt with a minor diameter close to the rod diameter for the die, and just shave the threads off with the cutter, thread it and make the flat head out of the hex.
>>2790669Just lathe the parts you need with your lathe anon :^)
>>2790669Which ER collet chuck do I need to clamp onto a flesh light Also what do you guys bolt your lathe to when you’re lathing your lathe with your dick Also my tool curves up and to the left will runout be an issue?
>>2792041VFD are cheap and give variable speed. RPC are less cheap if bought (but turn up used so mine was a near-new 15HP rated for six hundred bucks, all it did previously was run a chiller for a few months).For machine tools of enthusiast size VFD is superior for speed control so my round ram and lathe got one each (though you can plug swap if poor or one fails) while my air compressors got the RPC which will also feed my (large) buffers and belt sander when I get around to mounting them.The little single capacitor things are weak sauce but easy to build, see Youtube. Three phase is desirable for machine tools not least because it runs smoother affecting cut quality. See the Practical Machinist forums for all ye need know.
https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-x14-Benchtop-Variable-Precision/dp/B09FDVMYXS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8&th=1
Where can I buy a cheap 4" scroll plate. I could buy an entire chuck for less than some of these sites want for just the scroll plate. Fucking retarded.
>>2790843some retard always has to bring up irrelevant shit
>>2792009another vote for the leblond regal, these are a perfect midpoint between south bend / rockwell / etc. tiny bench lathes and industrial lathes of monarch/axelson/lodge & shipley quality. they weigh much less than proper industrial lathes but can have large swing/bed length and take heavier cuts than a SB. you can also get them in small sizes, mine is 13" swing and 20" between centers, but still a beefy 1100 lbs. geared headstocks, qc gearboxes, powerfeeds in all directions. the ways aren't hardened though (till the 60s models), and they overall weigh less for a good reason. the headstock gears are tiny compared to a monarch or axelson, and the beds have much less iron in themleblond regal is a true starter lathe, if the end goal is a proper industrial lathe
>talking about 100 pound lathes you can buy for $500>what you REALLY want to start with is a 4000 pound one that costs $5000
>>2797084Large used lathes are often cheap because everyone wants little toolroom sized lathes and is terrified of moving heavy objects.Everything about machining is known. Learn the choices thoroughly then pick one. >>2797005It would have to match your chuck so the best answer is replace chuck with a good used chuck rather than buying a new scroll plate. Not everything which appears worth fixing is worth fixing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/165311532961?epid=9054368189&itmmeta=01HXQH8C15DEM05C1CPP2EPSJS&hash=item267d55cfa1:g:z4oAAOSwDzpjpANs&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4LmJ%2FQhnv0HCU8hnXrU1iVa2dwkqYGEm3VrituY2ALeK9h2mwbhMq7FsE6kx5CgkRkFdalDrqlGJN2ARvZ1hOi14PYVI7dtD0Naq2%2FFSne6A7AK%2BqQbNab3ohag7d9ULnE6EY0Vx%2BYGLoiwuQWlFUPB6%2BTHWOORa%2FQJuXyFRK0LUxGQQSNbrpXOXw5vCzRlry4xp2r5RK8OzIdjibCUdyIoBBfsc%2FJS3hV8NkFk4VFlEQGDMkPf6awT8sig8cYyxmjiDXS0DibpLlElBVrLxtgaHh4CxpMJveZZ743j2VSvc%7Ctkp%3ABFBM4sCh8e1jfellas, I'm getting dangerously close
>>2798955>https://www.ebay.com/itm/165311532961jesus dude learn to internet
>>2798955that's $200 less than I paid for mine 5 years ago.
>>2798960I thought the amazon one was cheap at $470. I was looking again on facebook and CL for used lathes then checked ebay and they were a lot less.Might not be the best but I could get 5% off with my card on top. I've bought a little craftsman one years ago, but once I went through it, it was gorilla niggered and single parts were as much as I paid ($100) and I needed a new chuck, new main screw, some other stuff.
Speaking of machining, where the hell is the eternal machinist thread? I haven't been on /diy/ in a while, came back and I've checked for days and no one has made a new one.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/166762659103 deal is back upJust bought one.
>>2792553I've turn 62HRC A2 all the time at work, as well as whatever bushings and dowel pins are made of. Even turned HSS itself, which cuts pretty much no different than the A2 it seems, when I need to modify a tool really fast.
Since there isn't a /emt/ at the moment, I was always curious, why is backing off double then backing on twice always so accurate? So let's say you want a bore size that's exact within 0.001", you back off 0.06", take a pass. It's 0.0582" under, so you increase by 0.0291" and take a pass, then it's 0.0288" under, so you add on that amount and get that exact bore size within a few tenths every time. Why does this work so well and only doing one pass seems to have a wider range (you can miss your mark by up to 0.0005")?
>>2801917the bar springs away on the heavier cut. you can hit size in one pass, but you have to know how much to over cut. it is a trial and error process usually to figure out for each job if your running production. otherwise with just sneak up on the dimensions the old fashioned way
Should I cast a concrete base for it when it shows up? Just saw a thread about someone making a 2" thick one for a HF mini lathe and it made it very accurate. Should I go even thicker?
>>2802814that and filling holes with sand will improve it a toneven better if you make epoxy granite, but it is more expensive and messy
>>2802986Filling holes with sand?
>>2803202it dampens vibrations, and add mass which gives also stability, dunno about that specific lathe, but many have easy to fill cavities, just bc making them full is a lot more material, and increases a ton the transport costs
>>2790669The same tired old story I hear from oldheads is that minilathes are nice toys that you very quickly outgrow when wanting to implement or upgrade various tooling. Take a side job, go to trade school or find a machinist friend so you can learn your way around these machines. Save your money and when it comes time to buy, you can get a very nice second hand machine thats way more capable than the HF lathe and is very often priced similarly.
>>2793953Something something bearings aren't made for horizontal/axial loading blah blah blah. It'll be fine for a single small quick one off job.
>>2803416oh yeah, go low and slow lubing often
>>2803415Find me the $350 after transit cost, way more capable and nicer, second hand machine.
>>2803422lathes are one of those things where the literal bottom dollar price point is untouchable unless you're the chink that owns the 5 acres of smog city factories in china that cast these porous monstrosities day in and day out. (excluding finding free ones or knowing a guy, which isn't impossible) fine, whatever. if you are NEVER going to spend more than 350 on the lathe or its upgrades, then that's good. but chances are, at some point you buy thing 1, and then thing 2, to improve the experience. a couple years after the purchase, you're $700 in total (not including tooling) because of various upgradesmy first lathe was a logan 200, 10x24 and 3 times the lathe that a chinese 7x14 is, for $700 (after transportation) and that was with so much tooling that i never spent any more.
>>2803583Or it could end up like my first lathe. Where I bought it started dissembling it, found out the chuck was destroyed, spindle was bent and had no tooling and was going to pay as much as a mini lathe for parts to get it operational if they could be sourced at all, which considering it was a craftsman 109, probably not very well to begin with.
>>2790669Plenty of stuff on youtube regarding chink mini lathes OP. Lot of it is upgrades/fixes and how to upgrade them to get the most from them.
>>2790669Those lathes are "viable to get running well without needing another lathe or a mill", but to get them a level where it's fun to work with them you need to fix and adjust a few things. You need to get friction and mechanical play out of the ways and handwheels, that's probably the most important things, so dissassembly, deburring, removing high spots on the gib strips, reassembly and lubrication. You will need a few tools and perhaps a euro-style toolpost (multifix is really nice), so plan on spending the at least the same or rather double the amount of money on tools and materials. If you got that far, working with the lathe is nice and reliable. The next upgrade would then be digital readouts. Good luck on your journey :-) At a certain point you will realize that every problem in your life is rotationally symmetric, that's when you know that you made it.>pic not related
Don’t buy a lathe, Unless your day job is being a machinist, you know machinist, or you had machine shop class Someone once told you , that you can make things with a lathe however….chances are that your office worker ass who doesn’t even know what HSS means on those sticks that came with the lathe isn’t going to be able to make a threading tool much less a boring bar let alone know what a boring bar is even for And that lathe will just sit there collecting dust maybe making a dowel rod or two out of scrap wood the first week you get it then spend the rest of its life rusting awayGo spend the money on a ryobi one+ paint polishing cordless tool or a ryobi electric lawn mower instead somethiyoull actually use
>>2804680Shut the fuck up, tripfag.
>>2790669youll forever be disappointed until you get a real machine
Considering how some peoples have shown up damaged or with issues, no damage and works. Going to thoroughly clean it in the next weekend or two.
>>2805498looks nicethe image has the weirdest compression efects on the screws
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806696492699.html?src=google&utm_medium=product_shelf&utm_source=youtube&gatewayAdapt=glo2usaWow, found one even cheaper, min 2 though. Probably could flip the second in Facebook for $400 if someone was inclined.
>>2805722That's not compression, it really came like that.Is that bad?
>>2806265what??? shows us a better photo of the leadscrew
>>2806265>>2805722>>2806511if it isn't a weird issue caused by the low resolution, it could simply be a multi-start lead screw (although I've never seen one)
That wasn't me. Its 48mp camera, but its still shit. It'll be 6mb photo I have to downsize and still be ugly.
>>2806740focus you fuck
>>2806791>it focuses>about to take the picture>focuses on the reflection instead>repeat 3 times
industrial auctions and learn how to move heavy shit like a real man. me and my father in law moved my 10000 lb cnc from my driveway into my shop about 30 feet in feb. chink lathes are for trons and king cobra
>>2806792nta, learn to autofocus your camera or just manual focus it or something
>>2800154thank god huh
>>2792553You know nothing about machining
>>2804680Fatfuck happa /k/ tripfag that everyone hates >>2792041Just get a frequency drive to convert single to 3phase
>>2806848Ah yes, a 10000 pound machine to make Mauser nose cape screws.
>>2806848Ah yes, a 10000 pound machine to make Mauser nose cap screws.
>>2806740put a small piece of tape in whatever you want to focus if you dont know how to do it properly
