The Home Machinist!

Is your lathe motor bogging down, or just the chuck?

What I mean is, did you check the drive belt[s].
I thought I needed a bigger motor until I tightened the primary belts.

I strongly suspect that neither cnc lathes nor titanium are in my future; but it sounds like a lot of fun.

curtis cutter wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 11, 2019 5:18 pm

Simply a spark skitting across the floor and into light debris is a frequent culprit.

Most of my shop fires start that way.

Angle grinders start a surprising number; not to mention ruining windows far away and not at all in the line of the sparks.

Americans might not know that 'mole grips' is English for 'Vise grips'.

There are several language that are referred to as 'English' by their speakers.

When you can, that's best. For instance, yesterday I had to bore a collar, then press a bushing into it, then make the final bore on the bushing. The accuracy required for the whole thing is fairly casual. It could have been done by calculation, but it was easier to just take the part out of the lat...

A trick I found; I mark the position of work before taking it out of the chuck.
If put back in the same position, it's usually close to where it was during the previous cuts.

They said they could do my knee surgery [cruxiate ligament replacement] with a local so I could watch; I declined.
Put me out and let me know when it's done!

I try to keep solvents out of the machine shop area, but of course there's always oils + greases. Welding cables, 220 + 380v wires, and torch hoses jostle for floor space with bits of sharp metal shavings. I suppose I should have a fire extinguisher in there, maybe even running water would be a plan.

Mine is more chaotic; 1 to 10mm are in the case lower left, 10.5mm + plastic food box upper left, MT2 in the wooden box and MT3 in whatever space is left.

I buy smaller cobalt bits in packs of 10, because they're very cheap that way.

I have a dry saw I use for light stock; angle, tube, and mild steel rod up to 1".
The dry saw is fast. And the blades expensive.
Power hacksaw for bigger stuff, beams + heavier solid rod.
My saw came with a carbide tooth blade, but it was damaged. I've never seen another one anywhere.

SteveM wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 09, 2019 3:49 pm

reason to have a power hacksaw.
Steve

Because you can get them cheap; that's why I bought one.
Blade cost is far higher of course, so it depends how many cuts you make.

A bandsaw would have cost me 4x more than the hacksaw, and was not an option.

They most always wand me too, and I haven't got a single screw in.
I have an airgun pellet in my jaw, but that's lead.
Anyway, my attitude is the stricter the check, the more I thank them for it; after all, I'm getting on one of those planes, they aren't.