SteveHGraham wrote: ↑Fri Jun 14, 2019 8:25 am
Oh, boy. Now we are getting into emotion and bordering on personal attacks. Not really what this forum is about.
There was no personal attack. Your position would indicate, as I stated (even with an exclamation point) that you don't realise the full utility of a lathe. I even called you sir. Try picture an english gent in a tophat with a cane saying it then re-read my post without feeling attacked.
1. You can thread without a dial, as I said (conveniently cut out of Mihit's quote). You can also do all your machining with files and a hand drill. It's very stupid, if you can avoid it. Threading dials were invented for a reason. You want one. Furthermore, unless you buy a very strange lathe, you will almost certainly have a dial. I agree with Harold: "Threading dial. Don't get a machine without one. Not unless you don't mind being inconvenienced beyond reason."
Ignoring the "very stupid" comment. You said "You have to have a threading dial".
I disagree, and don't find the lack of one to be any inconvenience on a daily basis.
2. I don't know what "try making a lathe with your mill" is all about. You can't make a real machine tool in the home shop (and before someone picks apart "real," "real" means a large machine tool comparable to the ones a home machinist already has). The claim that you can reproduce a lathe with the lathe itself is ludicrous. I have a 16" lathe with a 40" bed. Mihit, let me see you use a 16x40 lathe and no other tools to make a 16x40 lathe or even a 7x14. You can't, and neither can anyone else.
It means just that. Try making a lathe with your mill. Any tooling you need, make that with your mill aswell.
The lathe is a very versatile machine. You can use it as a scraper for making long things like lathe beds flat. (Admittedly, this IS tedious)
Pick up Southbend's blue book "how to make a mini lathe" Then make one on your mill. Qualifying it with "real super machine tool" is irrelevant, just complete the process.
I absolutely can, and so could anyone else.
Picture yourself trying to mount a one-ton casting in your 8" 3-jaw chuck so you can produce ground ways for a 40" bed. Not likely.
Ad-absurdium. And I do not, nor recommend, grinding on a lathe. You don't need a chuck, either.
It's amazing that people repeat this myth when it's so obviously untrue.
Except it isn't. Go on, give it a go, you might surprise yourself.
3. Mihit isn't expressing himself with optimal clarity, but it looks like he's trying to say a lathe is just as good as a mill for drilling and milling. Not even close to true, which is why mills and drills exist. When you mill on a lathe, you get a tiny amount of travel, and before you start, you have a vertical mounting job which is harder than putting something on a mill table. Mihit says "doable," but that's not really true. You can do SOME work, the hard way, taking much longer, but you can't do all the work of a 9x49 mill on a lathe. Not possible. It's amazing that we're even discussing it.
Again, just read the words I said, without feeling attacked.
I am not saying a lathe is "as good as" the ideal tool for the job. The work envelope is different, but
it. is. infinitely. doable.
4. No idea why he brings up making a rotary table on a mill. Not something most home machinists do. It has nothing to do with helping a newbie pick a lathe, so I'm ignoring it.
Because it's a round thing that can be quite easily made on a lathe. You said "Mills cut round things with a rotary table".
WHY i bought it up, is that you can make the tool you need for the mill, on the lathe. Again, demonstrating the utility of the lathe and one advantage over a mill.
5. "And to you sir, I would say you never learned how to use a lathe properly!" Totally unnecessary and not helpful; especially the exclamation point. This is supposed to be a friendly forum.
Given what you insist a lathe cannot do, indeed your mill fanboy-ism and even lathe bashing (constant negative language "stupid, tedious, can't, myth, not possible, ") I felt it appropriate to point out, for the Newbie, the extent of a) the lathe's usefulness and b) the limit of your learning or experience.
"Using a lathe properly" doesn't mean "cobbling together desperate, tedious solutions because you lack the proper tools."
Necessity is the mother of all invention.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
While I agree that the best tool is the right one, often times the right tool is the best one you have. I haven't found any of my (personal) lathe work to be desperate nor tedious.
If you know you want to focus on a certain type of parts, look at the parts and buy the tool best suited for them. Maybe a lathe is what you want. If you aren't sure what you want to make, but you want to have a versatile tool which will handle a variety of jobs, buy a mill first. It's a mill. It's a super drill press. It can do a lot of what a lathe does.
Look at the CNC world. What do people buy? Mills. They do that because they know they're more versatile. Lathes get much less attention and support, for obvious reasons.
The CNC world is 5 axis machine centres. Why? For obvious reasons. (The combination of lathe, mill and pantograph)
"Buy a mill first" - OK, that's your advice, fine. (You're obviously talking about a vertical mill) It's well and good for you to point out the utility of a milling machine, but that shouldn't be to the detriment of any other machine.