The Home Machinist!

Looks like you could cut 13 TPI with a 65 tooth gear on position E.

Wayne

A dividing head turns while milling when used to cut helix's. The head will be fine, but the setup is much less rigid than a rotary table. Not only is the support not there around the table as mentioned, it's also 6" or more further away from the mill table. The larger the dividing the head, th...

I believe that would be called an instrument makers lathe. Ideally, a small DC motor and a variable speed drive, though it looks like it may have originally had a 2 speed motor, given the switch up front. You'll need to make a mount - a plate welded to a tube that fits over the pin on the back. You ...

Very nice and intricate work! How was the part held? It seems to have required to be held in 6 different orientations - rotated in a 4th axis perhaps?

That is very nice work and a very nice writeup. Thanks for taking the time to post it!

In case you want to make your own bolts, here's a link to a write up I did on making 00-90 bolts. I was using bronze tig rod for stock. It's kind of light on pictures - sorry! I found the pin vise for driving the tap works very well. I don't have a sensitive drill setup, but someday I would like to ...

I needed to open the inside diameter of the sprag bearing portion of the pinion to make it large enough for the pinion to slide over the spiral. I was planning on grinding, but the gear's OD is 30mm, so I couldn't mount it on my tool grinder's workhead and my cylindrical grinder doesn't yet have an ...

Your static phase converter may NOT be the real problem. It worked in the shop when you bought the lathe. I think something shifted in the vibration of the move and you have a mechanical problem - not electrical. Your cord is far better than required - 14ga would be sufficient (even 18ga will supply...

I recently traded some tooling for an ATV project. It's a 2005 JD Buck, or better known as a Can Am Traxter. It needs quite a few parts, which would quickly add up to more than the machine is worth. For example, the starter bendix pinion assembly has two broken teeth and lists for $430! I did some l...

A VFD will give you full HP.

They're not meant for single phase motors, though I'm not sure what would happen. Centrifugal start switch would be a problem, phase loss on the output may be a problem for the VFD.

I got my 7x10 mini lathe about 26 years ago, still have it. I have 3 other lathes, one smaller, the other two much larger. They all get used for what they do best. If you have the space, keep the mini lathe and get a larger one for those heavier jobs. I would suggest not spending more money on the m...

For variable speed, you would have to go with a DC motor and controller or a 3ph motor and VFD (probably a fair bit cheaper). A two speed single phase motor may be an option. I have a house ventilation system, but it draws air in from the outside through a heat exchanger. It's also not very powerful...