Sherline First time Student/Beginner Hobbest Question

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rob_martinez03
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Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2021 10:56 pm
Location: USA, Virginia

Re: Sherline First time Student/Beginner Hobbest Question

Post by rob_martinez03 »

Understood -- My work can only been as serious as I make it. 0 ticks will be the goal. And yes, on that last one I didn't use a tail stock and just pushed it forward to ensure it was in the picture. Sorry - didnt mean to try and sneak one by... You guys are great - thanks for the ideas and straight talk -
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rmac
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Location: Phoenix, Arizona

Re: Sherline First time Student/Beginner Hobbest Question

Post by rmac »

rob_martinez03 wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 8:58 pm Not sure I am up to sharpening my tool yet but when I feel confident enough to try it, that will be in the mix as well.
I dunno, but this seems like one of the very first things you should get confident with. Trying to work with dull tools is just swimming upstream.You'll find all kinds of information on what to do without much trouble, but this video in particular helps to explain why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__A2xtLF0AU

-- Russell Mac
pete
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Re: Sherline First time Student/Beginner Hobbest Question

Post by pete »

It's much better to try and use the correct terminology whenever you can so everyone's on the same page. 0 ticks means little compared to an actual measurement standard. As already mentioned having sharp tools are an absolute must. And the smaller the lathe the more important that is. The link here should be enough to get you started and learn the general terms so you can use any websites recommendations or follow a Youtube video about tool sharpening. https://summitmt.com/how-to-sharpen-metal-lathe-tools/ And while most of it won't apply to your to your Shereline, downloading or maybe printing off the South Bend How to run a Lathe here http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=5795 is an excellent reference that's helpful for any lathe. One item to watch for is the tool angles recommended in that South Bend book since there for the old style lantern type tool holders with already built in angles that won't apply in your situation. I'd also highly recommend going through Harold's thread about grinding wheel selection and there use here. viewtopic.php?f=44&t=75985 The average wheels sold with any consumer grade grinder today are just about worthless for decent tool grinding.

I pretty much started out in your position with a Shereline about 40 years ago and almost no knowledge other than the little I remembered from my high school shop classes. And that was before the internet was even thought of. Today it's much easier to research just about anything machine tool related if you already know the correct search terms. That South Bend download will help a lot in that direction as well. Any steel from the big box stores will probably be just about an unknown alloy composition. It's sold at a price point first and it's machining quality's will be a long way down the list. It might be 1018 if your lucky and even that's hard to cleanly cut on any lathe. One of the better available metals would be listed as 10L14. A leaded steel that vastly helps in it's machining quality's and the surface finish a sharp tool will leave. Unfortunately it's a steel that's very susceptible to rusting and can't be properly welded. Learning a bit of engineering and selecting the best metal to use for whatever your trying to machine is also an important part of this hobby as well. But there is NO perfect material for any part, in one way or another it's always a series of trade offs and compromises to get as close as you can to what you want. There's obviously others that may be cheaper, but this would be one where you can select your metal by known grades. https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/metals/ Doing further online research about whatever metal quality's your looking for will also help before buying. Even at the amateur level this is a very information intensive hobby and there's no short cuts. The first thing to learn is it only looks fairly simple. :-)
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tornitore45
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Location: USA Texas, Austin

Re: Sherline First time Student/Beginner Hobbest Question

Post by tornitore45 »

LOWE's = Hot Rolled mild steel with mill crust bad off the shuts
Get some drill rod from McMAster or any supply house
You can order 0.242 diameter drill rod but where is the fun of that?
Mauro Gaetano
in Austin TX
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