First Thing I Ever Turned

Ok, I am ridiculously satisfied with myself at the moment. I took a perfectly good stainless steel bolt and turned it into a worthless example of Vise Grip activity.

Santa brought a mini lathe to the La Londe household. Unfortunately the fat bastidge didn't bring any tooling. Wanting desperately to play with the new toy I cleaned all the grease off today and then began to think about different things I might use as a cutter. I can tell you definitively and with authority that a stainless steel bolt is harder than a cheap cold chisel. LOL.

HOWEVER, a broken 3/8 HSS end mill can be turned into a crude mill bit by liberal free hand application of a bench grinder and quenching periodically in oil as it takes shape. I then proceeded to turn a perfectly good 2 dollar bolt into 10¢ worth of scrap stainless. I managed to turn the head into a nice cylinder, and even face the end square to the sides before my home made cutter got too dull because I pushed it too fast. OOooh! AAaaah!

So what was the first thing you ever turned on a metal lathe?

I have used a wood lathe to duplicate spindles and made dowels in my drill press in a pinch, but that was a whole different experience. I am entirely too satisfied with myself.

Reply to
Bob La Londe
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^ lathe

Reply to
Bob La Londe

Congratulations, Bob! A useful thing turned into a little useless thing is the first project most of us make. d8-)

Have fun. Make a bushing now that the useless cylinder fits into. Then you'll have two useless things that fit together. That's when it really gets satisfying.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

I don't think so.

Reply to
Don Foreman

Fun ain't it? :)

A solid bronze .30 caliber boat tail spire point bullet, for no good reason, no good reason at all.

Reply to
John Husvar

I'm pretty certain it was the turned and knurled handle of this little hammer which I made in my Junior High School metal shop class. That must have been about 60 years ago.

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I've still got it...

That was about the same time I learned (the hard way) not to wear a shop coat with sleeves when working around a lathe, particularly when using a lathe dog to drive the work and using a file to smooth it. Fortunately, the sleeve tore off without taking my arm with it.

And that's why this "Bull Of The Woods" cartoon remains my favorite:

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Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

I remember very well the first thing I turned. After 25+ years, it still sits on my desk. My first lathe was a very used SB9, with a 3 jaw, tail stock drill chuck, latern tool post and several 1/4" tool bits. I had little to no stock at the time, so I cut off a 4in. piece of 1 1/2 inch very rusty, very pitted round stock. I chucked it and got the first inch turned down to shiny steel. Then faced it and drilled it out some.

Was it useful? Well, it sits there and reminds me of my humble beginings in the metal hobby. It also holds a couple of pens or pencils. And it is sometimes a conversation piece. A non-machinist, after being told what it is, will usually say: oh. A machinist-type guy will say: OH!!!!!! Do you mind if I look at it. Yea, it has some use.

I went on to make many enjoyable projects and repairs from there.

Bill.

Reply to
Bill

I remember very well the first thing I turned. After 25+ years, it still sits on my desk. My first lathe was a very used SB9, with a 3 jaw, tail stock drill chuck, latern tool post and several 1/4" tool bits. I had little to no stock at the time, so I cut off a 4in. piece of 1 1/2 inch very rusty, very pitted round stock. I chucked it and got the first inch turned down to shiny steel. Then faced it and drilled it out some.

Was it useful? Well, it sits there and reminds me of my humble beginings in the metal hobby. It also holds a couple of pens or pencils. And it is sometimes a conversation piece. A non-machinist, after being told what it is, will usually say: oh. A machinist-type guy will say: OH!!!!!! Do you mind if I look at it. Yea, it has some use.

I went on to make many enjoyable projects and repairs from there.

Bill.

Since I started using a lathe when about 8 years old and am 66 now, can not remember the first thing I turned, but I do remember turning a bunch of cannons. Using 1.5" Round stock, making them look like a cannon, boring out to 5/16" so the 5/16 Ball bearings we had would work, and making a breech lock out of a large bolt. The bolt would take a firecracker, or gunpowder and a JetX fuse for propellent. Worked very well. Wonder what happened to them.

Reply to
Bill McKee

The first thing I tried turning on a lathe got confiscated by my high school shop teacher. He didn't buy my explaination that I was just trying to see what all a lathe could do. All I had left was a little bit more turning and the addition of a screen. ;-) I sure am glad I survived the 70's.

Reply to
Jesse

The first thing I tried turning on a lathe got confiscated by my high school shop teacher. He didn't buy my explaination that I was just trying to see what all a lathe could do. All I had left was a little bit more turning and the addition of a screen. ;-) I sure am glad I survived the 70's.

My dad owned a major machine shop. And he liked guns also.

Reply to
Bill McKee

In my case -- I took a 1/4-28 slotted head machine screw, and turned it to serve as an anvil for supporting a certain style of turret terminal while it was being crimped into a PC board. (This after first using a rather frightening (to a newbie) solenoid operated one with commercial anvil and punch. I had never used a lathe before, and this was a small South Bend in the electronics shop where I worked, so I took advantage of its presence and the absence of anyone else to try my hand at it.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Where do you put the screen in a gun?

Oh!

In my high school people kept trying to make those in art class during the section on ceramics. LOL.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

I started with the bushings - to fit the knobs on the tailstock of the said lathe...

Reply to
Michael Koblic

If memory serves I drilled a piece of 1/8" plastic for a bolt, mounted it in the physics prof's Unimat, and turned a disk that was then used to make an eyepiece (I was really big into telescopes at the time.) Later I got brave and tried the South Bend that was in the corner of that basement room. Never understood why it stopped so easily when cutting, at first. Then I learned about the relationship between the little pin, the bull gear, and the pulley. Worked a LOT better with the pin engaged... :-)

Terry

Reply to
Terry

Hummingbird feeder, of course? (There is a story behind that comment....)

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Probably a couple decades later, resulted in the arrest of the new owner by ATF.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

In the mid 1950's when my brother was in high school, a kid made all of a revolver except the cylinder. Teacher asked about it, and said you can not do that here. Called in the kids dad and gave him all the parts and instructions on how to finish it.

Reply to
Bill McKee

Could be. Maxi zip gun.

Reply to
Bill McKee

Likely pins for a copy of a kant twist clamp I made.

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Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Reply to
Wes

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