Metal Lathe

Does it resemble a wood lathe, with a T rest for supporting the turning tools, or does it have a carriage of sorts with a cross slide? Can you tell us more about the machine? Tooling? Anything we might like to know?

Harold

I like 1/4" High Speed Steel bits for one-off jobs in various soft materials and the rare piece of stainless steel. They are small enough to grind quickly, large enough to take a decent rough cut and HSS can be honed to an edge that will shave off 0.001" or less.

jw

Should be fine. Just make or buy a chisel rest (whatever you call it) that mounts on the compound. Randy

wood is just a type of aluminium. it is also a hard form of nylon. sharp hss tools work perfectly. use the tailstock since it can crush and tear out of the jaws. some method of getting rid of the dust is good as well.

Stealth Pilot

Tool set? HUH?

Talking tool set as in cutters, or tool set as in cutting tool holders?

Get some 1/4 inch or 3/16 inch (or the metric equivalent) high speed steel bits, and learn to grind them. Cost you way less to grind a couple bits to oblivion, than it will to buy any overpriced "kit" of cutters, that will then have to be ground to sharpen them anyway.

How they are held will depend on what tool holders you have, but the principles are similar in all cases. The cutting edge meets the work at center height, generally.

Hunt around online and download a old copy of South Bend Lathes' "How To Run A Lathe" or Boxford Lathes "Know Your Lathe" Both are basically the same book. Worth the wait, even if you are on dial-up.

The Myford would work fine for pens or the like. The rpm's are a little less than a wood lathe, but the tool is held in position, so you can move it slower and get a good finish on the wood used.

If you are looking for a toolholding system, the best I have seen is the Tripan, as it uses far less space to get the job done. Too bloody expensive, though. The Myford Dixon is a pretty good bet, also expensive new. If you don't mind building a toolpost yourself, take a good look at the available designs and have at. If you can work wood to precision enough to get a pen barrel to look good, you can build a quick change tool post. Take a look at RDG Tools website, or on ebay for examples.

I use a stack of cutter bits, or a piece of steel stock under the cutter bit , with the clamp type tool post, on my Myford. Crude but effective. Currently, I am building a copy of a Tripan style toolpost for use on it.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Hi, Thanks for all the replys. Will now start playing and make my own tools. Thanks

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