I'm having difficulty getting cold rolled steel for the ways. Someone told me stainless steel plate is as flat as cold rolled. It this true? Another suggestion I got was to get a slab of 1" thick of hot rolled and have it milled on both sides down to 1/2" or so. At one place I can get a plate of 24"x2.5"x1/4", which would be 1/2" less than Gingery specifies. Would that affect the capabilites of the lathe? And how to tell it's actually CR? Any other material suitable for ways?
Cold-rolled is your best bet. Ordinary stainless has problems as a bearing material; it galls and drags. Hot-rolled won't be as hard as CR after you mill off the scale. It's inferior as a bearing material.
Tool steels are an option but they're very expensive.
What's the problem with getting CR? Are your suppliers out of stock, or are you having trouble finding anyone who stocks it at all?
I agree with what Ed says. Call up McMAster Carr or visit them online and order what you want. They have it i lengths of 2, 3 6 and 10 foot, and its reasonably priced for the most part as comared to online metals websites, that charge by the inch.
CRS is not hard to get in some sizes locally, as its just stocked according to demand. Rounds are easy but some flat stock is rarely used enough to warrant stocking locally.
I would not go any narrow on the bed ways than 3" as the Gingery lathe and his other machine tools can use all the width and rigidity that can be built into them. I would go wider before I went narrow. If you was to get a piece of HRS and have it milled you'll be paying a heap of money for machine time to get it to the size you need as well, and you still won't have anything as good as CRS will be.
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Part Number for CRS (1018 alloy, low carbon) in .250" x 3.0" x 36" size on McMaster-Carr site:
8910K573 cost $22.12 + shipping which would probably be about 6 or 7 bucks. I paid over $35.00 plus tax locally for a 30" pice of this stuff.
Online metals wants close to $50 for a 24" piece. Visit my website:
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Where are you located? When I can't find a local supplier, I've used
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They are often the same price as the local supplier (and way cheaper than the Home Depot type stores).
Also, I recently took a local welding class and got a lot of good information from the teacher as to were the best distributors are located. Any chance you know anyone in the trades you can ask?
But you have to consider 99% of folks making these Gingery tools are in the dark and have a very limited to almost no existence of machine tools or machist knowledge. They follow the steps and suggestions given by old dave, who in my opinion did a fair job of knocking together a bunch of odds and ends out of nothing and made a milllion on his books and is now setting back enjoying his CNC equipped shop while his aluminum melts in a huge electric furnace all computer controlled, while smoking his imported Cuban cigars dressed in his sillk suit. Of course he changes into his bib overalls and worn out boots and straw hat and climbs in his old beatup Ford Pickup truck for public appearances when he is not jetsetting around the world in his Lear jet, or cruising the country side in his Hummer.
For what its worth CRS will work f>===>Subject: steel for gingery lathe ways?
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How about stacking two plates of 1/8" CRS. This is the most thickness I can get locally with 3" width. Online ordering is out of the question as I'm not in the US. The shipping charges overseas would kill me.
Not going to work. Two pieces of 1/8" are not as stiff as a single piece of 1/4". And welding them together would probably cause warpage.
Are you in an industrialized country? If there are local machineshops, you might stop in and see if you can chat with one of the machinists and see if they have recommendations on sources.
As to shipping, the 36" piece is about 7.5 lbs. Yikes. The cheapest postage is about $30.
I would assume CF is the same as CR as the alloy properties for both listed on their website are the same. 1018 shuld be 1018, and the only difference should be its temper perhaps, I really don;t know. All the CRS I have ever seen has always been called either CRS or 1018 period, andits always had nice squared edges not rounded anywhere, and a smooth or pretty smooth and scale free usually somewhat shiney surface finish unlike HRS which is usually ronded n the edges somewhat and has mill scale.
Unless this 1018 on the link I came up with at online metals is ground to a closer tolerance perhaps.
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As long-term readers of the group know, we usually stay out of the conversations on this group - you're all more than capable of finding us (I think my last post was about 6 months ago). I just wanted to take a moment to clear up a couple of things that came up in the thread:
We use the terms CF (cold finish) and CR (cold rolled) interchangeably on the site. Probably a little sloppy, but the material is the same. It does have the square corners and shiny finish that one of the posters describes.
Both posters were correct on the pricing, but in different ways. I think you all finally figured out what was going on, but I just wanted to make sure we were clear...1018 is available in two different forms - as CR/CF, and as precision ground. The CR/CF is available in pretty much any length up to 96" (240" if you're in Seattle and can pick up). It is by far the less expensive of the two, and the category can be found at
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The precision ground is available only in 24" lengths. This category can be seen at
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by the way the conversation went, I'm assuming that the original poster could probably use the CR/CF material.
Should you have any questions, comments, or barbed criticisms, please feel free (as usual) to let us know...
Chris Sypolt OnlineMetals.com Small Quantities, No Minimums
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