Totally new to metal turning on an engine lathe. Bought an inexpensive (read cheap Chinese) Grizzly machine which is about all I really need for my hobby type projects but - seems to me I'm getting way more chatter trying to turn stuff than even this machine should produce.
I'm trying to turn a grooved disk, 3" in diameter. I faced off a piece of stock (in a three jaw) and turned about 2" reasonably true. Then took an old carbide cutter my brother gave me, looked something like a thread cutting tool, and ground the end to about a 3/8" radius. On a green wheel, of course.
If I 'touch up' the tool on the ginder, go back to the lathe, I'll get a really nice curly chip off the stock at first then the tool will start to chatter and I'll get a whole mess of little semi-circular shavings, if you will.
I've checked and rechecked the tool for center and it's as close as I can get. This chatter occurs with or without lube. (Using Lennox ProLube applied manually).
Am I just asking more of this lathe than it can produce? It's the
12x36 Grizzly gear head model.