Hi,
Well still being at school has some advantages :-) so I can always use their facilities for turning larger stuff, but I'm starting to get frustrated by only having access to lathe for an hour or so every day and my current project requires a fair amount of (not all 160mm) turning so figured it would be worth the investment.
Michael
I'd love to have a Boxford as that's what I'm familar with (been using one at school for just over 5 years now - can't remember what model I'm afriad) but it seems most are fairly expensive and 3ph. I realise I could go with an VFD but I'd rather keep it small for my 'first'.
Cheers,
Michael
"Michael" wrote in message news:uMNuh.169806$ snipped-for-privacy@fe3.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
Michael, I shall be selling these in about 2 weeks - look out on eBay. Hugh otherwise known as harry!
I was looking at you on eBay from the "Identify milling machine?" post here....
Michael
"Michael" wrote in message news:nnsvh.192470$ snipped-for-privacy@fe3.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
Perhaps you know the 7x12 newsgroup for the mini-lathe owners (swing over bed x distance between centres in inches - sorry, not everyone knows!) well, there's also an ng for the newer Sieg C0 - and the control panel seems to be a bit of an issue with Sieg- not sure if it was mentioned here before - many other brands have incorporated a US circuit board as they are more reliable. Check out a regular poster by the name of Uncle Rabid - he spends his time repairing them as well as offering advice. They're good machines nevertheless, or I wouldn't be buying them. Good luck with whatever you choose in the end, Hugh (harryuk) ps I'll also have cnc converted machines before long! sorry for the plug.
"Michael" wrote in message news:uMNuh.169806$ snipped-for-privacy@fe3.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
Hi Michael - are you the guy that was building the model submarine a while back? Sounds like yuo are still looking to turn large diameters in PVC.
Interested to know how the submarine build went if it was you -
Steve
Yup, same person. These are for the ballast tanks on it. They're the ends of some 160mm drainage pipe.
Posted my progress on my site:
Been two okay-looking 240V Boxfords on Ebay at £460 and £330 in the last week. The £460 one included some other machine tools.
These prices are not unusual at this time of year.
One technique you seem to have missed for larger fibreglass one-off constructions is to build the former out of blue[1] extruded polystyreen foam and cover the foam with glass and resin, then dissolve[2] out the foam once the resin is set - much easier than using plaster and release agents.
[1] or even a dense white expanded ps foam, _much_ cheaper if you don't need fine fairings and an unblemished inner surface :) [2] I use a little cellulose thinners to start, then use 100% isopropyl alcohol (the 90% IPA sold as rubbing alcohol doesn't work nearly as well) to remove the still-wet goo. You can also use styrene, also sold by most fibreglass merchants.
Couple of HLV-H's at the moment as well :-(
Mark Rand RTFM
Peter,
No I havn't missed it, I just find working with plaster much easier as I find it works well as a 'backup' should I miss a bit with mould release/sealer and provides a much firmer surface to work with when I'm fibreglassing it. I'm also going to be building two both with different end results in mind.
But even so, in theory you don't even need to dissolve it. As I'm making it in sections I should just be able to lift off the fibreglass (though obviously a little compressed air/solvent of some description would make it alot easier) as it is essentially a cone shape.
Cheers,
Michael
Thanks Peter,
I was actually very tempted to go for this one that finished yesterday:
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