Mini lathe (and mill) discussion.

This was also part of the stuff I brought home. I'm planning on building a small steam engine eventually to run the tiny lathe. I need to do some research on what is needed to use this boiler.

Spent some time giving the Knock Out Lee a face lift.

Looks great Steven.

Went ahead and built an edge setter for the KO Lee. Edges are a little more consistent now.

Just married a 4" Little Machine Shop adapter to a $37 Amazon ER32 collet holder. The old ER32 collet holder was a JT3 taper mount that did not allow for through hole work so I always wasted a little stock when I used it. This was much more work than I had hoped for. My spindle mount is a 39 X 4 metric thread, right behind the thread is 1.536" land that registers the adapter. The original adapter that came with the 4" 3 jaw chuck with the lathe has just over .0005" clearance. When I screwed the new adapter on I noticed it wobbled quite a bit until it screwed tight against the shoulder. It measured ..020" clearance on the radius. I filed a warranty claim and requested a new adapter with the correct clearance. They got back to me and said that is pretty much what all the adapters have. I find it odd that no one else picked up on this. If I get a refund I'm out $19 shipping (More than half the cost of the adapter) so I decided to keep the adapter and fit it the way I want. A piece of 1 1/4" pipe was used for the sleeve material. The OD cleaned up to 1.650". The adapter was setup in the four jaw chuck and bored to 1.648". The adapter was heated on the grill to 450f while I cooked some pork chops and the sleeve was placed in the freezer for two hours prior. The sleeve dropped right in. It was then set up and bored to 1.5365" and the OD of the adapter was reduced to match the OD of the collet holder. The 66 mm registration fit was cut to a metal to metal fit while mounted on the spindle. The three holes and counterbores were done in the mill using the bolt circle function. It took about 6 hours of work.

Nice work Tony!
Your going to really like the through hole!!