Mini lathe (and mill) discussion.

[TonyHallo]

Prototype definition:
"a first, typical or preliminary model of something, especially a machine, from which other forms are developed or copied"

Developed is the key word here.

 

[Stevendavis]

I wanted to put the DRO on the tail stock side but it would have limited the tail stock travel to the work and access to the carriage lock. It fits under the 4" three jaw chuck without a problem as long as the jaws are not sticking out too far. I really need to be careful when the 6" four jaw chuck is on. The chips land on top of cross slide and RO scale. I have a shied on the the scale and there is no problem with chips.
The scale takes up about 2 1/8" so that's how much space would be lost between the carriage and the tailstock. I like to keep the tail stock extension as little as possible when turning.

I'm hoping I can get a much smaller system for mine. The one that came on my mill only takes up about an extra half inch. I think I can work with that. I've also taken the locking nuts off my cross slide dove tail screws and put some carb needle springs on in place of them, for ease of adjustment. Don't have much time on them yet, but I hope it works good. One of the screws is right under my compound slide and its a bear to adjust. Now it's much easier!

 

[TonyHallo]

I only put the compound on when necessary, my quick change tool post normally resting on a solid mounting post. What lathe do you have? It's a Vevor, correct? They seem to be priced reasonable without many options, I suspect most who buy convert it to CNC so why pay for options that will be thrown away?

 

[Stevendavis]

Yep, it's a Vevor. I really want to get into a 10 or 11" lathe down the road, and that's a big dillema for me, as I really don't want to make a big inventment on this one until I'm sure what I'm going to end up with. But I will be using this one for at least another year to two. I do want to make a solid tool post mount for it, so I can take the compound slide off until needed. I don't have the materials right now to do that though. I'm trying to find a good local outlet for metal scraps, but in my remote location, it's not that easy. But I do like the idea of taking the compount slide off for the majority of lathe work. I also don't have a good way to cut seel right now. I'm planning on picking this thing up around the 15th to solve that problem.

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I thought I could use my verticle bandsaw for metal, but it's too fast for metal.

 

[dhal22]

Check this beauty out!!! Thank you @Stevendavis.

 

[Stevendavis]

Your very welcome!

 

[TonyHallo]

Finished the carriage lock. Top photo is the free position and the bottom is locked. I used a DuBro 6-32 heavy duty rod end for the connection to the cam knob. The 6-32 end has a 4-40 size hole in the ball? Works great. Still to get a longer bolt for the thread dial and make a 1/2" spacer to it away from the linkage. No hurry as it doesn't get much use. Back to the Champ. It's almost painting season.

 

[TonyHallo]

While doing the recent work on the lathe did quite a bit of drilling with the ER32 collet and have decided it is just too big for drilling smaller holes, ordered an ER16 with R8 mount for the mill., $60 on Amazon. 1/16" through 3/8" by 32nds except for 5/32"? Wonder why we left out 5/32"?

 

[dhal22]

I need to learn what the different collet numbers mean.

 

[TonyHallo]

It is basically the OD of the collet in mm, not the tool holding capability. The ER16 will do about 3/8" max. The ER32 can hold up to 20 mm. The nice things about collet are you can clamp thin wall stuff, threaded portions, very accurate. The ER type collets have a wide range of clamping capability, they normally can clamp down to the next lower size while the C5 and R8 are very limited, just a few thousands of an inch.