Machine shop finished (ish)

[AdeV]

I've not been posting an awful lot lately, and here's why:



I've literally just installed the lathe & tool grinder, the Bridgeport I've had for a while now. I've still got some electrics to do, and I need to find some oil for the headstock before I fire the lathe up for the first time, but I reckon I'm going to have a lot of fun with these machines. Plus I'll be making some Lister bits as & when I can

The lathe is a 1930s or 40s Edgwick, with 6.5" centre height (i.e. 13" swing), 40" between centres. It can also swing a 20"x5" piece if I take the gap out.


(In the above pic, I've literally just parked the trailer. The streaks are caused by rain  )

I've a few more things to move around, but my back is on the edge of giving out, so I have to stop now. I will carry on tomorrow (if I carried on now, I'd be out of it for a week).

[veggie]

AdeV,

It's a beauty.
Oh...the things I could make if I had one of those  !
Nice sized shop also.

Enjoy,
Veggie

[rl71459]

Very Nice!

I wish my lathe was that big!  I think I now have "Lathe Envy"

Rob

[AdeV]

I have the lathe all wired up now, and running  The only problem is, I'm getting a crappy surface finish on a test bar. There's a number of possible reasons:

• The headstock oil level is perilously low... I have a big can of hydraulic oil on its way which will fix that. Gawd knows what the lube levels are like elsewhere... Similarly low, I expect... Anyway, that may be introducing some vibration
• The 3-jaw chuck has about 10 thou of runout, IF the chuck body is a datum face (it may not be). But even so, once you've turned any runout out of a bar, it should run true so long as it's left in the chuck (a dial indicator confirms this)
• There's a ton of backlash in the cross slide. I'm going to need to get in there & find out what the problem is. I expect it's wear in the saddle, or the leadscrew
• Or, finally, it may simply be operator incompetence. This is the first lathe I've ever had...

I have to make me a quick-change toolpost. Having no shim stock means I can't easily set the tool height in the current holder So I'm stuck with the single carbide cutter that's in the lathe already (& set to the correct height); and I just cant get a smooth cut with it.

[AdeV]

Jens - that's all good advice, ta

I've learned a lot by watching Darrell Holland's lathe videos; including speeds & feeds, tool geometry, and a whole plethora of other stuff. But as you say, practice is the main thing.

The only reason I've started with carbide is because that's what's in the tool holder, and it's at the right height. The only sensible looking HSS bit I've got ends up either too high or too low...

I'm still in the process of gathering tooling for the lathe. In particular, I need to be able to turn between centres, which I can't at the moment due to not having any drive plates & dogs; and there's supposed to be a morse taper sleeve for the headstock, but it's not present (so I will have to make it...)

I plan to have a lot of fun with this kit, but unlike the mill (where I could pretty much get a fab finish right from the word go), the lathe is looking like a harder piece of kit to master.

[mobile_bob]

i bet if you ask around you will find an old retired machinist that is about tired of living with the old lady 24/7/365
and i guarantee she is ready to kill him anyway,, in either event i bet such a fellow could be found that would be
thrilled to get out of the house and tutor you on the operation of your machines.

such a fellow would save you lots of grief and maybe some really bad crashes that result in damaged machine components.

maybe he would help out for a few pints and some friendship?

btw, i like shops like yours with the windows up over the bench height, which allows lots of natural light and still provides some
protection from prying eyes.

very nice indeed

bob g

[mobile_bob]

it might very well be the taper inside the head stock is not a standard morse taper, or any other standard taper
but rather a proprietary one made by the lathe manufacture,
the southbend 10L (heavy 10) has just that sort of thing, standard morse inside, and SB taper on the outside to
fit their headstock spindle.

if however it is standard, they are widely available as Jens reports, and that is the way i would go rather than
making one, this is one place you want a perfect no slip fit, any slippage has a way of wrecking your spindle bore.

bob g

[harv_44]

   
    Bob has a good point about the tapers. Also anything like a headstock taper should be finished on a id/od grinder and hardened.

When I was a young man I had a lot of hours on a lathe .It was my favorite. I almost took it up for a living but things didn't work out.

Don't worry about what it finishes like untill your ready to finish.There are several different tool grinds for different purposes and a hogging bit won't finish smooth but will take off a lot at a time but a smooth bit won't take off much at a time.

Is your runout in the same place on your chuck everytime if so you may be able to adjust it out with the four jaw chuck  and when you tighten the jaws snug all the sockets.

  I'm having a lot of lathe envy!!



                       Harv

[Henry W]

Hello Adev,

You have a nice Bridgeport milling machine.
It looks like it has auto feeders.
Does it have digital readout?
Someday I would like to get one. I have been seeing them for sale quite often
Henry

[AdeV]

Thanks for all the positive comments & advice: I will try to respond to all of it, but if I miss some, or someone, sorry in advance.. Also, I have a cat with me, so if I stop suddenly it's because she's decided I'd rather be clawed to death than carry on typing 

Bob: The light is great, except at around 6pm when it shines directly in your eyes... There's not much other light coming in (a bit through some "clear" panels in the roof, but not much). I've since mounted a couple of tubes above the lathe on a wooden "thing" (looks a bit like a frame to hang someone from  ). I'd take a picture, but it's embarrassing, frankly 

With regards to making a spindle sleeve: It's not something I'll be trying yet! Not with the surface finishes I'm currently getting; plus, I'm badly short of tooling. Making a quick-change toolpost with height adjust is very high on the priority list. I have to make it, because to buy one of the right size will probably cost more than the lathe did. I plan to scale this one up to suit: http://homepage3.nifty.com/amigos/qctp/qctp-e.htm

Someone on another forum has kindly offered me a selection of drive plates, face plates & another chuck, which I'll be taking up next time I'm anywhere near his place. The drive plate in particular will be useful to me, as it will allow me to turn a test bar to make sure everything's adjusted properly.

Jens: As above, I don't plan to tackle the headstock sleeve adapter just yet! I'll wait until I've got a bit more experience with the lathe before I do that. And yes, I need to be able to turn a decent finish, both inside & outside surfaces. Mucho practice required I think.

As for the mill: Again, I watched Darrell Holland's videos - exhaustively. As a result, from the first time I switched the machine on I had a reasonable idea what I was doing; and whilst my early work wasn't awe inspiring, it was smooth. I did, eventually, push it a bit too far in steel & blunted a couple of cutters, but only cheap s/h tooling I'd bought to practice with. I have a 2" shell mill which takes 3 carbide inserts which leaves virtually a mirror finish on aluminium. I've not tried it on steel yet, mainly because I've not got a bit of steel big enough. When I milled a tapered wedge to prop the lathe up, I was amazed by just how hard I could push the mill & still get a really good finish; and I did a lot of the early work without coolant. In fact, I only added cutting oil after I'd burned my arm on a chip... (not seriously, just an "ouch, that was hot!" moment)

Harv: I've not checked it yet, I must admit. I changed the oil tonight & she runs a lot smoother now. The carriage still has a tendancy to bind up at the tailstock end, I think it's wear rather than a twist, however. If I remember, I'll try to check to see if the 3-jaw runout is repeatable; if so, then you're right, I can dial it out with the 4-jaw. Envy, hmm. The size is great; but as with the mill, I'm discovering it's quite well worn. I have a lot of backlash in the cross slide, and some in the top slide, probably a chunk in the carriage too, but since that's not got any graduations on it, I can't tell how bad it is. But, if (when) I get all that adjusted out of it, THEN you can have lathe envy 

Henry: I have a powered X-axis, but Y and Z are both manual. I do have a DRO (X and Y axis), and I fitted a chinese Z-axis DRO which turned out to be 2% inaccurate. Which was annoying. I paid £1150 for mine, which was more than I wanted to pay, but less than almost every one I've seen since. The top bearing siezed up shortly after I got it, but luckily lots of WD40, followed by lots of grease has rescued it, it's still noisy though. I will have to replace it (the bearing) some day.