I have a lathe... cylinders beware!

PetarB · Post by **PetarB** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 7:08 pm

A couple of items I have been building have been put on the backburner because I lacked the necessary tooling and kept dithering on whether to farm out the work to someone else.

After a months' research and prevaricating I took delivery of a miniature lathe over the weekend. Within a couple of hours I had turned my first components in brass and aluminium, which naturally was a laser tube assembly from a Star Wars vehicle.

Who uses a lathe and what do you have? I got one of the small SIEG ones which are rebranded and sold all over the world under different monikers.

Joseph Osborn · Post by **Joseph Osborn** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 8:41 pm

I have a Taig lathe and I really enjoy using it. Cleaning up afterwards isn't much fun, but having nice round objects makes up for that hassle. If you haven't already figured this out, tooling for the lathe is gonna cost you about as much as the lathe itself! A couple of the most indispensable accessories I have are an index plate and a fixture to mount a Dremel in the tool post.

Ziz · Post by **Ziz** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 8:52 pm

I've had my eye on this one from Harbor Freight but it's constantly on back order.

Kylwell · Post by **Kylwell** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:01 am

I've got a MicroMark 6x10 machining center. Lathe & mill combo.

I have reduced many perfectly functional pieces of material into chips.

Aluminum is a joy to machine, acrylic not so much.

Mr. Badwrench · Post by **Mr. Badwrench** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 7:18 am

I have a Smithy 1220XL, like this one.

Tankmodeler · Post by **Tankmodeler** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:21 pm

I've got the Taig lathe and the mill as well. I bought a lot of the tooling back in the late 90's when Ebay was young and yuo realyll could get deals. I bought lots of "lots", getting several tools, gauges, cuttters, stock, etc in each auction for only a few bucks each. much harder to do that today.

I would dearly love to know where you bought the Dremel accessory for the Taig tool post (or see some images of it so I can cobble one up for myself). That sounds like a really handy fitting. It would turn the laithe into a sort of mini turret mill.

Paul

Joseph Osborn · Post by **Joseph Osborn** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 2:15 pm

Tankmodeler wrote: I would dearly love to know where you bought the Dremel accessory for the Taig tool post (or see some images of it so I can cobble one up for myself). That sounds like a really handy fitting. It would turn the laithe into a sort of mini turret mill.

Paul

Here ya go:
http://alisam.com/page/1gu8y/Metalworki ... lders.html

Tankmodeler · Post by **Tankmodeler** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 6:59 pm

Beauty!

Thanks, Joseph!

srspicer · Post by **srspicer** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:08 pm

I have an EMCO compact 10 like this one, onthe maker's cabinet stand, minus the milling head attachment;
http://www.lathes.co.uk/emco/page7.html

EMCO not ENCO! enco= China, EMCO= Austria= awesome!

I have owned it for about 17 years, bought it used, never a single problem and accurate as hell! It has 6" swing over-bed and I can turn about a 2 ft. length. It also has the Dorian turret for tool holder quick changes. I have about six cutters ready to drop into the turret. One of these days I'll get the C5 collet attachment with the hand release, that's a really cool option. It allows you to put a pre-turned diameter into a matching collet for perfect roundness.

Scott

PetarB · Post by **PetarB** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:40 pm

I would love a mill attachment but they don't make one for my size. I might have to make one myself. I did a bit of milling with an ersatz vice, but it was far from satisfactory! Next I need a ball turning attachment. I have a feeling I'm going to have to make my own there as well...!