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New toy - lathe


heavy85

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Well to me anyway. It's a prehistoric Walker-Turner 'The Driver Line' lathe. Works real well. I actually spent Saturday a few weeks ago at a friends house using it for some front suspension pieces. Well he's moving and doesn't want to take it so I now have myself a genuine lathe. It's sweet and not one of those things you use everyday but when you need it, it'll be real nice to have. First project at home was to trim down the 'bumpsteer' spacers so my wheels would fit. The base probably weighs a couple hundred pounds - had to move it with my engine hoist. It's made of concrete (you read that right) with shelves and a built in chute and chip collection bin. I'm stoked.

 

P10100175.JPG

 

Cameron

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First project at home was to trim down the 'bumpsteer' spacers so my wheels would fit. The base probably weighs a couple hundred pounds - had to move it with my engine hoist. It's made of concrete (you read that right) with shelves and a built in chute and chip collection bin. I'm stoked.

I was wondering how you were going to "shave" a bumpsteer spacer down...

 

That sure would be a nice piece of equipment to have in the shop. Congratulations.

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Niiice! Probably a bit more practical than the one I just picked up: 12X48 Cincinnati Milacron. Broke out one of the tie-down lugs in the sea container monkey-swinging it into position! At least you won't have to run a Phase Converter to use the thing...

 

But for the price, I couldn't turn this one down. But your 'price' sounds like a much better deal than even my find!

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Oh, well you're still ahead in that you don't need a phase converter. I got mine for what I will say is an 'equivalent' of $200 since I picked up four pieces of shop stuff for $800 total. Plus something I didn't want/need but sprprisingly my wife got all stoked that I had some (Pallet Racking and mezzanine). What I wanted was their Lathe, the Jib Crane, and the Trinco Bead Blaster. I neded up having to take their Bridgeport and the 20X24 Mezzanine/Pallet Racking as well in the deal because they wanted it all gone: "All or Nothing for that price, Bub!" I went with "All".

 

Pricing this stuff afterwards, I'm finding the parts are actually pretty smokin' deals. And since I know the provenance through the past two owners they are not something the Police will come asking me about, either! (A PLUS!!!)

 

Now to sell off the Bridgeport. One of those, I got! (And still haven't hooked up---that phase converter thing!) Ran the conduit, just need the wires and converter now and I'm ready to go machining crazy.

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Good find heavy85. I agree, they're not necessarily used everyday, but it's nice to have when you need it. Mine recently saved me from trying to track down a NLA planetary gear spacer for an Allison 1000 trans. All I had to do was turn down the new one to the same thickness as the NLA part.

Here's the old Nuttall Herber I use:

lathe01.jpg

I remember having to use a forklift to load it on the trailer and an engine hoist to remove it. They're almost a permanant installation once in place.

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Guest OBDarrel
so what do you call a bridgeport? I only know that at a model of rotary mazda engine.

 

When people say bridgeport they are usually talking about a mill. google "bridgeport mill" then images.

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Blue72, having worked around machinery most of my life I'd like to point out a possible unsafe habit. It might have been for the photo op only but you should never leave the chuck key in the machinery (lathe, mill, drill, etc). The simpliest mistake could have devastating results to equipment and/or persons. Seen it done and it isn't pretty. That goes for anyone in here.

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Amen to that ezzzzzzz. I've seen a couple of those chuck keys go flying and I'm always on a friend of mine about it. When I was in my apprenticeship anyone who did this had to buy everyone in the store a coke. The apprenticeship took place in a gun shop and could get pretty crowded during hunting season.

Also keep long hair tied back, long sleeves rolled up. No jewelry, no neck ties and wear snug fitting clothes with shirt tales inside your trousers.

I got my shirt tale caught in a lead screw once and was very lucky to reach the off switch before it chewed me up. It did pinch my then much smaller fat roll though.

And, don't forget the safety glasses.

I know I sound like and old man, but there is a reason for that.

Old Waddie

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mannnnnnnnn. the one that my turbo rebuilder had in the shop to do some custom work on some other things was gigantic, the base was probably the size of a full sheet of drywall and a bit, and had a huge screw drive.

 

needed to be warmed up to operating speed on cold days because of the gigantic motor/gearing.

 

soooo cool

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Well done on the lathe score!! You'll have endless enjoyment/frustrations with it!!

What tooling did you get with it or using? high speed steel, or carbide inserts? the old school way and cheapest way is using high speed steel which you have to grind to get the correct cutting angles and tip rake. these are probably the most useful for a homebased machinist doing the odd bit of machining, as you can make just about any tool although you'll have to spend a little bit of time learning how to gring the toolsteel correctly.

 

Carbide inserts are awesome but not usually very cheap. the tool holders for them are however! Speed and feed is very important as well as Minimal overhang. by this i mean, dont hang stuff out of the chuck more than necessary, and same goes for the tool. this will help with surface finish and stop things climbing out of the chuck!

 

Just a few things which may help?

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Well done on the lathe score!! You'll have endless enjoyment/frustrations with it!!

What tooling did you get with it or using? high speed steel, or carbide inserts? the old school way and cheapest way is using high speed steel which you have to grind to get the correct cutting angles and tip rake. these are probably the most useful for a homebased machinist doing the odd bit of machining, as you can make just about any tool although you'll have to spend a little bit of time learning how to gring the toolsteel correctly.

 

Carbide inserts are awesome but not usually very cheap. the tool holders for them are however! Speed and feed is very important as well as Minimal overhang. by this i mean, dont hang stuff out of the chuck more than necessary, and same goes for the tool. this will help with surface finish and stop things climbing out of the chuck!

 

Just a few things which may help?

 

I'm no machinist so I'm just figuring it out as I go but there are a couple bits with inserts and several HSS ones. The old guy that had this way back also made a bunch of custom stuff out of taps and other odd and ends. I'm sure I wont use 90% of it and I dont even know what half of it is for. There are several boring bars which should be good as well.

 

Cameron

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