Advice on lathe for home shop

GSweldmech said:
I’ll probably start with whatever the dealer can toss into the deal. Learning to deal with HSS is probably the right thing to do but it’s an investment in time that never seems available when you need to machine something in the lathe. When I was assigned on this one particular ship we used to have a guy regularly come sail with us during the summers. His dad had a machine shop and he grew up around machining. Before his time on the ship was up I’d always have him sharpen up a bunch of tools for me that I’d stash in my office so that when I needed to do something with a degree of precision I’d have a tool I didn’t have to argue with. This is why I’m leaning towards the indexable stuff, I hate arguing with the tools to get a thread profile correct or a surface finish that’s acceptable. I was looking at an accusize set last night on eBay or Amazon, it’s around 100 clams, there’s 7 holders and they use 4 different styles of inserts. whats The general consensus on accusize products?
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I've been quite happy with the Accusize stuff I've bought. They seem to sell a wide variety of tooling to the trade and they're located in Canada, both of which seem to be good things in my mind.

I've been somewhat frustrated with inserts thought as compared to HSS because they (I) seem to chip them quite easily. Probably user error but HSS seems to be more forgiving.

John
 
GSweldmech said:
I did the deal on the Harrison, when we dragged it from the storage building next door to the dealers main building I kept finding stuff that went with the lathe, I ended up with the lathe,(filthy but functional, three days of cleaning to get it where I’m happy with it) a three jaw, a four jaw, a follow rest , a steady rest, a new shars quick change tool post and one holder, a drill chuck for the tail stock and an attachment that might be a cross feed stop. I’ve got to move a bunch of stuff around in the shop so I can slide it to the back by the milling machine where it will get less contaminates from the welding and grinding etc. that happen in the shop. All in all I’m happy with the deal, it is going to be a good fit, it’s big enough with out hogging a ton of floor space. It’s in decent shape and if needed parts are available and my local guy has a parts machine if new parts are priced too high. Tomorrow I’m going to get it into it’s final position and hopefully mill the base of the tool post to fit the Tee slot .
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That's a fine looking machine and one that I'm sure will serve you well:encourage:

It's been a pleasure going on this journey with you and this thread will be a good read for anyone in a similar position in the future. Looking forward to seeing what you make....

John
 
7milesup said:
I have heard decent reviews on Bostar, so just ordered a BXA tool post and holders from eBay. About $180 for the tool post and 7 holders. I know the tool post is not Aloris quality, but most guys seem very happy with the Bostar. YMMV
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I have a Bostar toolpost and it’s just fine. I did some deburring and I lapped the scroll and it made it much smoother.
 
Thanks for all the input everyone, I’ve got a bit more to do before I can start making parts but we are very close. I’m wondering about the tool holders for the qctp. I see the kits with 5 or 6 holders and a post, do they sell the holders as a set with out the post or do you need to ordered individual holders? I’ve read lots about the various offshore holders available and my take is that there’s not a lot of difference between them other than the set screws and you can get a lemon from any of the sources. Is there more to it that this or am i just shopping price on these?
 
The holders are actually pretty easy to make your own. if you have a machine to hold the dovetail cutter.
 
I’ve ordered a set of five holders and the accusize kit, things are starting to trickle in and I got the accusing kit yesterday. I did a little test cut and found im getting a pretty significant taper, around .002 over a 6” section. I’ve done nothing about leveling the machine, I’ll get started on that this evening after I finish some repairs to a trailer that is in the shop. All I have are standard hardware store type levels, I’ve read some stuff on line that say those are sufficient to level that machine and others that say you have to have a machinist level. I’d love to hear what folks have to say on that topic.
 
I would level it the best you could and then do some test cuts. If there's still a taper, adjust your legs without the level.
 
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whats the procedure for translating the measurements from a test cut to adjustments to the legs?
 
If your tailstock end is bigger, raise the side closest to you. If the headstock is larger, raise the side opposite of you. Keith Rucker has a YouTube video that's long but very informative.

 
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