Big Lathe vs Small Lathe

cjtoombs said:
You are off by a factor of 12. It's 118" x 512", or about 10' x 42'. Still, bigger than my shop.
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I got the info from "The world's Largest Lathe is for sale-industry tap" and just copy it. Thought at the time the math looked odd, but let it go since I was just being facetious. Still, it won't fit in my shop.
 
That would fit in the back of my shop if I took everything out. The problem is all my doors are only 10' wide. I'd take off a handle for sure toting it in. LOL.
 
Bob La Londe said:
That would fit in the back of my shop if I took everything out. The problem is all my doors are only 10' wide. I'd take off a handle for sure toting it in. LOL.
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I think with a lathe like that, you pour a foundation, set and secure the lathe, then build the building around it. I suspect that it may be so heavy it has to be shipped in pieces.
 
A Colchester Chip Master is not a real small lathe,compared to a Sherline or a Unimat. I started out with a 12" Atlas,new from Sears. Way too flexible,and could only take very small cuts in steel.

I have a friend who is a World class miniature maker. Though he has 2 Rivett 608 lathes,he uses his Sherline for most everything,and gets thousands for each piece. Of course,his parts are very tiny !
 
Every lathe has the function of making round cuts in the stock that is chucked in the jaws. But one has to consider what they are going to be doing with the lathe to choose the correct size lathe for their shop. You will no more turn a bowling ball cannon barrel on a Sherline than you will cut a 4-40 screw on a lathe with a 24 inch swing. Every machine size has a range of usefulness and beyond that range things become difficult to deal with. So the BEST size lathe for your shop is the one that fits the size of teh work that you are going to be doing.
 
Bob La Londe said:
I've read several places where people think they can make small parts easier or better on a small lathe compared to a larger lathe. I say bull pucky.
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Well, provided your "Big" lathe can manage the high RPM and small work holding you need then that's fine but there is a general tendency for highest available RPM to drop as lathes get bigger and that can be a frustration for small work, there is also the consideration of how close the operator needs to be to the work for very small parts and whether he wants his head nearly touching the rotating spindle of a large lathe at 4000+RPM :D
Regards,
Nick
 
magicniner said:
Well, provided your "Big" lathe can manage the high RPM and small work holding you need then that's fine but there is a general tendency for highest available RPM to drop as lathes get bigger and that can be a frustration for small work, there is also the consideration of how close the operator needs to be to the work for very small parts and whether he wants his head nearly touching the rotating spindle of a large lathe at 4000+RPM :D
Regards,
Nick
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Fair enough. I was drilling with a .116 carbide drill on my "big" lathe yesterday, and at 2000 rpm and I have to say at first it scared the heck out of me. Also the 3HP motor struggled to spin the chuck up to 2000 RPM at first. It would whine for about half a second. Its not variable speed, so the motor is trying to instantly get to full speed. Some day I'll slap a 3phase motor with VFD on it, but not today.

I guess I should have clarified with my original post. Big being shop type engine lathe size upto 14x40 or maybe a little biggger and small being down to 7x10 which is your typical mini lathe. A bigger lathe with a coolet chuck o collet nose spindle might be ok for smaller stuff as well. I think in my original post I did allow for specialized lathes as an exception.

On the flip side my small lathe only turns 2500 RPM, so...

Now if I were to do a lathe conversion to my tiniest mill (which there is a nice kit for) it turns 10K. Not much meat to it though.
 
Speaking of small parts: The other day I ended up in a situation where I needed to tighten up a small hole near the edge of a stainless pistol frame. So basically I needed a cylindrical shim, about .2" in length with a OD of 0.169" and a ID of 0.165". I've not tried anything that small before, but decided to give it a try. Managed to get it done on the first attempt. Couldn't figure out how to part the shim without damaging it until I came up with the idea of inserting a gauge pin into the shim and literally tearing it off. It was like tearing paper.

I guess my 1340 will do for making small stuff in a pinch. Still want a smaller lathe though. Maybe a Taig. :)
 
Last week I machined a new brass 'bearing' for a malfunctioning Starrett indicator.

It was .135 od, .050 id, and .062 long.

I made it on my South Bend 14 1/2 lathe... just to see if I could.

It worked, the indicator is back in service.

In my opinion, you find ways to do what needs to be done with what you have to work with... its called being resourceful.

Also, from what I have seen, there are 'hobby' machinists on this forum that are amazingly resourceful... enough to make me feel a little jealous...

In other words, I commonly see amazing work in projects being done by largely untrained members... and I salute them for it!

-Bear
 
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