I Cut in to the Compound on my Lathe

erikmannie said:
In the photo below, you can see what I was doing that did not work so well with a compound. I was trying to put a groove in the welded, beveled joint. That 10.75” OD pipe extends below the cross slide (something that I will have to watch out for so that I don’t cut into my cross slide!).

Since I could get the cross slide only so close to the work, I had to extend the compound. Upon attempting to cut the groove, the extended compound vibrated even though the compound & carriage were locked.

If you’re thinking that a LH boring bar would work, think again because the cross slide cannot be pulled back far enough to use a boring bar. Plus, who puts a grooving tool on the end of a boring bar?

View attachment 357948

EDIT: after I posted this, I realized that I could pull the cross slide back all the way AND move the T-nut back in order to make room for a boring bar.

In any case, I don’t own a LH boring bar. It would appear that when the workpiece extends below the cross slide, you can only work on the first few inches of the workpiece. I would also like to have been able to part that 4” in.
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Looks like you just justified a bigger lathe :)
 
I think that this is a good lesson for all of us. I believe it's "This old Tony" that he would check the carriage and turn the chuck by hand to make sure that there would be no crash. Put a stop in and make sure it's screwed in tight. At the same time, make sure that there is nothing loose or dangling. Also make sure that you know where your hands are, before you turn it on. I'd feel the same way as you, Would say some dirty words and berate my own stupidity. But continue on, no real damage was done.
 
silence dogood said:
I think that this is a good lesson for all of us. I believe it's "This old Tony" that he would check the carriage and turn the chuck by hand to make sure that there would be no crash. Put a stop in and make sure it's screwed in tight. At the same time, make sure that there is nothing loose or dangling. Also make sure that you know where your hands are, before you turn it on. I'd feel the same way as you, Would say some dirty words and berate my own stupidity. But continue on, no real damage was done.
Click to expand...

It is definitely a good use of time to spin the chuck in neutral and think through what will happen. There are a lot of places where a collision can occur.

I noticed the other day that if you start your machine with the cutting tool at zero, a slightly higher point on the workpiece can rotate around to the cutting tool before the chuck is up to speed. Best to allow a completely unobstructed path for the chuck to get up to speed before the cutting begins. This should go without saying, but I did it.
 
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