Improvements to my sons new HF lathe

[Shadowdog500]

I wish I could say he would but no chance of that.I have heard from him since X-Mas. Not a single reply to any of the emails or texts. IF it isn't electronic hand held he is not interested in it. I thought that when I told him he needs a hobby and he chose to buy the lathe. It sat unopened for over 3 months so I bought it from him.
SO SAD. I just don't understand him and why he would rather never see a sole unless it is online. If it wasn't for school he would never leave the house. He has no ambitions nor even want a drivers license. 17 yr old introvert.
I guess this is my therapy.

Sorry to hear that. But like a lot of kids today his hobby/obsession is social media. Your kid isn't the only one, this is a trend.

Did he ever have an interest in the lathe, or did he buy it in an attempt to make you happy? I teach flying as a hobby and I've seen it numerous times where the father tries to force his passion for flying onto thier kids, who have no interest at all. The Kid shows up to take flying lessons, at the fathers expense, just to make the dad happy, but has no real interest at all in flying. I feel sorry for these kids.

I hope your son finds his life's passion, but don't be super disappointed if it is not your passion.

chris.

 

[wrmiller]

Give him a few years. I raised a boy and a girl and it seemed that in their early teens they figured out how to unscrew the top of the brain-housing-group and toss the contents into a closet somewhere.

When they reached their early to mid twenties they seemed to recover and become somewhat 'normal'. :lmao:

When my boy was in his late teens I was having one of those 'frustrating' conversations with him and told him that while it is normal for him at his age to think that parents and adults are stupid and know less than he does, he would eventually see that just the opposite was the case. It must have stuck at some level, because he was about 24 or 25 when he brought that conversation up, and said he now realized that he really doesn't know very much. When he asked "when does it get better?", I commented that I was 20 years older than he and I still don't know anything, and he grumbled "great...".

You can only raise them and turn them loose. How they turn out depends on them.

 

[geckocycles]

Yea I was hoping he chose to spend his hard earned money because he wanted to make chess sets. He made a nice chess table in school. I worked on the lathe for a week and he turned out some pieces and was very proud but that only lasted while I was there. He now is saving for a 3D Printer MakerBot.

He has never shown much interest in ANYTHING. He didn't even ride a custom bike I made for him at 5yrs till he had outgrown it by 8 yrs. That bike was on Real TV it was so cool and everyone turned heads at it. He couldn't even ride or had interest in learning how to ride a bike even though I made them and that is what we did was ride. I even put on a dorky bar for him so he was more upright. http://geckocycles.com/slickrock_jr.htm

I'm sure he will come around someday but he is missing out on the best years of his life and I am not getting any younger either.

Now my oldest is another story. He had flying lessons too. LOL My girlfriend is a 747 flight instructor for United and is well connected. Need a simulator tour when your in town look me up. She loves to show off the Sim and let them fly it. The Sim is unbelievable!

I'm going to let the lathe sit for awhile. It is pretty functional as is. I got a RoboTool CNC mill I have to get running and I don't have a clue.

 

[roygpa]

Instead of saving for a Makerbot he could build a 3D printer, or you both could do it together. I've built 3 of them, two Prusa Mendels and one called a Lulzbot TK-0 or now it is called Taz. It will cost about 1/2 as much or less than buying one ready to print.

Building it from scratch gives you the advantage of knowing how to fix it when things go wrong.

The place to go to learn how to build 3D printers in reprap.org.

Roy

 

[Shadowdog500]

Yea I was hoping he chose to spend his hard earned money because he wanted to make chess sets. He made a nice chess table in school. I worked on the lathe for a week and he turned out some pieces and was very proud but that only lasted while I was there. He now is saving for a 3D Printer MakerBot.

He has never shown much interest in ANYTHING. He didn't even ride a custom bike I made for him at 5yrs till he had outgrown it by 8 yrs. That bike was on Real TV it was so cool and everyone turned heads at it. He couldn't even ride or had interest in learning how to ride a bike even though I made them and that is what we did was ride. I even put on a dorky bar for him so he was more upright. http://geckocycles.com/slickrock_jr.htm

I'm sure he will come around someday but he is missing out on the best years of his life and I am not getting any younger either.

Now my oldest is another story. He had flying lessons too. LOL My girlfriend is a 747 flight instructor for United and is well connected. Need a simulator tour when your in town look me up. She loves to show off the Sim and let them fly it. The Sim is unbelievable!

I'm going to let the lathe sit for awhile. It is pretty functional as is. I got a RoboTool CNC mill I have to get running and I don't have a clue.

If if he gets that printer going, perhaps he can make custom parts for you. James Killroy machined some 3D printed parts this week and showed that they machine really well.

I spent a lot of time in Denver about 20 years ago. If I ever get back that way I'll look you up.

The scenery is beutiful out your way, any way you guys can take a road trip to get him out of the house. Any computer or electronics shows you two can go to? He may be interested in that, and it would get you out for the day.


Chris

 

[geckocycles]

It would be nice to have him make me some parts for lost "wax" castings.

Got a set of collets for the HS. They do not sit in very far in the spindle and stick out between 3/8" and just over 1/2" on some. I'm not used to seeing this much collet in a spindle nose. I need to take some measurements to see which needs to be worked or returned.

As for a draw bar I decided on trying this. First I made just a spacer that lightly presses in the tail of the spindle. Used grade 8 bolt and washer. This worked OK but I thought I could improve the action. Time will tell. LOL.

This is the steel handwheel in progress.

Finished closure. Got a longer bolt, turned the head and pressed it into the handwheel. Tig welded the head to handwheel and finished turning it.

This is working very well. I have to be careful hitting the handwheel to loosen the collet. It takes a good bit of force and I don't want to smack the handwheel into the thrust bearings. These bearings are junk. The "hardened" washers are already badly grooved and I only used it to turn the handwheel which was a good bit of material to remove. I took .160"D cuts with no problem with little spring cut. Not allot of power but still got a good chip that I had to break often. Got allot of good packing material.

 

[wrmiller]

When I had my MM 7x16 one of the first things I did was change to tapered roller bearings. The difference was immediately noticeable.

 

[geckocycles]

When I had my MM 7x16 one of the first things I did was change to tapered roller bearings. The difference was immediately noticeable.

WOW we are neighbors!
One of the first things I noticed was the poor HS play and taper. No play at first but a few cuts with a form tool and it was really loose. I chose to order 7206B-2RS Angular Contact Bearings as I felt they were the best choice. I used to work for Chris King and made specialty bearings, not the balls but everything else. Anything is better than stock plus all the paint on one side of the races sure didn't help things.

Here is the closure with the cover on.

and a short vid running with no collet in, just chuck on.
http://youtu.be/1ezr1T5u3zQ

 

[Chips4Lips]

Don't be too hard on yourself - the same things have happened to a lot of us and we always believe it was something we could have done differently - if that was true, I suspect we would have done it! Being patient may take 10 years or so but be patient and trust in your parenting instincts to make the right decisions when they count the most. If there was a book to tell us what to do, it would have sold out long ago! Keep on showing by example - he will absorb some and the rest will come with some more years for him. Patience is scraping the ways on a 400 dollar lathe - and watching him change in time. Hang in there.

 

[mmprestine]

Great work on the lathe.
Just whats on my mind from reading the forum. He just has not found his way yet. Build the printer instead, perhaps the electronics and software will trigger something. Check out Arduino. If he is so hooked on gadgets and social media pose questions to him like if you like it so much why not be involved in it. All things are "made". Virtual engineering is needed as much as actual engineering. Sometimes its self confidence, get him to the gym pumping iron, it does wonders for the mind and sole, brought me through some though times. For me it was different, interested in to much my father told me, you need to focus more and work on individual things, figured I'd never be anything. Well today I write software, design electronics, design machines, mechanically can fix anything and absorb anything that I am involved in. Sadly my father rarely talks to me, he just did not understand and still doesn't and never will, hes not me and I am not him. Basically what I am trying to say is, just be proud of your son and be involved even if you dont care to be.