- Joined
- Mar 21, 2013
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- 4,068
Got my new 5" BTC set true chuck on the lathe and was playing with it a bit after getting it set up.
You can see in one of the following pics where I have a bar of stainless that I just took a 10 thou cut @ 1000 rpm on. The chips were golden/copper colored. I remember my machinist friend telling me that carbide likes to run hot and fast. Was I running a little too fast?
There were also minor marks in the stainless. More visual than anything, but I could feel them with a fingernail. I did have some cutting fluid on there, but it was what I could get on with a brush. Kissed the rod with some 600 grit and the marks disappeared.
The other picture is where I took the bar out and measured across the 3.5" cut to see what difference I had at each end. Curious as I was cutting out by the live center.
I couldn't see any difference with my old eyes and a caliper, so I grabbed a micrometer. One end (I don't remember which) was 0.9811 and the other was 0.9813.
OK, so now I'm really impressed with my little machine, as I have done nothing in the way of setup or alignment to this thing other than to use my iPhone app to level it to within 0.1 degree (the lathe is sitting on a solid wood door the previous owner of my house set up as a bench).
This after taking a 60 thou cut on the end to see if it would slow the motor down. RPM dropped by one when the cut started. Now THAT was a hot cut! :yikes:
NOTE: I don't normally get that aggressive, and probably won't again.
Maybe I'm easily impressed, or not, but this thing ain't bad for a little guy.
You can see in one of the following pics where I have a bar of stainless that I just took a 10 thou cut @ 1000 rpm on. The chips were golden/copper colored. I remember my machinist friend telling me that carbide likes to run hot and fast. Was I running a little too fast?
There were also minor marks in the stainless. More visual than anything, but I could feel them with a fingernail. I did have some cutting fluid on there, but it was what I could get on with a brush. Kissed the rod with some 600 grit and the marks disappeared.
The other picture is where I took the bar out and measured across the 3.5" cut to see what difference I had at each end. Curious as I was cutting out by the live center.
I couldn't see any difference with my old eyes and a caliper, so I grabbed a micrometer. One end (I don't remember which) was 0.9811 and the other was 0.9813.
OK, so now I'm really impressed with my little machine, as I have done nothing in the way of setup or alignment to this thing other than to use my iPhone app to level it to within 0.1 degree (the lathe is sitting on a solid wood door the previous owner of my house set up as a bench).
This after taking a 60 thou cut on the end to see if it would slow the motor down. RPM dropped by one when the cut started. Now THAT was a hot cut! :yikes:
NOTE: I don't normally get that aggressive, and probably won't again.
Maybe I'm easily impressed, or not, but this thing ain't bad for a little guy.