First time ever turning

[Vince_O]

Well the topic says it all. Ive never touched a lathe till a few monts ago when I bought this off CL. Got the belt yesterday and rewired the motor today at work.

First off i tried to make some turning tools, OK so they suck, but I gotta start some ware. I picked up some aluminm last week at the show, left it in the truck and the wife has it so I used some steel. I can see why you guys use the QCTP, its kinda a pain to find center.

I got a good bit of chatter and noise on the cutting tool. Used some oil and did much better. Im sure Im doing LOTS wrong, but heres what I did. Coments welcome, good, bad, what ever Im easy!

Thanks everyone for the help the last few weeks getting this going. Man is this going to be fun!

 

[Vince_O]

Be sure and tell me what you all see wrong. I never could get a nice finish on the steel, Im sure its from the wrong angle in the tooling.

Tubealcain makes it look so easy, LOL

 

[pdentrem]

Can not see much that is wrong. The first couple pictures appear to show that the tool was too hi or low but the third picture shows a nice finish on the face of the steel.

As for chatter and etc, tool shape, load and being on center with the cutting edge of the tool makes a lot of difference as you have likely found out. When your friend was over looking at the lathe did he mention or looked at the gibs that take out the clearence in relation to the carriage and cross slides. If they are too loose there is a greater chance of chatter as the carriage will vibrate on the ways. You can check this by seeing if you can shift the carriage up away from the ways, in and out, push on the left and pull on the right sides etc etc.
The set screws on the back of the carriage and on the sides of the cross slide and top compound slide allow you to adjust the amount of play. There are also two plates on the underside of the carriage (frt and back), they are usually adjusted by adding or removing shims between the carriage and the plates. The tighter the better but too tight and you can not move. I found on my Atlas, that I had to adjust the gibs for the area that I was working. As I moved away from the headstock I had to loosen the gibs a bit as there was less wear as the further towards the tail stock I moved the carriage. The cross slide the wear was more evenly distributed.

 

[pdentrem]

On your second set of pictures, the new surfaces have the usual look of that type of steel. It kind of tears a bit. What I found was to oil, sharp tool and slow feed to get a good finish.

I would decrease the radius on your tools abit. I would try for a smaller than 1/64th radius. This will usually give a better finish on this type of steel and another benefit is to reduce the load and can reduce the chatter and grabiness for this light lathe.

Reduce the feed rate on the last pass and do a free pass a couple times to remove the spring from the tool. You will be surprised how much metal you will remove without advancing the tool for the last couple passes. This becomes important when you are trying to hit a finished size.

On your second to last pass, only feed half of the required amount to start with, and do a couple free passes. Now measure your diameter. Note how much is left to remove. Might be less than you were expecting. Surprise! Allow the metal to cool before finishing to size as thermal expansion can be an issue, Aluminium expands 5 times more than steel, most of the time.

If you can find some, Free machining steel is excellent to work with. Also known as leaded steel to some. Avoid copper for the time being. Brass is good to work as well, but pricy today. Aluminium requires different cutting angles on the tools to work properly, refer to tool books and websites for angles. Machinery's Handbook, Workshop Practice Series of books etc.
Pierre

 

[Rbeckett]

Congrats Vince!!!! First attempt is awesome. Once you get a bit more comfy with the machine and all of the possible adjustments you will be able to achieve that super shiny surface that you want. Tool angle, height, relief, sharpening angle and radius all affect the over all cut and finish. But youre doing great, just keep practicing until it become second nature. You will get there sooner than you think.
Bob

 

[pdentrem]

Had a thought on practice steel. If you can find old rifle barrel, usually a good quality of steel. Much better than what you were using.

 

[Arky]

Vince, by your pictures it looks like you started with a piece of hot rolled steel.It's very grainy and difficult to get a smooth finish. Find some cold roll ( 1018 ) shafting and you will see a big difference.Hot roll will have a rough surface, cold roll much smoother.I would suggest you use a right hand tool for turning and not a v-shape.A .005" feed rate would do well. Speed should be @ 300 - 400 rpm.Later you will prefer some carbide tipped bits, or inserts rather than that High speed steel you're using.Hope that's a piece of rex 95. It sharpens and cuts good.Don't get discouraged, it's a fun ride. Arky

 

[autonoz]

Hi Vince, I am new to this as well. I started with a set of index-able carbide cutters and found them to be better to use than steel. I am not ready to make my own cutting tools and not sure I really need to. I also agree with finding some 1018 steel. I also recommend practicing with 6061 aluminum, easy machine-ability and finishes very nice. See if you can find a metal sales store in your area to get known metals. There is a large selection of places to buy online and that is great, but shipping is ridiculous.

 

[Vince_O]

Well guys the indexable tooling was bought, but that was my first mistake, I thought I had 1/4 inch, LOL so for 8 bucks i got these and said ill try it. Im saving my pennies for the starter set from Little Machine shop, but the kids Christmas will come first.

Like I said I have some aluminum, but it was in the truck with the old lady so I grabbed an old pin pff one of the tractors. My speed was 430 rpms acording to the chart.

Now about the feed. I can turn the feed on and it will go for a while then stop. Im guessing the half nut is worn?

 

[OakRidgeGuy]

You make me remember how I felt when I first started. You did well! It has been so long since I have done any metal work outside of reloading that I feel like I am starting all over!