Just picked up my 13" Leblond Regal lathe now I need to learn to use it

[Chris Davis]

I picked up a 13" Leblond Regal lathe this weekend. Its my first piece of metal working equipment. I have been watching a lot of Pete222 videos for the past month and am excited about starting my first project. The problem is I don't know anything and I think I am going to flounder unless I start using the lathe, making mistakes, and learning.

Any suggestions on a first project that has detailed instructions that I can follow?

Thank you,
Chris

 

[Technical Ted]

Well, Leblond is certainly a very nice lathe to start off with! How about a picture or two?

I would suggest thinking about making some tooling for you lathe. Don't know what you got with it so it's hard to suggest what to make. But, I think that might be a good place to start.

Ted

 

[lordbeezer]

A lathe can hurt you real quick if you're not careful.please study up on safety precautions.a nice first lathe.

 

[Mitch Alsup]

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/1617/3789.pdf

 

[benmychree]

First get a copy of LeBlond's book, "Running a Regal".

 

[markba633csi]

First project: make a wood cradle to protect the ways when you remove the chuck
Great first lathe!
mark

 

[Nogoingback]

Instead of a specific project, just get some easily machined round bar and start working with it. 6061 T6 aluminum and 12L14 steel both
machine nicely for that purpose. Do you have cutting tools yet? You also need some basic measuring tools if you don't have them.
You can initially perform some basic operations like facing, turning, drilling etc. Pick a diameter, and then try to turn to that diameter
accurately. Pay attention to spindle speed, feed rates and depth of cut. Make some spacers. While you're doing this, you'll learn a
bunch about your lathe and what it can do. Before you know it, you'll have a project in mind.

Oh, and by the way, if there are no pictures, it didn't happen...

 

[Jim Huel]

I also have no experience and just got my lathe powered. So, I can't speak from experience, but can say what is fun for me. And, this isn t my business, so it's mostly about fun.

I spent a couple hours experimenting on a $1 flea market steel rod. Used a round nose HSS shaper cutter and played with feeds and feeds, and trying to hit target diameters.

I need a 3/16 - 32 machine thumb screw for locking the shapers depth of cut dial, so tried that. I suspect that's not a recommended first project, but covers some different issues. Knurling the head was surprisingly easy, probably due to having a heavy lathe. I got the od pretty close, but not so great on lengths. Threads were marginal, and I need to grind a better tool shape. I was starting probably the last threading pass when the screw broke. Some brief disappointment but no big loss and I'll do some things differently next time.

Trying to make something specific is a lot more interesting to me. Even if the part is a fail, I'm no worse off than doing drills. And definitely shoot for specific dimensions. That seemed harder to do on a real part than when just practising. Real world "pressure". But, great fun.

 

[stupoty]

mmmm leblond lathes

(not just because I have one)

Stu

 

[Chris Davis]

Guys, Thanks for all the feedback.

I will get me some round stock and start like NoGoingBack suggested. The lathe came with some tooling. The previous owner was a real nice guy that only lived 5 miles away. He had upgraded to a lathe with a DRO. So far, it looks like the lathe is in pretty good shape.

Here are some more pics.

I am assuming that Pete222's "How to run a South Bend Lathe" series is different then the videos he has on You Tube. Any experience with the video series?

Thanks.