Lathe and or mill for making yoyos

bcarter said:
The biggest surprise was the suggestion to go with 12-14" swing, my uninformed idea being the PM1127 was at the top of the size range for this style of project.
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That is the size range I am used to using, so that is normally what I recommend. :) It's a personal preference. I have run lathes from a 6 inch to 20 inch, but I am most comfortable in the 12-14 range. I have a 13x40, it's a good all around size for my average work. It will swing about 4 inch diameter over the cross slide and is convenient for very small parts also. For small precision manual work my real preference is a Hardinge HLV-H, which I think are 10'' swing, I've run one a few times. I'm certainly not going to argue with @mikey 's experience with a Sherline, I have never even seen one :)

The real problem in the smaller lathes is what is available on the market today. Most are entry level, low quality, machines and would not be my choice for precision work. The market is trying to hit a price point and of course the quality suffers. One exception to this are the Emco lathes, made in Austria, and are high quality. I'm not sure what Matt @ Precision Matthews has to offer, I know he has some very nice equipment.

For a CNC; Emco, Hardinge CHNC, Tormach, and Sherline might be good choices. Nothing wrong with buying used equipment in CNC or manual, I have had very good luck doing so.
 
I was thinking about making a yo-yo and if I wanted a concave type design I would hollow the center, then use the compound to taper the edges in. Easy. Trickier is getting both sides to match exactly. CNC definitely wins there. I don't think that would bother me though. A thou or two would likely be unnoticeable. Perhaps weigh the halves for balance, I have a 0.1gram scale. That should be accurate enough.

If you want a more curved design, you can use a radius tool or perhaps a form tool. And there are gravers, though matching sides is harder that way.

If you are sure the size will work, Sherline sounds like a decent option. If you think larger work is a possibility, consider a bigger machine. The common advice is to go as big as you can fit into the budget and space. But if you know you never want to turn larger than 3", a 14" swing is overkill. Sure, it's more rigid and you can take deeper cuts. But a lot of really good work is done on little machines. You just have to stay within their capabilities. Tooling also gets more expensive with larger machines. If you think you might want slightly larger work, the LMS mini lathes are considered good. From there I'd probably switch to a PM machine. I started out looking at the Harbor Freight mini, and followed that progression. I considered Grizzly, they have some good reviews. I decided that for what I wanted to do, the accessories and machines from PM were a better fit for me. I was only looking at smaller machines, so they might compare better at the 12" swing and higher.

One thing that I didn't think I would care that much about was the chuck mounting system. After having a D1 camlock chuck, I really don't want anything else. Swapping is super easy, and I don't have to worry about it spinning off if I run it in reverse, which is really nice when threading.
 
JimDawson said:
The real problem in the smaller lathes is what is available on the market today. Most are entry level, low quality, machines and would not be my choice for precision work. The market is trying to hit a price point and of course the quality suffers. One exception to this are the Emco lathes, made in Austria, and are high quality. I'm not sure what Matt @ Precision Matthews has to offer, I know he has some very nice equipment.

For a CNC; Emco, Hardinge CHNC, Tormach, and Sherline might be good choices. Nothing wrong with buying used equipment in CNC or manual, I have had very good luck doing so.
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I agree with Emco lathes as an option, Jim. The problems are 1)finding one in decent shape, 2) parts are stupid expensive because they are no longer factory supported, and 3) finding one at all - Emco owners don't often let go of them.

I own an Emco Super 11CD and you'll have to see the executor of my estate to get your hands on it. Brent, if you are considering an Emco, the smallest I would go for is the Compact 8. It is made to a tool room DIN standard but it is a change gear lathe so you have to be sure you get the change gear set to go with it.

On second thought, it just dawned on me that the Compact 5 is available in CNC - that might be an option.
 
Your parts are all curved surfaces, you will find this difficult with a manual machine without form tooling and other attachments. Not impossible yet difficult.
As mentioned a 2 axis numerical lathe would be the bees knees for such work.
 
For size and cost the small lathe at harbor freight when on sale and coupon is hard to beat for small work.

We got ours 15 years ago and later gave it away but the chuck was repeatable meaning we could take work out and back and it was still very close.

We made some crankshafts via offset work that was too much for it so we upgraded.

You will need to make tools for doing the curved shapes and a "ball turner" would be a good starting place.

These machines are small and can be used on your lap if needed so for small work space they are perfect as you store up on a shelf and bring out to use when needed.

Can be found used for a song too.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk
 
Lathe all the way for a yo-yo. Because you want the halves to be round and in as perfect a balance as you can.

For those dish looking ones could you start out pressing the general shape on a press and a set of dies. Dies you make on the lathe first. Then take the rough pressing to the lathe and finish them there for roundness and decoration. Make a setup to balance the halves independently then weigh each one putting two of matching weight together.
 
tq60 said:
For size and cost the small lathe at harbor freight when on sale and coupon is hard to beat for small work.

We got ours 15 years ago and later gave it away but the chuck was repeatable meaning we could take work out and back and it was still very close.

We made some crankshafts via offset work that was too much for it so we upgraded.

You will need to make tools for doing the curved shapes and a "ball turner" would be a good starting place.

These machines are small and can be used on your lap if needed so for small work space they are perfect as you store up on a shelf and bring out to use when needed.

Can be found used for a song too.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk
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I agree with everything you've said with the exception of finding them used!

I have been searching for one for several years to use in an application where I don't want to damage one of my Sotuh Bend's but just haven't seen them and I check eBay and craigslist regularly

When I saw an HF micro mill on CL, I dropped what I was doing and went to get it and as I was leaving, another gentleman was arriving to be disappointed!

My experience has been those who have smaller machinery already have a list of vultures waiting for them to become available
 
Thanks again for all the great ideas to consider.

I was looking at some yoyo stuff today and found this guy in the Czech republic who is doing prototyping on an dual spindle CNC. I didn't even know what that was but the video is impressive. You can see it in action in "Birth of Sumec - CNC" and see the machine in the background in Floutek Update 3 starting around the 40 second mark. Interesting looking, certainly not manual and probably crazy expensive.

https://yoyoexpert.com/forums/index.php/topic,78687.0.html
 
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