My First Lathe - HF 9" x 20"

Yes, do focus. What did you order with the PM lathe? If you didn't get a 4J with the PM, then the one you get now, could be used on the PM. If you just need to practice some and budget is tight, you know your answer. If things are really tight, just use the 3J. A 4J isn't worth marital disharmony. It's ok to pause the binge. You can learn a lot with a lowly 3J. When you can shake the money tree and $$ falls off, then buy the 4J.
 
Yes, do focus. What did you order with the PM lathe? If you didn't get a 4J with the PM, then the one you get now, could be used on the PM. If you just need to practice some and budget is tight, you know your answer. If things are really tight, just use the 3J. A 4J isn't worth marital disharmony. It's ok to pause the binge. You can learn a lot with a lowly 3J. When you can shake the money tree and $$ falls off, then buy the 4J.
I do get carried away….

I will order the 5”… very inexpensive and will let me practice
 
So a 6" 4-jaws independent chuck will be the way to go? The difference in price (for the ones I am looking at) is 40.00 more for the 6" over the 5"...

Too bad those 4-jaws combination chucks are so expensive... one of those would have been nice... focus, man! focus!! You have another lathe coming...
Yes, do focus. What did you order with the PM lathe? If you didn't get a 4J with the PM, then the one you get now, could be used on the PM. If you just need to practice some and budget is tight, you know your answer. If things are really tight, just use the 3J. A 4J isn't worth marital disharmony. It's ok to pause the binge. You can learn a lot with a lowly 3J. When you can shake the money tree and $$ falls off, then buy the 4J.
A 6" should do fine. A 7" would push the limits of a 9" machine. The 6" chuck will close on work as large as 8". If you are going to work on stuff that big, the 9" machine is much too small. As would be the PM machine that you have coming. With something that large you would need to watch that the open jaws extending outside the chuck body did not reach the shears. Remember, swing is diameter. Center is only 4-1/2 inches above the shears. A 6" chuck takes up 3" of that before opening the jaws. Even with small work, it is a good practice to pull the chuck through at least one revolution by hand before starting. It will soon become a habit, a good habit that will pay off when you least expect it.

Dream big, but keep those dreams under control. A 4 jaw chuck is a heavy device. Even the front bearings on a 12 inch machine would be loaded heavily with one mounted. I neglected to mention, my 5" 4 jaw chuck is a scroll chuck. It is self centering, useful for square and octagonal work. I do most of my work on models, my 4 jaw independant for modeling is a 75mm chuck, roughly 3 inches.

I do have a 12 inch machine, an Atlas Craftsman, and an 8" 4 jaw independant for it. But even with a 12 inch swing, it's all I can do to lift the chuck into place. An old man needs to keep an eye on his physical limits. I shudder to think what the front bearings carry when work is loaded and I make a cut. Never mind large diameter work, even a crankshaft at 3/4" diameter with journal offset around 1/2" would be a "hand full" for a 12 inch lathe.

I stand on my call earlier to keep the 4 jaw chuck at the top of a wish list. It isn't necessary at this point in your learning curve. As you gain experience and you find a need for one, you can negotiate with SWMBO about it. She might possibly see to it that one shows up as a gift one day. It has happened, though not to me. Yeah, well. . .

To digress into a different subject, tail stock centers: There is today a "live center" that runs on ball bearings. Going with "old school" definitions and the old books I learned from, the difference between a "live" center and a "dead" center was that a dead center was hardened and a live center was not. Such a "dead" center would be used in the tail stock where work would rotate on the center. And the "live" center at the head stock where it could be trued as necessary. This is no longer an absolute but watching out for hardened centers is an issue. If I were to use a "non rotating" center in the tail stock, it would need to be hardened.

When the concept of a "ball bearing" center came along, the defination slowly started changing. Confused yet? On the current crop of machines, the head stock is MT3 and the tail stock is MT2. So it's not too big an issue. This includes my Atlas 12X36, build somewhere around 1951. BUT, I have an adapter in the MT3 headstock for my own purposes, making it MT2. Same as the tail stock. It would be very easy to confuse hardened and non-hardened centers. This comes about from an Atlas benchtop horizontal milling machine, which also has an MT2 receiver at the quill.

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Like I mentioned... I tend to get carried away in the excitement of the moment... This is a hobby that I have been wanting to do for soooo long... and it is just now that I am able to get to it.

Good best practice on turning the chuck by hand to avoid anything hitting something. Will make that part of my workflow. :encourage:

The PM-1236 I ordered with DRO and a few other goodies. It comes with the 6" 3jaws chuck as well as the 8" 4-jaws chuck. The funny thing is that I started earlier last year (Jan 2020) asking about the small lathes just to start... bought nothing... then I asked about the PM1030 - bought nothing... then I asked about deciding between the 1030 and the 1130... and ended up ordering the PM-1228 - Here is that thread: PM-1030V or 1130V LATHE, only to change it again for the PM-1236... I do blame you all for this, lol, in a good way of course. :encourage:

I do not have anything specific that I want to make... I just want to be able to get lost in the garage seeing parts in bare metal and extracting those parts from it...

So back to this 9x20... I went ahead and ordered the 5" 4-jaw independent chuck (SANOU K72-125)... 70.00 and should be here Friday...

On the live center... this lathe came with both...


Confused? You won't be after this episode of soap :D

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One thing I noticed... this lathe has no E-Stop... will add one for safety.
 
Got a stainless steel tray to catch most of the chips... angle gauge also arrived...

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Made my first project... and even used the parting tool... hehehe... simple stuff... but made the wife happy...

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And then removed the broken knob... Parts diagram had a circlip holding it in place... nope, it was held with a screw.

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Also, it looks to be two parts. The shaft that steel, pressed (I think) into the pot metal knob. I am taking measurements to make the knob and do the same, press that shaft back in place. Then I will install a lever on the side...
 
Pot metal removed...

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Yes... I can do this. just a simple piece of round stock... Drill hole for shaft, a hole for a set screw to hold the knob in place... drill a hole and tap for the spring, bearing ball, and setscrew... then drill and tap for a small handle.
 
A few learnings from getting that knob off that I wanted to share:

1. You can't turn pot metal :oops: . That was scary... I thought I was doing well at the start but then the tool got caught and pieces flew all over... never doing that again...
2. I need to install an emergency stop on this lathe... see post 1. The lathe just kept on going like nothing had happened.

On other news... got everything installed back. Did not wanted anything going missing... I only need to build the knob and handle.

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And the back plate arrived...

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I'll throw this out there. For a 12" lathe, I find a 6" 3 Jaw chuck, an 8" 4 Jaw chuck, and a 10" faceplate are the most appropriately sized. A 6 jaw chuck is expensive and unnecessary unless you plan on doing work on delicate tubes. My only other purchase I'd like to add would be a 5C collet closer, but that can be down the road many years.

I got my 8" 4 jaw from an import supplier. Works well but I have definitely noticed the issues with jaw lift and perpendicularity of the chuck face and jaw step faces to the rotation axis. I can work around it but it takes more effort to set up that a higher quality chuck.

That all being said, I can dial stuff into concentricity and perpendicularity within tenths if I give it some patience.
 
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