New and need Info

[MonumentMan]

Hi everyone,

I have been wanting to get a lathe and mill for a while now. I recently purchased a Hendey 14 x 30 which from my limited knowledge appears to be a good solid machine. I acquired it with absolutely no tooling except a Horton D1-6 3 jaw chuck.

I need some suggestions on what to get first and where. I.e 4 jaw chuck, live & dead centers, quick change tool post and cutters? I looked at Aloris tool posts (sticker shock!) and seen a couple knock off that appeared to be a 10th of the price. I don't want to buy crap, but I don't need the "Maserati" either.


Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!


Ray

 

[george wilson]

Buy a Phase II wedge action style. Enco was selling some last month for the same price as the cheaper piston type. Must have been overstocked. Get on their mailing list and get their monthly fliers. Most offer free shipping . I think they're in need of business.

A 4 jaw chuck sees a lot more use than my face plate ever has. But,I don't build small engines. It depends upon what you want to do with the lathe. I suggest the toolpost. Comes with 6 holders. Get some HSS tools and learn to grind them. Carbide isn't really necessary unless you want to take a truing cut on a faceplate of cast iron. I think hobbists think carbide is magic. It's not unless you're doing production. I hardly use it unless I want to trim some hardened steel(not carbide's intended use,but it works). Carbide is good for cast iron. Cast is hard on HSS,dulling it too quick.

I doubt your Hendey is going to have a high top speed,so HSS will be fine. And,more versatile as it can be ground into special shapes.

Get a live tailstock center and a tailstock drill chuck too,with the 4 jaw and the toolpost. You may have to fabricate a steady rest if you intend to face the ends off of long shafts,like gun barrels,or chamber them.

 

[MonumentMan]

Buy a Phase II wedge action style. Enco was selling some last month for the same price as the cheaper piston type. Must have been overstocked. Get on their mailing list and get their monthly fliers. Most offer free shipping . I think they're in need of business.

A 4 jaw chuck sees a lot more use than my face plate ever has. But,I don't build small engines. It depends upon what you want to do with the lathe. I suggest the toolpost. Comes with 6 holders. Get some HSS tools and learn to grind them. Carbide isn't really necessary unless you want to take a truing cut on a faceplate of cast iron. I think hobbists think carbide is magic. It's not unless you're doing production. I hardly use it unless I want to trim some hardened steel(not carbide's intended use,but it works). Carbide is good for cast iron. Cast is hard on HSS,dulling it too quick.

I doubt your Hendey is going to have a high top speed,so HSS will be fine. And,more versatile as it can be ground into special shapes.

Get a live tailstock center and a tailstock drill chuck too,with the 4 jaw and the toolpost. You may have to fabricate a steady rest if you intend to face the ends off of long shafts,like gun barrels,or chamber them.

Thanks Geaorge! Top speed on the Hendey is a little over 1k rpms. Any recommendations on chuck brands and centers?

 

[12bolts]

Any recommendations on chuck brands and centers?

Now this is where you get to find out the true cost of accessorising your machines
If you have the time and patience then deals can be found on various auction sites for quality 2nd hand stuff, but be on the lookout for worn out stuff sold as "working" or "useable" which translates to "worked to death" and "abused" Dont buy sight unseen. Go inspect it. Buck, Bison, Rohm, Most european stuff is good, especially the cold war era from the eastern bloc countries, (Poland Ukraine Czech etc)
But if you have a big tool store nearby there might be "reasonable" new chicom stuff that suits you.

Cheers Phil

 

[Bill Gruby]

If you have deep pockets, Bison Chucks are the way to go. My opinion here. Buck Chucks are also a good choice.

"Billy G"

 

[george wilson]

Chinese chucks generally have a concentricity of .003". If that isn't good enough,buy a Bison. My Bisons(and I have bought 5 or 6 of them,maybe more for work and home),run to .001". I got one to run better than that by slightly grinding the jaws. I don't recommend doing that unless you know what you're doing.

Bison chucks cost money. Used to be a LOT cheaper!! My favorite is their 8" 4 jaw UNIVERSAL chuck(self centering). You can chuck square bars in it as well as round. If you use a lot of hexagonal stock for making bolts,a 3 jaw would be better.

Grizzly,I'd stay away from. They do not bother to tell you ANYTHING about the accuracy of their products,which really peeves me. We're just supposed to blindly order their Chinese stuff blithely thinking it is golden? I don't think so. They don't even spec their expensive (ASIAN) South Bend stuff! That peeves me too. They are riding the name for all it's worth.

When I was young,I used a little 5" USA made Union 3 jaw. It gave .003" runout. At the time,I was content,thinking that was as good as it got. But today,Bison is a decent,reasonably priced chuck. There are better,if you have deeper pockets. I see Bill already thinks Bisons are for deep pockets! Glad I got mine before the recent price jump! I gave away the 3 jaw that came with my 1986 Grizzly lathe. It was .003" out. It seems the Asian standard.

 

[12bolts]

Also, spend more on a 3 jaw chuck than you would on a 4 jaw. A 3 jaw wants to be as accurate as possible, (run out and parallelism of the jaws) out of the box. Whereas a 4 jaw is used to hold out of round stock anyway and you need to true it yourself.

Cheers Phil

 

[MonumentMan]

Chinese chucks generally have a concentricity of .003". If that isn't good enough,buy a Bison. My Bisons(and I have bought 5 or 6 of them,maybe more for work and home),run to .001". I got one to run better than that by slightly grinding the jaws. I don't recommend doing that unless you know what you're doing.

Bison chucks cost money. Used to be a LOT cheaper!! My favorite is their 8" 4 jaw UNIVERSAL chuck(self centering). You can chuck square bars in it as well as round. If you use a lot of hexagonal stock for making bolts,a 3 jaw would be better.

Grizzly,I'd stay away from. They do not bother to tell you ANYTHING about the accuracy of their products,which really peeves me. We're just supposed to blindly order their Chinese stuff blithely thinking it is golden? I don't think so. They don't even spec their expensive (ASIAN) South Bend stuff! That peeves me too. They are riding the name for all it's worth.

When I was young,I used a little 5" USA made Union 3 jaw. It gave .003" runout. At the time,I was content,thinking that was as good as it got. But today,Bison is a decent,reasonably priced chuck. There are better,if you have deeper pockets. I see Bill already thinks Bisons are for deep pockets! Glad I got mine before the recent price jump! I gave away the 3 jaw that came with my 1986 Grizzly lathe. It was .003" out. It seems the Asian standard.

I am sure I am showing my ignorance here but, isn't that the idea behind an independent 4 jaw? You can adjust for the run out?

 

[12bolts]

Some chucks, (I have only seen on a 3 jaw) have a set true adjustment to align the chuck on the spindle. 4 jaw chucks are independent so that the work can be adjusted to any position by positioning the jaws. In theory the body could be out of true but the work set to run true. This is not really an ideal situation because the mass of the off centre rotating chuck will cause all manner of problems. A 4 jaw chuck with 5 thou runout can reposition the stock with the independant jaws to be spot on centre. But a 3 jaw chuck with 5 thou runout means you are stuck with 5 thou runout on the work. Better explanation?

Cheers Phil