- Joined
- May 21, 2016
- Messages
- 9
Hi all thanks for allowing me to participate. I guess you can boot me later if needed right 
I have ran a few lathes in high school wood and metal use brake lathes in our automotive shops and have also ran surface grinders. But short of that I'm about as green as it comes. I'm skilled with dial indicators a little rusty with micrometers but I will figure that out quickly I used to use them a lot until the digital age took over.
I have wanted a lathe for a long time and started searching about 6 months ago. Couple weeks ago I found a retired engineers personal machine shop for sale close enough to drive to he suffered some medical issues at 87 years old I call his life a success but he was left with such low energy and vision he could not use any of his stuff any more. It was a package deal all or nothing. I won't say I got the deal of the century but I did get a pretty decent price on it all and it came with a lot of tooling.
Last weekend the entire lot came home with me. Fairly big lathe, Mill and a small mill lots and lots of tooling and some incidentals. There not in there final resting spot but I have rigged up power until I figure out where there going. Friday I managed to make one piece of metal a lot smaller piece of metal. So I'm in motion any way. I have a 13.5 X 40 Grizzly lathe a Grizzly 9902 Mill for the big stuff and a lot of accessories. The lathe has a collet closer and every collet from hex stock and round from tiny to the largest bore that will fit the machine and the same for the mill which is really nice. Everything is in really nice shape he bought everything new and took very good care of it.
My questions will probably be lots. I have a couple right off. One we are an auto repair shop. As a result we have some scrap parts for use if I can find the correct way to cut them. One of which is front axle shafts. The shaft itsself would make great driver handles for a variety of tools I plan to make. There just installing seals so there's not really a risk of them shattering and being a danger when hammered on. And I could make all of my tools the same thread pitch and the drivers in a variety of lengths for differnt places. So I could make all of my tools two piece the driver and the actual part to fit the seal in question.
And the other use is a threaded bearing installer that would be threaded for a large hand crank ( wing nut about a foot long ) used. But I attempted to cut this shaft with the bits I have and found none of the bits so far would touch the hardened axle shaft. It may be a sign I should leave them alone and move to tool steel or something else. But I'd love to use this source for metal if I could cut and thread it easy and cheap enough. If it's going to take really expensive bits and they have a short life I'm better off buying steel that cuts more affordably.
I'm also interested in bits that leave a really nice finish. The metal I worked yesterday machined well but I had a fine threading type finish. Now this might have been to fast a cut but I tried a few thread speeds. My brake lathes move much faster and have a lot less of the threading finish. So I'm am wondering if a round bit might be more of what I'm looking for. I also have no idea what bits to buy. I think he had not do me much work the last few years and was just using what ever bits he had left and not replacing any. So I have no idea what brands and types are the best bang for the buck. My tool post will hold bits with a shank up to 9/16" possibly larger.
I'm pretty stoked. There's at least a dozen tools I've needed for decades that are next up I've ordered some aluminum from eBay that is on its way. My wife was surprised I worked on the house today instead of playing with my new machines but I have a deadline on some of the house work it's a rental and I have renters moving in in a month.
Thanks for your input
I have ran a few lathes in high school wood and metal use brake lathes in our automotive shops and have also ran surface grinders. But short of that I'm about as green as it comes. I'm skilled with dial indicators a little rusty with micrometers but I will figure that out quickly I used to use them a lot until the digital age took over.
I have wanted a lathe for a long time and started searching about 6 months ago. Couple weeks ago I found a retired engineers personal machine shop for sale close enough to drive to he suffered some medical issues at 87 years old I call his life a success but he was left with such low energy and vision he could not use any of his stuff any more. It was a package deal all or nothing. I won't say I got the deal of the century but I did get a pretty decent price on it all and it came with a lot of tooling.
Last weekend the entire lot came home with me. Fairly big lathe, Mill and a small mill lots and lots of tooling and some incidentals. There not in there final resting spot but I have rigged up power until I figure out where there going. Friday I managed to make one piece of metal a lot smaller piece of metal. So I'm in motion any way. I have a 13.5 X 40 Grizzly lathe a Grizzly 9902 Mill for the big stuff and a lot of accessories. The lathe has a collet closer and every collet from hex stock and round from tiny to the largest bore that will fit the machine and the same for the mill which is really nice. Everything is in really nice shape he bought everything new and took very good care of it.
My questions will probably be lots. I have a couple right off. One we are an auto repair shop. As a result we have some scrap parts for use if I can find the correct way to cut them. One of which is front axle shafts. The shaft itsself would make great driver handles for a variety of tools I plan to make. There just installing seals so there's not really a risk of them shattering and being a danger when hammered on. And I could make all of my tools the same thread pitch and the drivers in a variety of lengths for differnt places. So I could make all of my tools two piece the driver and the actual part to fit the seal in question.
And the other use is a threaded bearing installer that would be threaded for a large hand crank ( wing nut about a foot long ) used. But I attempted to cut this shaft with the bits I have and found none of the bits so far would touch the hardened axle shaft. It may be a sign I should leave them alone and move to tool steel or something else. But I'd love to use this source for metal if I could cut and thread it easy and cheap enough. If it's going to take really expensive bits and they have a short life I'm better off buying steel that cuts more affordably.
I'm also interested in bits that leave a really nice finish. The metal I worked yesterday machined well but I had a fine threading type finish. Now this might have been to fast a cut but I tried a few thread speeds. My brake lathes move much faster and have a lot less of the threading finish. So I'm am wondering if a round bit might be more of what I'm looking for. I also have no idea what bits to buy. I think he had not do me much work the last few years and was just using what ever bits he had left and not replacing any. So I have no idea what brands and types are the best bang for the buck. My tool post will hold bits with a shank up to 9/16" possibly larger.
I'm pretty stoked. There's at least a dozen tools I've needed for decades that are next up I've ordered some aluminum from eBay that is on its way. My wife was surprised I worked on the house today instead of playing with my new machines but I have a deadline on some of the house work it's a rental and I have renters moving in in a month.
Thanks for your input
