Please Review My Plan

[Big Bore Builder]

6061 Aluminum is easy so you will not learn much, the most common steel material that you will end up turning is 1018 because it is the least expensive. It is often difficult to achieve a nice finish with 1018 yet learning how will teach you a good deal, free machining steels will also not teach you much, as an experiment buy a piece of plain old 1018 CRS/A36 HRS and a piece of 12L14 of the same size and turn them one after the other using the same set up, this will give some idea of what "Free Machining" means.

Today's awful job, two parts from 6" Dia. X 1/4" wall steel tubing 64" long, the OD finishes at 5.870-5.875", this means it is only 3/16" wall at the finish cut, this was chatter waiting to happen and it did. I had to finish a 90 RPMs, .012 DOC and a .009 IPR feed rate using a TIN coated 321 triangular insert. This took roughly all day.

64" / .009 feed per revolution is 7111 revolutions, 7000 revolutions / 90 revolutions per minute is 79 minutes for the finish cut, the 3 roughing cuts were a bit faster.

On the bright side the finish was better then I had expected when turning so slowly.



Good Luck

I love it.

Back in my younger years I worked in a shop with a big Niles: Around 100" swing and I think 60 feet centers.

When I had an all day cut on 4140 I chuckled at the folks that walked by and commented: "Sitting on your butt again!" as I sat on a stool watching the cut.

 

[Christian Poulsen]

Ahh, the 'ol parting tool. Misuse will maim or kill.

I have had lathes and mills for over 50 years but the best addition to the shop was a big Wells Metal Band Saw that will cut up to a 9" X 18" cross section. New cost was $14,000 with a hydraulic feed 20 foot table.

I obtained it for $250 from a Machine Shop that was abandoned and being torn down. My best find ever. It did not run when I found it: A set of fuses and it was off to the races. It is 3 phase but I already had 3 phase power in the shop. Hydraulic feed up and down. Pressure coolant.

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No kidding (nice find/buy!!)....I have a new smaller cheapy I bought from (I know I know!) Harbor Freight (but it seems to work OK for what I need)...it also came with a little table that I am reworking (adding too to make it a little bigger) as yoose' can swing the saw up vertical to use as a band saw.

 

[Big Bore Builder]

No kidding (nice find/buy!!)....I have a new smaller cheapy I bought from (I know I know!) Harbor Freight (but it seems to work OK for what I need)...it also came with a little table that I am reworking (adding too to make it a little bigger) and yoose' can swing the saw up vertical to use as a band saw.

For sure life becomes much more pleasant in the shop the day a powered metal cutting band saw shows up!

If you do not have a coolant system on your saw rig something up. Blades last much longer with coolant.

 

[Christian Poulsen]

For sure life becomes much more pleasant in the shop the day a powered metal cutting band saw shows up!

If you do not have a coolant system on your saw rig something up. Blades last much longer with coolant.

Yes no doubt...For my "garage" Harbor Freight (actually the brand is Central Machinery) and for my home use, I just rub on a hunk of saw wax a couple of revolutions a few times during cuts (almost constant during tool steel cuts and 3" to 4" or so takes a while and then the blade (cheap) needs replacement after a few of those, but still OK for my limited, retired use lol)...Note: You defiantly got the better saw for the same price!

Note: Back on the job we switched to some spray mist systems on our big saws but we went back to "flooding" with the "coolant" (seemed to work better, blades lasted longer)

Another note LOL...Believe it or not: Cutting off composite Hockey sticks to length are just as hard on a blade, if not moreso, as cutting off tool steels!