Shoring up my 618

[veniceboo]

Just a suggestion, take the drive belt off the motor, start the motor. Do you get vibration? Yes, then balanace or replace the motor. No? put that belt back and take the next one off. Try that? no vibration? are the belts good and snug but not stretchy tight? are they flopping? Oh that's right, you've got segmented belts. Well, at least you know the vibraton is or isn't coming from the drive...

I don't know enough to decipher if you're saying that segmented/ V-twist belts are a possible culprit? I see many lathes with these type of belt and this one came with one.

Just a suggestion, take the drive belt off the motor, start the motor. Do you get vibration? Yes, then balanace or replace the motor. No? put that belt back and take the next one off. Try that? no vibration? are the belts good and snug but not stretchy tight? are they flopping? Oh that's right, you've got segmented belts. Well, at least you know the vibraton is or isn't coming from the drive...

This is a great suggestion- thank you.

 

[kopcicle]

I'm far from being able to grind my own cutters at this point as I'm a real newbie.

Well , yes you are and no you're not.

Ad a couple of those cheap diamond stones for honing edges. Get a decent stone for breaking and honing the point.
HSS will eat a normal grinding wheel. 5 and 8% cobalt will laugh. Do your homework. I don't put a stone on the opposite side of my tool grinder. I put a balance wheel of some kind to dampen vibration. Some use aluminum and peck away at the edge to bring it into balance I've even used scrap wood turned round and driven serews into the light side. YMMV. Vacuum the dust at the wheel and use a mask or respirator.

Getting pre-ground to start with isn't a bad idea but with an idea of what you need you're off to the races.

One word of caution. Parting tools should be approached with caution. pay attention to all the examples of success and failure you can find.

Carbide tools on the small lathe? Usually not a good thing. You just can't take advantage of their ability to take big cuts because you have no rigidity. Take too small a cut and they just burnish rather than cut.

Your first material should be aluminum , not plastic. Plastic will **** you off with it's mile long chips. Then move on to brass,bronze, and associated alloys. Move on to plain hot roll steel briefly just to convince you that you're on the right track. Then free machining materials like 12L14 leaded steel to show you how easy it can be. Cast iron like Dura-Bar is it's own deal but still easy. Then look into water and oil hardening tool steels for making your own boring bars and such.
Now move on to Stainless steels and there will be tears. One step after another

 

[veniceboo]

That is an excellent video. Thank you for sharing that here. He makes it very clear and understandable.

 

[markba633csi]

I'm wondering if the link belts are contributing to the vibration? I would do the test mentioned previously of taking off the motor belt and see
how much vibration there is remaining.
I am sure the motor mounting is a factor, I agree the factory mount looks wiggly and less than ideal
Personally I would change to a variable speed motor but that's my preference
-M