Which material?

[ltlvt]

I got this far tonight. Still need to bore and tap the hole for the lead screw. Somehow, I missed the center line of the stem by about .060. I think it may have been the cheap digital calipers I was using to lay out the block. I put new battery in it before I started but was having trouble getting it to zero so batteries in and out several times and may have put the old battery back in. I left myself plenty of meat just in case something like this happened. My eyes are getting terribly bad as well. Just had a complete Diabetic eye exam and got new trifocals. Maybe tomorrow I will bore the cross hole for the acme thread and tap it. I drilled and tapped the stem 5/16-18 for the button head because I hate ball oilers. I think they cause a lot of damage because people either can't see them or are such a pain to get oil into. I have some new 5/16 ball oilers just hate them. Going back and looking at the pictures I can see how I had the punch mark off center from the beginning. I was having trouble seeing the line when I was sawing it. Had to use a flash light and still hard for me to see.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Looks good. I have trust issues with digital calipers, I prefer dial calipers personally.

 

[mksj]

After ruining several parts because of flaky calipers giving wrong readings, I switched to an Absolute reading type and have never had an issue with a wrong reading since. I have never needed to readjust the absolute "0" reading after setting it initially. Well worth the investment. My first Absolute caliper was an Igaging, I think I paid $40 for it about 10 years ago, it is still working great after a lot of use. I wouldn't consider anything else, very reliable and for me much easier to read then a mechanical. Batteries last 2-3 years and the battery covers are more secure/don't break like the cheaper ones, and I like that it also shows fractional inches. They are about $45 now and you can also get them with an adapter to read depth. One of the best and least expensive tool investments I have made.

All the newer lathes I have come across have used bronze cross slide nuts, as well as the replacements. Cast iron may last longer but may induce more wear on the lead-screw. I have not had any issues with using/tapping bronze but all depends on the type. Are you going to have any adjustment to take up the slack for wear in your cross slide nut?

 

[benmychree]

I shar

I got this far tonight. Still need to bore and tap the hole for the lead screw. Somehow, I missed the center line of the stem by about .060. I think it may have been the cheap digital calipers I was using to lay out the block. I put new battery in it before I started but was having trouble getting it to zero so batteries in and out several times and may have put the old battery back in. I left myself plenty of meat just in case something like this happened. My eyes are getting terribly bad as well. Just had a complete Diabetic eye exam and got new trifocals. Maybe tomorrow I will bore the cross hole for the acme thread and tap it. I drilled and tapped the stem 5/16-18 for the button head because I hate ball oilers. I think they cause a lot of damage because people either can't see them or are such a pain to get oil into. I have some new 5/16 ball oilers just hate them. Going back and looking at the pictures I can see how I had the punch mark off center from the beginning. I was having trouble seeing the line when I was sawing it. Had to use a flash light and still hard for me to see.

I share your disdain for ball oilers. I do not use dial or digital calipers for layout work, only for measurement, and the rougher sort of measurement at that, for layout, I use a height gage, a Starrett 12" that I bought back in the 1960s for about $125 with a 50 division vernier, that needed no magnifier back in the day; times have changed ---

 

[ltlvt]

Looks good. I have trust issues with digital calipers, I prefer dial calipers personally.

I rarely use them. They have been in the tool drawer, and I knew the battery needed to be changed. I should have aborted the idea of using them when I had so much trouble changing the battery. What can I say we live in a EZ-PZ world now. We use cell phone apps for everything and if it needs to be warm before eating its in the microwave for miracle heat. Mama used to boil the wieners in a pan of water for homemade hot dogs. Now we shove them in the bun and nuke them. Maybe it is time to shove the digital calipers in the microwave and boil some wieners.

Rather than using a dial indicator to center it in the 4 jaw I took the e-z way and center punched it and used the live center to set it in the jaws. My laziness gets me in the end every time. The best part of the story is i left enough meat that it can hopefully be corrected.

BTW I also have a set of dial calipers but sometimes they are sticky so I did not use them thinking I would avoid any mistakes by using the digitals. Sometimes BOZO comes in the back door. lol

 

[ltlvt]

I shar

I share your disdain for ball oilers. I do not use dial or digital calipers for layout work, only for measurement, and the rougher sort of measurement at that, for layout, I use a height gage, a Starrett 12" that I bought back in the 1960s for about $125 with a 50 division vernier, that needed no magnifier back in the day; times have changed ---

John as soon as I saw my error My head asked me why I didn't use my height gage. Like Forrest Gump said "Stupid is as Stupid does" I never did understand what he meant by that, so I just tell myself "I Have the Right to Remain Stupid"

 

[benmychree]

Before the height gage, it was the surface gage and steel rule ---

 

[benmychree]

Before the height gage, it was the surface gage and steel rule ---

Dial calipers being sticky --- what always got to me was when a tiny chip caused the pinion gear to skip without me knowing it, and all my measurements to be off that amount until it was discovered; that does not seem to happen much anymore with my Starrett or Brown & Sharpe dial calipers that I use nowadays, and of course with the Starrett digital caliper, it seemed that the Mitutoyo dial caliper did it all too frequently as did the resetting tool.

 

[ltlvt]

Before the height gage, it was the surface gage and steel rule ---

I'm still looking for a good vintage surface gage

 

[ltlvt]

After ruining several parts because of flaky calipers giving wrong readings, I switched to an Absolute reading type and have never had an issue with a wrong reading since. I have never needed to readjust the absolute "0" reading after setting it initially. Well worth the investment. My first Absolute caliper was an Igaging, I think I paid $40 for it about 10 years ago, it is still working great after a lot of use. I wouldn't consider anything else, very reliable and for me much easier to read then a mechanical. Batteries last 2-3 years and the battery covers are more secure/don't break like the cheaper ones, and I like that it also shows fractional inches. They are about $45 now and you can also get them with an adapter to read depth. One of the best and least expensive tool investments I have made.

All the newer lathes I have come across have used bronze cross slide nuts, as well as the replacements. Cast iron may last longer but may induce more wear on the lead-screw. I have not had any issues with using/tapping bronze but all depends on the type. Are you going to have any adjustment to take up the slack for wear in your cross slide nut?

After ruining several parts because of flaky calipers giving wrong readings, I switched to an Absolute reading type and have never had an issue with a wrong reading since. I have never needed to readjust the absolute "0" reading after setting it initially. Well worth the investment. My first Absolute caliper was an Igaging, I think I paid $40 for it about 10 years ago, it is still working great after a lot of use. I wouldn't consider anything else, very reliable and for me much easier to read then a mechanical. Batteries last 2-3 years and the battery covers are more secure/don't break like the cheaper ones, and I like that it also shows fractional inches. They are about $45 now and you can also get them with an adapter to read depth. One of the best and least expensive tool investments I have made.

All the newer lathes I have come across have used bronze cross slide nuts, as well as the replacements. Cast iron may last longer but may induce more wear on the lead-screw. I have not had any issues with using/tapping bronze but all depends on the type. Are you going to have any adjustment to take up the slack for wear in your cross slide nut?

I am using cast iron based on 2 things. 1 my Clausing model 100 came with a cast iron nut, and it had less wear on the screw than the nut. 2 half nuts are made of cast iron and seem to be pretty durable. ( 3 I also have cast iron but hate working with it) After a few hours machining cast iron on the lathe I always look like a coal miner.

I considered making an adjustable nut, but I am long in the tooth and the machine will get little use in my remaining lifetime. In all honesty my passion is rebuilding these old vintage machines not doing machine work to produce parts. As soon as I get this one complete, I have 3 saws 2 belt sanders and a drill press in my que to rebuild. As I keep saying "Anyone can make chips" The pros know and understand how the chip is made.

Somebody should write the book "The Art of the Chip"