Look what I've got - a new miniature lathe!

[mangozac]

No, that's not a lathe in scale with 28mm. It's a small lathe intended for machining small parts for things like models. The 4-jaw chuck can handle pieces up to 3" wide. To get an idea of the size it's about 400mm long overall.

The best part is that it only cost me 85 bucks!. I've bought it home and pulled it to pieces to give it all a clean up. I'm going to repaint the base and tailstock so that they look all nice and new. It does have an issue with the leadscrew so I will have to get a friend to machine up a new bush for me, but that's no biggie.

It's probably around 40 years old but with quality machines like this it doesn't matter. Especially when a new one is worth over 2 grand!

I don't exactly know what I'll use it for yet. Maybe make some fancy gun barrels. Or thruster bells. I'm thinking maybe I'll buy a vertical slide for it so that I can use it as a kind of horizontal mill for making nice precise scrathbuilt parts......

[Vaaish]

that looks fun

[mangozac]

Just repainted the body and tailstock today and they're looking great.

I've assessed the entire lathe and I'll need to buy a couple of small replacement parts to get it going. On the downside I did discover that it's imperial rather than metric. I'm not going to fork out the money needed to convert it to metric so lucky I have a bit of familiarity with imperial due to my electronics/PCB design background.

[Seb]

Next chance I get to visit I think your garage will be some mad scientist's converted laboratory. So many gadgets so little modelling time!

Any ideas on future projects for this yet? (since your rough ideas earlier)

As for old school machines; I was helping my Gf's father redo the fences on his property (man was that end of the day Beer tasty) and we often used several drill bit machines and ban-saw tables. Each well over 50yrs old and solid as the day they came off the line.

They simply don't make serious tools like they used too.

- Seb

[mangozac]

Story of my life - so much to do, so little time to do it!

I guess the first thing I've been thinking of making is reworking the cockpit tube for my new Tau mecha (ensuring that it is perfectly cylindrical). Then I might look at the knees of the mecha as they need to be based around round parts.

Along with the milling attachment I will inevitably end up buying for it, I will probably also get a radius cutter tool which lets you create perfect ball shapes: (I might be able to actually make that part myself!).

The replacement parts are on their way from the US now, so I should be able to reassemble and have it all running next weekend. In the meantime I'm going to finish the Zeus light cruiser project. Thank God I finally finished this semester's uni work yesterday so no more report writing for me!

So much to do, so little time..........

[blind pig]

On the topic of cheap machinery, I managed to pick up a new 8cu/ft min vacuum pump off ebay last night for $2.49.

Yup $2.49 (with $30 postage)

It was wrongly labled/mispelled in the listings. Me a happy camper today!

[mangozac]

Nice score Bec! Te spares for my lathe arrived yesterday and whilst I've assembled most of it, I've got to sit down tomorrow and align everything so that the movement is all free and smooth.

[mangozac]

Sorry for the threadnomancy everyone but I just wanted to add some more information. I've been using my lathe for lots of odd little things over the past year, but it's never been too good for turning very small diameter styrene rod (<2mm diameter). It doesn't help that the Sherline 3-jaw chuck is only recommended to hold parts down to 2mm.

I recently discovered that such issues are normal for a lathe and thus for working on small diameter stock the best solution is to use . There are a stack of different varieties of collets and Sherline do a collet system for the lathe (using an exotic type of collet called WW - I have no idea what that stands for), but they are stupidly priced: $120 for the starter kit (the collet chuck and 5 collets) and then up to $40 per collet! I came close to purchasing the Sherline collet kit (even though I would have to purchase some intermediate sizes) but then I had another idea.

My also uses a collet system on the spindle for holding the cutter. These are called ER11 collets and are much more readily available at realistic prices ($30 for an entire set off eBay). So not only does it make economic sense to use the ER11 collets on my lathe, but having the same style for both of my machines means I don't have to carry two sets of collets!

The problem is that there is no adaptor for the Sherline lathe to mount the ER11 collets. I discussed with a friend the possibility of machining up an adaptor to screw onto the lathe in place of the standard 3-jaw chuck, but that was looking like a lot of work, requiring threads to be cut and stuff. Then my friend had a great idea - it turns out that the headstock spindle on the Sherline lathe accepts a #1 . Morse taper is a standard system for attaching chucks to drills and the like, available in different sizes. It turns out that #1 Morse Taper ER11 collet chucks can be easily had on eBay for around $15! So I've got one on its way. I'm confident that this will allow me to do the machining of fine styrene rod as I want.

I hope somebody find this information useful

[Lane]

The collets will help a lot when working with small diameter stock however it may only be part of the solution to your problem.

Styrene is not very rigid so when you turn it (cut on a lathe) it tends to deflect away from the cutter. Using a sharp, properly adjusted tool helps as this reduces the cutting forces. You may also need a follower rest. These look like a steady rest with the front leg removed so it can ride directly opposite the cutting tool.

BTW do you have a compound slide for your mini lathe?

[mangozac]

Yeah but for the most part to do styrene I will only have a very short length (<10mm) protruding from the chuck to minimise deflection. Interesting idea about the follower rest though! I guess there will be a similar problem ad small diameters regardless of the material.

I don't have a compound slide, and I'm not paying any big dollars for sherline accessories. I notice that Taig offer a nice compound slide and ball turning tool for very good prices - I wonder if they'll fit the Sherline? If not surely it would only be slight modification...

[Lane]

I checked out the Taig site and they do not give the spacing on their T-Slots.

If the T-slot spacing on both machines are the same the accessories should fit.

[mangozac]

They actually have very little documentation available for the Taig machines. Unlike Sherline who have everything heavily documented and freely available: . Like I said, even if the T-Slot designs are different it couldn't be too much hassle to modify them (at least not more hassle than the difference in price is work). They even have a which is dirt cheap compared to the Sherline one!

Edit: I found dimensions for the Taig T-slots . While the shape of the T itself is probably close enough to work, the Sherline T-slot centres are 1.5" apart, whereas the Taig ones are 1". Again, probably still not too hard to modify...

[Lane]

Depending on where the holes are you may be able to drill a couple new ones and adapt to the wider T-slot spacing. Just hope the base is wide enough for 1.5" spacing.

[mangozac]

Looking at more pictures I don't think it will be wide enough - however the alternative is to drill the two holes parallel to a single T-slot (rather than perpendicular to the slots). From what I can tell that's how the Sherline ones mount...

[mangozac]

Was giving this some more thought last night. Here is the and attachments. Other than the basic clamp mechanism on the vertical slide (which lets be honest would be a 5 minute job to make out of some scrap ally and a couple of screws) the only difference is that the compound slide features the rotating mounting plate whereas the vertical slide has the 90° adaptor block (which won't actually fit my lathe without modification).

I figure I'll almost never have the need to use the two simultaneously (if it's even possible to on such a small lathe), in which case why bother having effectively two of the same, expensive part: the slide? I might as well just buy the compound slide (which is cheaper) and make up some kind of 90° adaptor block to alternately use it as a vertical slide.

Oh and one other thing: on the Sherline lathe you can actually rotate the headstock so that slight tapers can be turned without a compound slide.