Small vintage lathes

[RDfella]

Not eye watering .
Comensrate with the quality & difficulty of manufacture.

Bit of an oxymoron? The quality is not in dispute but, with today's production machinery (cnc, sintering, isostatic pressing etc) are the prices reasonable? Sure, I wouldn't like to make a pair of those bevelled-edge dies, but that'd be a one-off, not a production line. I see just one pair of second hand dies (ie as shown in the centre of my 2nd pic) fetch $30 upwards and I've seen sets at $750 - $1,000.
Whilst I like my Little Giant set, in truth the only benefit over an ordinary HSS split die is the increased ability to adjust and the guide to keep the die centralised - though the latter can also be a hindrance and one has to resort to fitting the dies inside-out and using the holder backwards.
Sure, the Chinese don't seem to have a handle on their metallurgy yet so I avoid items from them where that could be an issue. And I fully agree that when it comes to tools, cheap ain't necessarily a good idea. But then the converse applies - a high price is no guarantee of quality.

[RichardL]

Hi guys,

Returning to this topic for the very few of you who have paid notice and, possibly, still care. I believe I have finished the new dial for my compound rest. Ridiculous amount of time. If it was billable hours, more than one could have been custom-made professionally, but what's the fun in that? What I really wanted to do was to put together a video from various video clips and photos, and I may still, but that was proving too time consuming for sharing here. Looking back at where I was last time ( https://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php?topic=16686.msg146428#msg146428 ), what I had left to do was to stamp the numbers, so, the attached photos show what I did and the, at-least-acceptable-to-the-likes-of-me, result. 


1. Create a fixture for holding the stamps perpendicular to a tangent and in line with the diameter. Of course, in my style, this was the first thing I could find - a block of wood.
2. Print a paper graticule to reference when rotating the dial to the right position. (Oops! Glued it on 72 deg to far clockwise, thus, the numbers in felt-tip.)
3. Carve a channel for the stamps and cover the channel with at-hand scrap.
4. Practice the strength of my hammer stroke (not shown), then, test fit the stamp in the notch and add shims as necessary.
5. Whack 10 stamps (not shown)
6. Admire my own handiwork more than any way justifiable.

One little accident that worked in my favor. In one picture you see the block of wood in close contact with the compound rest. That was a complete accident, but provided robust support for the energy of the strike.

I will let you know if I make a video, again, if anyone cares.

Richard L.

[Greybeard]

The boy done good👍

[muskrat]

Richard the Toolmaker
Well done mate, looks like a bought one.
Cheers

[RichardL]

Thanks guys. I do think it looks pretty good for something hogged out by an amateur using every funky rigging he could think of. 

Muskrat, what kind of store? 

Richard L.

[Greybeard]

Richard, tell me about the small knurled brass knob on the side of the scale.

[muskrat]

G'day Richard.
"looks like a bought one." An Aussie saying. Better than the Asian crap for sale here.
Cheers

[RichardL]

G'day Richard.
"looks like a bought one." An Aussie saying. Better than the Asian crap for sale here.
Cheers

Oh, I knew what you meant. I would hate to find out right now that I could have bought one manufactured for this very purpose. That would make the cost in hours pretty painful, but again, I did have fun doing it.

Richard L.

[RDfella]

I would hate to find out right now that I could have bought one manufactured for this very purpose. That would make the cost in hours pretty painful,

But what price the feeling of achievement? Neat job, looks very professional.

[RichardL]

Richard, tell me about the small knurled brass knob on the side of the scale.

It's for resetting to zero as a start point, particularly when cutting threads. The set screw is made from a cut-off machine screw with a knurled thumb nut soldered on. If trying to rotate 360, it can actually interfere with the large end of the ball crank, but if that becomes a problem I can swap it for an allen set screw.

Richard L.

[Greybeard]

Richard, tell me about the small knurled brass knob on the side of the scale.

It's for resetting to zero as a start point, particularly when cutting threads. The set screw is made from a cut-off machine screw with a knurled thumb nut soldered on. If trying to rotate 360, it can actually interfere with the large end of the ball crank, but if that becomes a problem I can swap it for an allen set screw.

Richard L.

Excellent! 👍

[Greybeard]

I've found it almost impossible to successfully part-off ferrous metal in my Myford 4. After asking for advice on a Myford forum I was advised to get a rear mounted parting tool holder. It seems my design of lathe is just not rigid enough to use the standard tool holder for the job. I decided to have a go at making a rear tool holder for parting.  I bought a billet of mild steel 50mm x 50mm x 100mm. When the steel arrived it had been roughly cut from stock using an angle grinder so both ends needed facing. My four-jaw chuck is not large enough to take a 50mm square stock. I decided to use my faceplate to face off the ends. I had to make some holding pieces. The job, particularly the first end, was scary as heck but the piece stayed on the faceplate. The other end was easier as I now had a faced end against the faceplate.
Next job was making a central retaining bolt to keep the tool held firmly on the cross-slide. Also, a couple of set-screws with their heads machined round were added as alignment pins.
As I do not have a mill I decided to use cap-head screws to keep the cutting blade inline. A set-screw with a tapered surface pushes the blade down against the shanks of the bottom cap-head's

Here is a video of the tool cutting through some 1" Stainless Steel stock. The blade, by the way happens to be 1/8" wide.

https://youtu.be/thzKUiXZ3Jc

Gotta tell you, I'm pretty pleased with myself! 😌

[RDfella]

Parting-off requires rigidity which many lathes lack, either through being of light construction or old age (wear in headstock bearings and loosesness of saddle mainly). Even my Holbrook (toolroom lathe) prefers a solid parting tool over the blade-in-a-holder type. Depth of cut and surface speed are also critical. The one saviour of small lathes is that if the tool does 'grab' it'll likely simply stop the lathe (as with my Boxford) but with a more substantial lathe matters can become life-threatening when a parting tool misbehaves.
PS - glad to see you're using pliers to remove swarf. Not only is it hot - it can (will) cut to the bone.

[muskrat]

G'day GB.
Well done mate. Parting is my least favourite job. Parting SS with HSS is challenging at the best of times. Don't allow the tool to rub, it's either cutting or not. What oil are you using?
I still have many scars from swarf cuts.
Cheers

[groily]

Congrats GB. Seriously!
Parting-off is so much easier to say than do (how does the song go - Splitting Up is Hard to Do?), and I have to admit, even having made a back toolpost for my 7, I don't like the job for 'ferrous' of any serious diameter. Very hard to grind a tool to cope with 'thick', risk of jamming is ever-present - and thank the stars the good lord invented hacksaws sometimes!
You'll see that a lot of ways on old lathes have saw nicks in them  . . . mine came with a few,  although I have tried to avoid adding to them.
If de-chucking is an option, I cheat and clean up afterwards, I have to say. My old dad used to reckon a competent person could saw an inch bar to within a few thou of true with practice  . . . I'm still, er, practising!