Bazmak Diary of a 12 x 18" woodlathe

[bazmak]

PART 6 Currently proceeding with the lathe carriage but meanwhile for anyone interested some photos of my past life
My last 2 Myford lathes and my part completed 3 1/2" HEILAN LASSIE LNER 4-6-2 pacific. Unfortunately i sold everything when i retired
to Australia.I bitterly regret

 

[aarggh]

I can feel your pain having tongive up beautiful machines like that Barry! It's not exactly purchasing paradise here in OZ for machinery as you no doubt have found?
cheers, Ian

 

[bazmak]

Thank you Ian,more info on your furnace please.Can you melt/alloy aluminium and brass.Its something i am not
familiar with but have thought about making a metal chess set. I have just made a Stuart 10V and have considered
making a copy scaled up by 2..Thought of fabricating the castings but would be too rough and ready.I could make wooden patterns How difficult to make alum castings ? Regards barry

 

[gus]

Hi Bazmak,
I am with you. For twenty years I built up a full compliment of machine tools(two Leblonde Precision Lathes,Bridgeport Mill,Okamoto Grinder,Vertical Slotter and Shaper),designed and built,80 ton airbender,200 ton Deep Draw Press,
3/8 Bolier Plate Bending Rolls,Three Non-collision Conveyor lines,Circumferential Welding M/c,Main Seam Welding Machine,Auto Socket Welder and Steel Shot Blasting Machine.
It is all gone.Gus laid off and paid 32 months compensation.Took me 8 years to get over it.(That is I wasted 4 years) Took 4 years to buy a Japanese Mini Lathe,Mini Vertical Mill,Cheapy China Drill Press and lately a Makita Bandsaw.

Today I am a very happy man with too many hobbies.Weekend Fishing and Volunteer Coffee Maker( I make very good coffee every afternoon for the gang gathering at fishing equipment shop).

Australia is a very good place to retire to. All my sisters and brothers are in Perth,Sydney and Melbourne.

 

[bazmak]

Hi Gus,very pleased to meet you.Its wonderful to put a face to a name thru the ether Where do you live ?
Yes its sad at first when you retire but you soon get back in the swing.The secret is keeping busy with things you enjoy
I must say you look like a very happy man. Regards Barry

 

[bazmak]

PART 7 Building up the the carriage

I started with a 200 x 120 x 10mm plate to which i fitted a 20 sq bar and a 50 x 3 plt all mild steel
I have no milling machine and my local steel supplier has a very limited range of brass sections
The design although it worked well may appear to be a bit haphazard. I fitted the brass wear plates with csk brass screws
The only machining i had to do was reduce the 3/4 x 1/4 to 6mm thick to fit at 32mm between ways
I could not fit 120mm long in the 4 jaw so cut it in half and fitted 4 pieces each 60mm lg Skimmed down in the lathe from 6.35mm
to 6mm.Everything fitted almost perfectly.I had to shim the 3/4 x 1/4 brass by 1 thou each side and under the 32 x 3 top
plates by 4 thou.An hour fitting and scraping.BINGO.Its as good as the Sieg Next part i have to connect the carriage to the leadscrew
and build up the top plate with T slots See you soon BAZMAK

 

[aarggh]

Thank you Ian,more info on your furnace please.Can you melt/alloy aluminium and brass.Its something i am not
familiar with but have thought about making a metal chess set. I have just made a Stuart 10V and have considered
making a copy scaled up by 2..Thought of fabricating the castings but would be too rough and ready.I could make wooden patterns How difficult to make alum castings ? Regards barry

Hi Barry, I bought a small electric furnace as the idea of having gas bottles around with my kids did concern me. It's a little $400 or so Chinese unit capable of up to 3kg, which sounds a lot, but not really, and the crucibles only have a 55mm or so diameter opening, so as hard drives are my main source of scrap aluminium, I end up having to cut them up on my bandsaw to fit them in, royal pita. It does work great and will go up to 1150c, but the design leaves too much air flow around the coils so as it cools, it tends to oxidise/rust, which then creates breaks. Running it for brass hastens this fault.
They have an enclosed chamber replacement for the unit to help stop that, so i'll get that as it is handy, but I've come to realise it just doesn't cut it as a main foundry. So I'll build a gas one at some stage. I have had a go at casting, poorly to date, but realise what I was doing wrong, and think it wouldn't be terribly difficult to achieve good results after a bit of trial and error.

cheers, Ian

 

[bazmak]

PART 8 Building up the carriage worktable. I connected the leadscrew nut to the carriage.Tried a plain drive pin but the leadscrew
was not dead straight,so finished up with a threaded pin silver soldered to the nut,passed thru the 50x3 plt and secured with a
nyloc nut.Set to just allow slight spin and rock to ease following the leadscrew.Good free movement of the carriage with min
of backlash. Next i built up the top late to form a table with 2 T slots.Next job is to make a support post for the compound slide.
Hope fully the first turning job will be to recess the screwed faceplate to accept the 3 & 4 jaw chucks.I also stripped down the tailstock and made a couple of minor mods.Next part hopefully all questions will be answered.See you soon BAZMAK

 

[gus]

Hi Gus,very pleased to meet you.Its wonderful to put a face to a name thru the ether Where do you live ?
Yes its sad at first when you retire but you soon get back in the swing.The secret is keeping busy with things you enjoy
I must say you look like a very happy man. Regards Barry

Hi Barry,

Sorry .I missed your reply.:wall:

Still living in nice and warm Singapore.:fan: We retained all the street names left by the British Colonist as our heritage. MountBatten Road, Alexandra Road,Victoria Street etc.
OK Which part of Oz you live??

Basis nearby Sydney or Melbourne,could drop by to meet Barry and tour his machineshop.And Barry could teach me wood turning.

See you.

 

[bazmak]

 

[bazmak]

Hi everyone,as you can see the first part of this project is complete,so you might ask why?
1 I enjoyed the project.
,it only cost me $50 for materials,everything fell into place from my original concept and if i remove the carriage and leadscrew
the woodturning lathe is returned to its original spec.
2 It has obvious limitations with the x-Y axis but can turn sufficiently accurately with the bigger capacity of 12" Swing and 18" ctres
I had in mind to see if it will swing the sieg apron so i can fit Brgs to crriage handle and improve the gear mesh.
3 Next thought/project.I was looking at a drill vice/cross slide.Can it be adapted to give the Y-Z axis.(If the dovetails and gibbs
are tweaked and bearings/grad dials fitted.) Can it be mounted on the carriage to produce a horizontal boring/milling machine ???
Will be looking into it closely but in the meantime i need to do a few checks with the lathe.Chuck runout,tailstock alignment etc
See you all soon. BAZMAK

 

[gus]

You are my hero. Converting a wood turning lathe into a metal lathe.!!!!!

 

[gus]

Hi everyone,as you can see the first part of this project is complete,so you might ask why?
1 I enjoyed the project.
,it only cost me $50 for materials,everything fell into place from my original concept and if i remove the carriage and leadscrew
the woodturning lathe is returned to its original spec.
2 It has obvious limitations with the x-Y axis but can turn sufficiently accurately with the bigger capacity of 12" Swing and 18" ctres
I had in mind to see if it will swing the sieg apron so i can fit Brgs to crriage handle and improve the gear mesh.
3 Next thought/project.I was looking at a drill vice/cross slide.Can it be adapted to give the Y-Z axis.(If the dovetails and gibbs
are tweaked and bearings/grad dials fitted.) Can it be mounted on the carriage to produce a horizontal boring/milling machine ???
Will be looking into it closely but in the meantime i need to do a few checks with the lathe.Chuck runout,tailstock alignment etc
See you all soon. BAZMAK

Engines coming out soon!!!!!

 

[bazmak]

 

[bazmak]

 

[bazmak]

Just a brief digress to limits and fits.Nothing new to all the engineers out there,but maybe enlightening to any newbies out there.
Many years ago i was advised that the cost of production rises expotentially to accuracy/tolerance.If you are making ball bearings then 1/10th thou is the norm.If you are fabricating structural steelwork then 2mm is more likely.When designing in the DO it was enforced that you
tolerance to suit the application.Open is cheap,tight is expensive.The company i worked for standardised on H7 holes with the shafts
to vary to give the required fit.(running,push,press etc.Most reamers and plug gauges etc were H7.A h7 hole combined with standard
commercial precision ground bar gave a running fit(less machining)This is why on my threads i state that 1 thou is near enough
for model engineers.If you want more precision thats ok as long as you understand that your tooling will be more expensive,
the job will take longer and you will have more scrap.Back to the lathe,when i first checked it out i did not know what to expect
but was happy with the results.You might laugh at the chuck runout for example but you get what you pay for and its good enough for what i want. I dont have a mill yet so does anyone out there have any ideas what i can do with the base model. BAZMAK

 

[bazmak]

Hi everyone i have decided to try and fit a 2 axis cross slide table.Does anyone have any advise where i can get one
USA has one 35lbs but wont ship. China ??. Only one i can find in Oz is melbourne but not cheap.I have advertised
locally for a 2nd hand one.How many guys out there are from OZ.Majority seem US and Canada. Regards BAZMAK

 

[bazmak]

Hi again,havent been doing much for a few weeks,too hot.I sympathise with the blokes who cant work
because of the cold,but we have just had a late heatwave here and i dont know which is worse
-20 or +100.We have just had 14 consecutive days of 90/100.No good in the shed,gets to 130o

If anyone sees any flash rust on my photos its from the sweat.
I have just finished a small mod to my woodworking lathe,but am no nearer to getting a cross slide table
I can get one from the USA for $150 but shipping is $200.At half the price of a mill its a no go.May buy a cheap cross slide vice
remove the vice and modify to suit.Still on the drawing board BAZMAKhttp://s1327.beta.photobucket.com/user/bazmak47/media/LS-gears01_zps9e15e243.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

 

[bazmak]

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[bazmak]

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