Newbie needs advice about a lathe

[Old Guy]

To others, what is the file size limit for this forum? I'm able to upload a 4.4 MB (see following). OldGuy apparently got an error message but his device might be creating bigger photo files than my 3 year old iPhone.

View attachment 139955

Craig

Hi craig I'm taking it that you do the uploading direct from your iPhone maybe that's my problem I'm doing it from my mac and maybe it increases the size of the picture to suit the mac and when I am using the mac I don't get any of the windows you are showing the only thing that comes up in the file window when you click on the photo is share not export. My iPhone is well over 3yrs old I bought it second hand from a good friend when he upgraded for what he would have got for it as a trade in
I think I might try to do it directly from the iPhone and see what happens
Thanks Craig

 

[Old Guy]

There's just one other thing all things electronic seem to have a pathological hatred for me or so it seems

only joking

 

[Old Guy]

A quick look at what I think is your lathe's supposed schematic, and it appears that the Forward/Reverse/0 switch is intended to let you switch the lathe between running (either direction) and stopped, without needing to manipulate the covered/locked Start switch. The instruction manual (if I've got the right one) seems to agree with this.

https://www.chesterhobbystore.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/DB10-Lathe.pdf
It looks like the covered "Start" switch is supposed to engage the electronics/brain, and the forward/reverse/0 switch is supposed to engage the motor, if the electronics/brain are engaged.

Hi willray
I decided to check a few things on the lathe yesterday like if the chuck guard being up or down made any difference to the on off situation and if you lift the guard you then have to restart the lathe with the start button, and also if you go from forward to reverse it turns the lathe off and you have to restart it on the start button again do you think the lathe might be wired wrong, that is the correct wiring diagram as the one in my manual but I don't fully understand it so can't comment on how its all supposed to work
Thanks for your input John

 

[Old Guy]

I have just opened one of the pics on my mac and gone into get info and this is what came up

iPhone 8 plus
wide camera 28mm-f1.8
3024x4032 780 KB

as for taking the picture i just got the phone on camera and took the pic so I have no idea if that is big or small

 

[Old Guy]

Well here's a numpty attempt at uploading a few pics I don't know if its still going to be there when I post it the problem has been that some pics go but others get the too big message even though when you get the info on them they are all the same size ie 1.7mb and the vids not having it at all

 

[Old Guy]

That was an attempt to show how bad a finish I got on my first attempt at machining a bar of indeterminate metal

 

[Old Guy]

The vid is 56.2 mb

 

[trlvn]

Hi craig I'm taking it that you do the uploading direct from your iPhone maybe that's my problem I'm doing it from my mac and maybe it increases the size of the picture to suit the mac and when I am using the mac I don't get any of the windows you are showing the only thing that comes up in the file window when you click on the photo is share not export. My iPhone is well over 3yrs old I bought it second hand from a good friend when he upgraded for what he would have got for it as a trade in
I think I might try to do it directly from the iPhone and see what happens
Thanks Craig

No, I'm not uploading directly from the iPhone. Each of the many screenshots I've posted show clickable buttons--not tap targets as one would see in iOS apps.

Craig

 

[trlvn]

Well here's a numpty attempt at uploading a few pics I don't know if its still going to be there when I post it the problem has been that some pics go but others get the too big message even though when you get the info on them they are all the same size ie 1.7mb and the vids not having it at all

Congratulations, you posted a message with photos attached. How did you do it?

Craig

 

[trlvn]

I have just opened one of the pics on my mac and gone into get info and this is what came up

iPhone 8 plus
wide camera 28mm-f1.8
3024x4032 780 KB

as for taking the picture i just got the phone on camera and took the pic so I have no idea if that is big or small

What application are you using to open the pics on your Mac?

How do photos get from the iPhone to the Mac? Do you connect a cable or did someone set you up with iCloud Photo Sharing?

I've been trying to help but you've never given enough specific information for anyone to understand exactly what is going on and where you are running into snags. You might want to look into some basic training. If you happen to be near an Apple Store, you can set up a one-on-one session:

https://www.apple.com/shop/personal-session
If your Mac is still within the support period, I believe these are available at no charge. I think there are also videos and whatnot available via the Internet but I don't know a specific one to recommend.

Craig

 

[Old Guy]

Congratulations, you posted a message with photos attached. How did you do it?

Craig

Hi Craig
Well I started by clicking the attach files button in the post reply box that opened a window with a load of places to choose from down the left hand side ie recent, documents, downloads, etc and right at the bottom after scrolling right down was photos I clicked on that and it connected to my photos I picked a pic i wanted to use and there was an upload button I pressed that and it started to download to the box in the posting box I did this with three of the pics that are there but when I tried some other pics it came up with the too big message I have noticed that a multiple pic button appears under the pics do I need to click that if I'm uploading a lot of pics. Hope that explains things

John

 

[Old Guy]

What application are you using to open the pics on your Mac?

How do photos get from the iPhone to the Mac? Do you connect a cable or did someone set you up with iCloud Photo Sharing?

I've been trying to help but you've never given enough specific information for anyone to understand exactly what is going on and where you are running into snags. You might want to look into some basic training. If you happen to be near an Apple Store, you can set up a one-on-one session:

https://www.apple.com/shop/personal-session
If your Mac is still within the support period, I believe these are available at no charge. I think there are also videos and whatnot available via the Internet but I don't know a specific one to recommend.

Craig

Originally I was just opening my photos by clicking on the photos icon on the bottom row on the mac

The photos are usually put on to the mac by connecting a cable but I do know that they automatically transfer to the mac I think that might be by the wifi connection but I'm not sure on that

 

[Old Guy]

Hi again Craig
About the iCloud thing, we bought a new laptop a few yrs back and there may have been a free iCloud usage deal with it or maybe it was included in the price that we were charged but we don't really need or want to use it, but that might be how the pics I take on my iPhone transfer on to the Mac automatically.
My wife recently got an Email saying that our iCloud contract had Expired and it would be £50 to renew it so she cancelled it
John

 

[Old Guy]

And yet again Craig
I have at last found the windows you have put screen shots of there seems to be a certain order you have to go in to get the windows to open I will now continue with the rest of the advice you have given me

Thanks again John

PS I did start by saying I am a pc numpty

 

[willray]

Hi willray
I decided to check a few things on the lathe yesterday like if the chuck guard being up or down made any difference to the on off situation and if you lift the guard you then have to restart the lathe with the start button, and also if you go from forward to reverse it turns the lathe off and you have to restart it on the start button again...

Hi John,

The (not terribly detailed) schematic does show a whole-system-shutdown switch in the Forward/Reverse/Stop block, so I suspect that what you're seeing is the correct behavior.

I would expect it to not shut down if you go Forward - off - Forward, but to shut down completely and require a restart if you go Forward - (past) off - Reverse (or vice versa). The reason for that is because reversing single-phase motors isn't as easy as reversing three-phase motors, and you really don't want to throw the motor into reverse while it's still spinning forwards. Disabling the system and requiring a restart between them seems like a reasonable safety approach.

If it shuts the system completely down every time you move to off from Forward, even when you don't try to go past off to Reverse, I think that would be maddening. Of course I also think box cutters that require me to hold the blade open to use them are maddening, and lawn tractors that shut off every time I go over a bump, and...

With respect to your turning finish, please don't take this the wrong way, but --- from your questions it sounds like you really don't know much about the carbide tooling you used, the steel you were turning, etc. Given that, it's not terribly surprising your surface finish is less than beautiful. Even people who know exactly what they should be, and are doing, sometimes get crap finishes.

From the limited photos, it looks to me like that might be stainless you were turning? Without a perfect setup stainless usually turns about as nicely as a pink-pearl pencil eraser.

If that's not stainless, my first bet would be that your tool height was off, or something wasn't adequately rigid, and you chipped your tool almost immediately. A teensy chip on the cutting edge will often give you a torn-looking finish like that on mild steel.

Best of luck!
Will

 

[Old Guy]

This is one of the pics that wouldn't upload I have done it the way you showed and it seems to be ok there might be life in the old dog yet YIPPEE

 

[trlvn]

there seems to be a certain order you have to go in

That would be why I gave you step-by-step instructions!

Anyway, glad you seem to able to post some pictures now. I'll let someone else write up how to prepare a video in a format suitable to upload to the web site.

Craig

 

[Old Guy]

Hi John,

The (not terribly detailed) schematic does show a whole-system-shutdown switch in the Forward/Reverse/Stop block, so I suspect that what you're seeing is the correct behavior.

I would expect it to not shut down if you go Forward - off - Forward, but to shut down completely and require a restart if you go Forward - (past) off - Reverse (or vice versa). The reason for that is because reversing single-phase motors isn't as easy as reversing three-phase motors, and you really don't want to throw the motor into reverse while it's still spinning forwards. Disabling the system and requiring a restart between them seems like a reasonable safety approach.

If it shuts the system completely down every time you move to off from Forward, even when you don't try to go past off to Reverse, I think that would be maddening. Of course I also think box cutters that require me to hold the blade open to use them are maddening, and lawn tractors that shut off every time I go over a bump, and...

With respect to your turning finish, please don't take this the wrong way, but --- from your questions it sounds like you really don't know much about the carbide tooling you used, the steel you were turning, etc. Given that, it's not terribly surprising your surface finish is less than beautiful. Even people who know exactly what they should be, and are doing, sometimes get crap finishes.

From the limited photos, it looks to me like that might be stainless you were turning? Without a perfect setup stainless usually turns about as nicely as a pink-pearl pencil eraser.

If that's not stainless, my first bet would be that your tool height was off, or something wasn't adequately rigid, and you chipped your tool almost immediately. A teensy chip on the cutting edge will often give you a torn-looking finish like that on mild steel.

Best of luck!
Will

Hi willray
The f/r switch turns the machine of as soon as you go to off which like you say is fair enough as you wouldn't want to whizz through from f to r if you were doing 2000 RPM

No offence taken about my turning skills as this is the first time I have attempted to turn a piece of bar. I started with the carbide tool because this happened to be mounted in the tool holder when I purchased the lathe, I tried a light cut to start but I believe that carbide tools prefer a more aggressive cut to give a better finish I do suspect like you say that the tool height might have a lot to do with the poor finish I don't believe that the tip is damaged but I might be wrong of course I will inspect it more closely.I did re set the height of the tool but this hasn't improved matters at all.
I bought a set of ready ground HSS tools but had no joy with these either they do seem to have a very sharp pointed cutting edge and I believe a very slightly rounded cutting edge can give a better finish.
The metal is definitely not stainless as it had a very rough surface to start with which in itself might not have helped the tool.
Its all a learning curve and it looks like it might be a big one
John

 

[Old Guy]

That would be why I gave you step-by-step instructions!

Anyway, glad you seem to able to post some pictures now. I'll let someone else write up how to prepare a video in a format suitable to upload to the web site.

Craig

I apologies if I have offended you I have alway thought that who ever invented computers spent a long long time working out the most difficult and illogical way to do anything on them and is laughing at us all, this might be born out by the absolutely enormous size of the manuals that used to come with the early computers.
I thank you again for all your help

John

 

[trlvn]

I apologies if I have offended you I have alway thought that who ever invented computers spent a long long time working out the most difficult and illogical way to do anything on them and is laughing at us all, this might be born out by the absolutely enormous size of the manuals that used to come with the early computers.
I thank you again for all your help

John

Offended? Not at all. It was a tad frustrating, though, that after I put a fair amount of time and effort into preparing step-by-step instructions that you took a few tries before you actually followed the instructions step-by-step!

Nonetheless, all's well that ends well. Glad you got to a point where things are working.

Craig