SpudFiles

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:I have a 7 inch boring bar, with a removable carbide head, I think it was some $45 off eBay.

Yea I have about 8 varis boring bars myself but starting a hole and expanding a exsisting hole are 2 different things.

Drill close to the final diameter from both sides, you don't have to worry about being perfectly centred, then go to the final diameter with the boring bar. It's boring, but it works

Also make sure to light cuts if the boring bar has a lot of unsupported length, i've seen some accidents with too heavy cuts with a boring bar in school
Other than that, certainly a must-have.

I have a decent indexable boring bar and I know the cuts must be light. However I'm going to purchase the milling attachment for my lathe so I can use large end mills.

Drill through from both ends to one size under final. When finished drilling the second end, and without disturbing the work piece...run a chucking reamer all the way through.

Hum that's an option too, haven't find one long enough though.

When using a boring bar, be sure it is sharp, keep it well coated in lots of cutting oil for cooling. Unlike tools cooled by the tool post, the bar has a long thermal path. Use the correct cutting speed. Remember to reduce speed as the diameter opens.

i can has machinist?
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A live center for your tail stock would really really help you out. You can find them on ebay for around 20 dollars. That bolt you're using is robbing power and not holding your work steady.

Now that the bug has bitten, why not splash out a couple of hundred on an actual metal lathe? Judging from your builds so far, great things can be expected of you, and it would be a shame not to tap into your potential.

Working on jake's battery



Turning out pretty nice so far, just needs some switches and stuff.

Bought myself an e-cig today, seems like I finally found a way to quit smoking



It was €10, also got 26 ml. of refill fluid for €3.

brings a whole new meaning to wood lathe

dart guy wrote:brings a whole new meaning to wood lathe

Haha yep perhaps I should call it a wooden lathe...

jrrdw wrote:A live center for your tail stock would really really help you out. You can find them on ebay for around 20 dollars. That bolt you're using is robbing power and not holding your work steady.

Actually I just ripped apart a broken electric drill somebody tossed out and got a thrust bearing... I could easily use it and some more skate bearings to make a live center. I refuse to buy anything I can make... Especially when it costs 20 dollars that I don't have

Edit: another thing I hadn't thought of before is that live centers come with that morse taper that would be hard to make a precise mount for... Whereas if I make my own I can mount it in a way that's compatible with my lathe.

The chuck that I got off that drill also will be put to use on this lathe; I'm going to mount it to the tail stock and then I can use that to hold various centers and drill bits. But before I go drilling holes I need to make a steady rest because the chuck doesn't hold stuff centered enough.

jackssmirkingrevenge wrote:Now that the bug has bitten, why not splash out a couple of hundred on an actual metal lathe? Judging from your builds so far, great things can be expected of you, and it would be a shame not to tap into your potential.

Because I don't have a couple of hundred yet

Although pretty soon (but not soon enough) I will have a rather large chunk of change that has accumulated in YouTube revenue, and about 400 bucks in gigs in November... But I'm not sure a lathe is what I'll spend it on. I'll be off at college next year so that cash could be put to much better use, as bad as I want to buy a lathe.

I'll most likely attend a school with a nice machine shop so I don't think I'll need a personal lathe but I can just picture a little Sherline sitting on a desk in my room...

Important! I'm starting machining, but where can i get blanks of solid aluminum online cheap? Any help appre.

T_Money wrote:online cheap

Not likely, transport costs will kill you. Better to look for a local dealer, maybe even a scrap merchant who sells by the pound.