Last Saturday my son and I bought a bench lathe,a 250mm x 550mm(10x22) chinese no-name. KMS brought in a few and didn't like the looks of them,so they were in the flyer. It does look really plain but it felt a little better than the King beside it,King being over twice the price. About .003" slop in the controls.We got 5" 4jaw,steady rest and fellower as well.Now we have to build the stand,tray and slash guard. Some suggestions ,would be appreciated.thx
Hints on Setting Up a Lathe
- Thread starter downwindtracker2
- Start date
You will want a sturdy, heavy stand. It is important that the lathe not be subjected to any twisting when bolted down. It would be a good idea to provide adjustments in the legs so that the lathe can be levelled. A bench could be wooden, perhaps 4x4s bolted together, cross braced, or fabricated from angle iron, square or rectangular steel tube, etc. A sheet metal chip tray could be sandwiched between the lathe and bench.
I would probably make the frame from rectangular tubing, welded and gusseted at every joint.This would be far more resistant to torquing that would angle iron.
If you have to make up a frame for it, at least you can custom fit it to you for height.I'm 6' 3" and find most lathes are too short.After a shift of lathe work, especially something like turning threads, I wind up with a stiff back in the morning.
Scott
If you have to make up a frame for it, at least you can custom fit it to you for height.I'm 6' 3" and find most lathes are too short.After a shift of lathe work, especially something like turning threads, I wind up with a stiff back in the morning.
Scott
Build or use a sturdy bench. Put a metal top on the bench, or build a chip tray under the lathe. It will pay back a thousand times, as it will keep a lot of the chips from ending up on the floor, and it will serve as a place to look, when your work drops(cutoff parts esp)....BTDT.
Do a search online for "Rollies dad's method". It is a mean of testing the parallelism of the lathe cut, with instructions for how to adjust it, by interpreting results. Cheap and easy, no high precision levels required. It follows very near the "two collars method" as laid out in the South Bend Lathes book, How To Run A Lathe, which is worth buying, but you can download it from a lot of sites.
Don't sweat over making it level. A carpenters level is plenty accurate. Adjust it to cut straight, once you have it reasonably level.
I had one lathe that had 4 bolts welded to the deck of the drip tray/stand. A nut was run down the threads of each one, then the lathe feet were placed over the bolts, and secured with another nut. It made a cheap, adjustable means of mounting the lathe, and could be used to raise it a bit, too, if one wished.
Build some storage into your stand. A couple hooks to hold the wrenches and chuck keys would be handy. A drawer or shelf to hold the chucks and followers when not in use, could be good, too.
The South Bend book shows some pictures of lathe stands that were three legged, made of round tube. A three point base will always get all three legs onto the ground in contact, where a four legged stand may not, on an uneven floor.
Build some knee room under the bench. You can use a stool to sit, and work on the lathe, if you are spending a lot of time at it.
Get some proper way lube. If you have to, mooch or buy some from a shop, or buy it from a dealer. A liter will last a very long time. Vactra way lube, Tonna AW 68, or similar. Get a small bottle of soluble cutting oil concentrate. Mix it per the directions, and apply it with a brush, when cutting mild steel. It WILL make your life better!
Steer clear of brazed carbide tools for the time being. They require a bit of work to be useful, and are expensive and short lived in the hands of a newb user. carbide insert tooling, even more expensive. Get some 10% Cobalt HSS blanks, Either 1/4 or 3/16, and a decent bench grinder, and learn to grind tools. Use a magnifying glass to examine the edges produced. Get a EZELap diamond hone, fine, to hone the edges. Look at the edges under magnification, sharp is good, except on the very tip of the tool, where a radius (very small), seen from looking down on the top, will increase both tool life, and surface finish.
I might be preaching to the choir, but this may come in handy for someone else, too!
Get a KBC catalog. It's good to know what is available, even if you end up looking for the cheap knock-off version of it.
Cheers
Trev
Do a search online for "Rollies dad's method". It is a mean of testing the parallelism of the lathe cut, with instructions for how to adjust it, by interpreting results. Cheap and easy, no high precision levels required. It follows very near the "two collars method" as laid out in the South Bend Lathes book, How To Run A Lathe, which is worth buying, but you can download it from a lot of sites.
Don't sweat over making it level. A carpenters level is plenty accurate. Adjust it to cut straight, once you have it reasonably level.
I had one lathe that had 4 bolts welded to the deck of the drip tray/stand. A nut was run down the threads of each one, then the lathe feet were placed over the bolts, and secured with another nut. It made a cheap, adjustable means of mounting the lathe, and could be used to raise it a bit, too, if one wished.
Build some storage into your stand. A couple hooks to hold the wrenches and chuck keys would be handy. A drawer or shelf to hold the chucks and followers when not in use, could be good, too.
The South Bend book shows some pictures of lathe stands that were three legged, made of round tube. A three point base will always get all three legs onto the ground in contact, where a four legged stand may not, on an uneven floor.
Build some knee room under the bench. You can use a stool to sit, and work on the lathe, if you are spending a lot of time at it.
Get some proper way lube. If you have to, mooch or buy some from a shop, or buy it from a dealer. A liter will last a very long time. Vactra way lube, Tonna AW 68, or similar. Get a small bottle of soluble cutting oil concentrate. Mix it per the directions, and apply it with a brush, when cutting mild steel. It WILL make your life better!
Steer clear of brazed carbide tools for the time being. They require a bit of work to be useful, and are expensive and short lived in the hands of a newb user. carbide insert tooling, even more expensive. Get some 10% Cobalt HSS blanks, Either 1/4 or 3/16, and a decent bench grinder, and learn to grind tools. Use a magnifying glass to examine the edges produced. Get a EZELap diamond hone, fine, to hone the edges. Look at the edges under magnification, sharp is good, except on the very tip of the tool, where a radius (very small), seen from looking down on the top, will increase both tool life, and surface finish.
I might be preaching to the choir, but this may come in handy for someone else, too!
Get a KBC catalog. It's good to know what is available, even if you end up looking for the cheap knock-off version of it.
Cheers
Trev
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I recently got a mini lathe and followed online instructions using various lapping techniques to smooth out the poor quality off shore finish of the dovetail joints. This made a HUGE difference in performance, and got rid of allot of the slop too. There are many mini-lathe pages online, so do a search if you want to improve it.
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Here is an article with some good links about mini lathe alignment.
http://www.gadgetbuilder.com/Lathe_Align.html
http://www.gadgetbuilder.com/Lathe_Align.html
