Kyle gets the mini lathe home....

wrote:
On Aug 17, 12:21 pm, "Morgans" wrote:
"Dan" wrote

. There are videos on youtube that show one how to do basic work.
Good point! I had never thought of that!

I had unlimited access to a full sized Taiwan knock-off for a while at
school, and nobody knew anything about running it, so I taught myself a few
things. Since the ag teacher that had it in his shop didn't know how to use
it, it went off to surplus sales.

I made a few adapters for some scaffolding, and a few other machine parts,
and got so I was not totally incompetent, but I knew I was incompetent
enough to not want to make anything on it for an airplane! g

I might have to get a small (but not too small) lathe sometime in the next
year or two, and get with someone that can teach me how to properly use it
to make some things my life would depend on. Even some self study books
would go a long way toward learning some good basics, and then go from there
with some more advanced learning.

I could probably get into a machine shop class at the local community
college. They seem to have a pretty good shop, but I don't know anything
about the teacher.

And yes, I could see how you could get hooked, in a hurry!
--
Jim in NC

I got spoiled by 12 years of running decent lathes and
other stuff for a living in the machine shop, and my own 13 x 36 at
home. Made up to $40 an hour with that one. Then we moved and I sold
all that stuff and now, in the shop at work, we have an ancient South
Bend 9" belt-driven machine that is horrible, and a Bridgeport knee
mill that's wonderful. One of these days I'd like to get another
Taiwanese lathe at home, not one of those little tiny Chinese toy
lathes. My projects tend to be too big for machines like that, and
light lathes can't maintain accuracy because they flex too much under
load.

Dan


A big lathe can do tiny work also, but it's not a warm fuzzy feeling
to turn a small object next a huge chuck. If it was up to me I'd have
one of each.

The machine shop at Eglin AFB had lathe with something like a 4 foot
bed. I never asked what they used it for.

A show on television showed a lathe turning a drive shaft for an
aircraft carrier. Now that was a tad too large for me.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired