New Metal Lathe

LexKY_Pipe · Post by **LexKY_Pipe** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:43 pm

Finally sprung for the machinist's lathe. After spending much time comparing using the following resource: http://www.littlemachineshop.com/Info/m ... ompare.php

I opted for the Micro-Mark lathe. http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.as ... t&ID=82710

So far, I'm impressed.

Post by **Tyler** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:25 pm

Congrats! Have fun!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

LexKY_Pipe · Post by **LexKY_Pipe** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:08 pm

Hey Tyler. It's always good hearing from you. How's the Greek coming?

stache · Post by **stache** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:07 pm

LexKY
Let me know how you like it. I was thinking of getting the Grizzly version but, after checking out the links you provided I may get one of the other ones that were compared.

Post by **Tyler** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:53 pm

LexKY_Pipe wrote:Hey Tyler. It's always good hearing from you. How's the Greek coming?

I put off starting it until Summer. I now have the full-time preaching gig at the church, and I wanted to start off a little more slowly in light of my new responsibilities. I am currently taking OT survey, and it is going well. Thanks for asking!

Tyler

P.S. Have you upgraded to BibleWorks 7? I love it!

josh_ford · Post by **josh_ford** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:39 am

You are a lucky man. A lathe is many moons down the road, I'm afraid. Tyler, where are you taking OT survey? I tried to learn greek once in high school, learned the alphabet and then quit. I'm in my second semester of hebrew now, though, and love it. I want to learn greek someday but it, like my lathe, are only dreams right now.

Josh

Post by **Tyler** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:42 am

http://www.otsweb.org/

The name has recently changed to Faith Seminary Oregon. I take the classes via correspondence.

Tano · Post by **Tano** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 12:34 am

Craig, is the chuck big enough to turn a good size briar?
Tano.

mahaffy · Post by **mahaffy** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 5:08 pm

Tyler, do check out VTrain (www.vtrain.net/). We're using it for the kids' Latin (with the Henley lessons), but Greek is also very usable. Well thought-out piese of software.

Post by **Tyler** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:44 pm

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll check it out.

Tyler

sethile · Post by **sethile** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:06 am

Wow Craig, that's so cool you got that. Please report back what you think once you get into it. Also what you end up doing for extra goodies (headstock and tailstock chucks, other options, etc..). I found that comparison chart last week and it's extremely helpful. I thought the MICROLUX looked like the best one to me too. And it looks like they have some excellent options for it.

The lathe is still in the dreaming stage for me, but I did get a chance to check out some lathes in person last week. Worked on a 6" Atlas, which is a great machine, but I think the 6" swing is just a little too small for stummels. I checked out the Central Mini lathe, and the 9"x20" at Harbor Fright. They both looked workable, especially the larger one. I also saw on their website they make an 8" x 12" now?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=44859
That might be interesting. Yesterday I discovered they have an old 9" Atlas in the metal sculpture shop bellow mine at school. WOW, it looks great! I might have to see about getting some time on that

Ideally I'd love something like that older 9" Atlas, if I could ever find one cheap enough and in decent enough condition. Much more likely I'll end up going with one the minis.

Greek, Hebrew, Latin? Man, that is way cool guys.... I got motivated a few years ago to start in on Greek. I managed to learn the alphabet (barely). Then got distracted... Now I've forgotten most of that :dunno: It's on the list of things I'd like to do one day... The idea of reading the Bible in the original languages is extremely compelling, but the little I did made me realize how much work it would be to get to that point 8O

LexKY_Pipe · Post by **LexKY_Pipe** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:08 pm

Tano wrote:Craig, is the chuck big enough to turn a good size briar?
Tano.

Yes, but the chuck would need some modifications to chuck briar, and the motor certainly could handle it.

LexKY_Pipe · Post by **LexKY_Pipe** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 2:14 pm

sethile wrote:Wow Craig, that's so cool you got that. Please report back what you think once you get into it. Also what you end up doing for extra goodies (headstock and tailstock chucks, other options, etc..). I found that comparison chart last week and it's extremely helpful. I thought the MICROLUX looked like the best one to me too. And it looks like they have some excellent options for it.

The lathe is still in the dreaming stage for me, but I did get a chance to check out some lathes in person last week. Worked on a 6" Atlas, which is a great machine, but I think the 6" swing is just a little too small for stummels. I checked out the Central Mini lathe, and the 9"x20" at Harbor Fright. They both looked workable, especially the larger one. I also saw on their website they make an 8" x 12" now?
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=44859

That might be interesting. Yesterday I discovered they have an old 9" Atlas in the metal sculpture shop bellow mine at school. WOW, it looks great! I might have to see about getting some time on that

Ideally I'd love something like that older 9" Atlas, if I could ever find one cheap enough and in decent enough condition. Much more likely I'll end up going with one the minis.

Greek, Hebrew, Latin? Man, that is way cool guys.... I got motivated a few years ago to start in on Greek. I managed to learn the alphabet (barely). Then got distracted... Now I've forgotten most of that :dunno: It's on the list of things I'd like to do one day... The idea of reading the Bible in the original languages is extremely compelling, but the little I did made me realize how much work it would be to get to that point 8O

You know I really wanted the 9x20 to begin with. But I already had a Jet mini lathe for stummels and decided that the 7x14 would be smaller to move if I ever needed to move, and it is plenty big for stems. If I had it to do all over again, I'd probably buy a Jet 9x20 and use it for all my lathe work--stummels and stems.

CTMachinist · Post by **CTMachinist** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 12:25 pm

Good choice on lathe - I have the Cummins mini-lathe, but I'll be making it into something similar to the Micro-Mark.

stache · Post by **stache** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 2:03 pm

CTMachinist...Are you modifying your Cummins lathe for any particular reason? I just ordered one for myself. Are you in Connecticut?

CTMachinist · Post by **CTMachinist** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:18 pm

Re: location - yes I am, in Enfield.

I'm modifying it because I dislike chatter of any kind, which it has (not much, but quite noticible to me, as I normally use a 2x10 FOOT lathe).

Also, I want a quick change toolpost, camlock tailstock, DROs, etc. Probably going to end up putting another $4-500 into the lathe before I'm done.

stache · Post by **stache** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:23 pm

I'm in the Bridgeport area and I think there's a CTM Machine shop down the street form work I thought maybe it was you. I've had limited experience with metal lathe's from my model making days. I'm anxious to see how the Cummins mini-lathe works for me.

CTMachinist · Post by **CTMachinist** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:27 pm

As a starter, clean ALL of the cosmoline (red goo) off and re-oil with a thin coating of gun oil, preferably Breakfree CLP.

The cleaning needs to include removing the chuck and gears and cleaning all of them - be sure you can put them back before removing them, the chuck is tricky.

stache · Post by **stache** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:35 pm

Thanks for the advice. Have you made any pipes yet? I'm working on #7 right now, I should be done next week if the 'Honey Do' lists gets smaller.

CTMachinist · Post by **CTMachinist** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:42 pm

I've made one out of oak, to see if I liked making pipes. I do, but I've yet to get around to buying briar!

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