Good morning Sir, I’m just across the water from you near Hunstanton. Welcome, we’re mostly a happy bunch who do our best to help if needed. I’m a Myford man but Mostly S7s, the tri leva is an interesting way to get quick speed changes.  Best wishes. Noel.

Welcome to the party Kev, lots of help and info on here

Whoo hoo, welcome!  This one looks to be a cracker!  Please tell us more about Bell Target Shooting; isn’t it the ultimate challenge in accuracy?

Bad news though, Hardox is a difficult material, and any lathe will struggle to cut it.   Lathes and Mills prefer machinable/free-cutting alloys, or steels that are cut soft and then hardened by heat treatment.  More information on Hardox here.

A challenge!  I think HSS cutters will be too girlie, go straight to carbide or CBN, ideally taking deep cuts at high-speed..   Tough work, and a Tri-Leva, nice lathe though it is, may be too slow and underpowered.  It will fun finding out!

In the event the lathe fails, hard materials are usually ground rather than machined.   In the absence of a proper Grinding Machine, maybe extemporise with an Angle Grinder or Grinding Wheel.   My guess is a Grinding attachment mounted on the lathe would be best, they exist.   Something like an overgrown Dremel that’s precision manoeuvred by the tool-post.  I’m sure someone will know!

Dave

Welcome to the Forum.

As Noel says, plenty of folk willing to help and share their experience.

Since you a little rusty, it might be worth buying and studying books, such as

Stan Bray “Basic Lathework”, or Harold Hall ” Lathework, A Complete Course”

Then, if you want to do more (Not everyone makes locos, or traction engines, some of us make workshop tooling, or things like clocks or instruments.)

I always advise gaining experience by making simple tools. You gain experience, familiarity with the machine, and a few simple tools that can be used for many years afterwards, on other jobs.

But by all means join a club, to meet other enthusiasts, and to learn from them

Howard