Lathes??

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

Each size of lathe actually has a range of sizes that it is suited to. Jobs that are too large or too small tend to get difficult or impossible. I still have my Unimat 3, although I also have an ML7, and find that both have their place. As supplied the Unimat is let down a bit by those stupid rubber bands. Mine has had a decent toothed belt drive for about 25 years now and recently I replaced the motor with a small three phase motor with an AC controller…overkill really but the range of speed control is lovely. Since I don’t need the full power of the motor, I have arranged the controller to run the motor up to 100 Hz, this gives half the torque but lets me reach the sort of speed that is useful on a small lathe. (About 4000 rpm max at the spindle.) I can also go much slower than the standard setup, which would be more useful if it actually had screwcutting facilities. I didn’t buy the hob setup, that is a bit of a makeshift.

 

regards

John

[Axel BentellParticipant @axelbentell]

turning a 1″ peice of SS is very rare for most hobbyists, most work in cast iron and free cutting steel or brass. My Sherline can cut a 1″ peice of SS but its slow, I can remove .2mm each pass on that size I guess, even tho I havent worked in SS, I have turned that size in material from very hard old bolts. There´s a few film clips on Sherline´s home page demonstrationg the capabilities.

 

It´s a case of Money Vs. Time, what do you have most of? I estimate small machines (table top) can do 90% of all jobs I see in ME!

 

I think its a good idea to start with a Emco 3 or 4, or preferably a Sherline,  

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Sorry to keep plugging mini lathes, but I turned a shaft in mine yesterday using the 3-jaw chuck, extending it three times. I cleaned the jaws very carefully between re-settings and on the final one at 4 1/2″ the run out was barely visible on my DTI which read to 0.5 of a thou – so less than a tenth of a thou! Phew!

 

I videoed the perfomance, just for proof!

 

Neil

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