New member – mid 50s Zyto Lathe

[peterriversParticipant @peterrivers]

Hi all

I’m joining to share learnings. I have a Zyto that I tend to do more work on than with. Getting pretty good results on things non ferrous. Steel is a learning curve for me. Larger diameters are pretty slow and I’m working on improving surface finishes.

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

Welcome Peter. There are plenty here who will be able to offer advice on the use of a lathe. As a VERY rough guide to cutting steel, 100Feet a minute , so take the diameter and multiply by Pi or just 3. Eg 3″ dia = .785′ or.75′ /100 = 130 RPM FCBMS will ok but tough stuff will be slower and on a small lathe light cuts, 5 or 10 thou. How it looks or feels will be the best guide to depth of cut. Good luck, Noel.

[peterriversParticipant @peterrivers]

Thanks Noel!

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Welcome!

As you see, help and advice is always available.

The Zyto may be elderly, but many a good tune played on an old fiddle.

Look at the work turned out on old machines. An ex working colleague can produce better work on a 100+ year old Drummond than I can on a 2003 machine.  Which days a lot about my skill, or lack of it!

If you need face to face help, where are you located?

Learning to feed slowly and steadily is a skill to be learned, and will stand you in good stead.

As Noel says, light cuts, and with a sharp tool mounted at centre height is the way to go.

Howard

[zytooohParticipant @zytoooh]

Having only recently started a hobby machine shop of my own and using a zyto, the best 3 bits of advice I’ve found are every cut is a finishing cut lots of them we haven’t got the power or rigidity for any thing too heavy and try to reduce as much play as possible ie gib strips, head bearings, end play adjustment on the head, tool post rigidity and tool rigidity and limit stickout on work and cutting tools. Also know your steel and order grades to suit your needs, random steel is randomly awful to work with. With practice comes experience, you won’t learn anything if you don’t make anything including making scrap sometimes.

 

 

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Which Zyto is it?   A photo would be good, please!

The excellent lathes.co.uk is well worth a read if you haven’t found it already.

Advice is as already stated.   Buy “free-cutting” steel and other alloys, and be aware that scrap metal is often unsuitable.  I came badly unstuck as a beginner, because all the metal I’d collected was awful – work-hardening stainless, tough steel, soft Aluminium, and hard, powdery Brass.    All very difficult to learn on!

Switching from scrap to known metal helped enormously, not least because now I recognise awkward cuss metal, and adapt to it.  What scrap is available depends on local industry.  Not much machining done where I live, so very little suitable scrap to be had – I have to buy metal.  Others, presumably living in industrial areas, have less trouble.

Ordinary mild-steel is a structural metal. It machines reasonably well, but tends to smear, making it hard to get a good finish.  As does an unsteady hand, unsuitable cutter, cutter at the wrong height, or the RPM/depth of cut/feed-rate being a bit off.   Practice and experiment to find the trouble.  EN1A or EN1A-Pb are markedly friendly on a lathe compared to EN3,

Being relatively light, slow, and belt driven limits how quickly a Zyto can remove metal.   Might also be in poor condition, worn, corroded or mistreated by previous owners.  Or out of adjustment – loose gibs.  Is yours in need of TLC?  Condition varies from junk to ‘as new’.   We have members experienced in this type of lathe and what can be done to improve them – ask away.

Extra skill needed to overcome shortcomings, and some operations like parting-off might be impossible, but amazing what’s been done on damaged lathes by skilled operators with plenty of time!  Plenty of fun to be had!

Dave

 

 

[peterriversParticipant @peterrivers]

Thank you all for the welcome and advice. Funny how things go… since joining here with a Zyto, a Harrison L5A in good condition has come available on the local market and I’ve managed to acquire.

Currently have two lathes and looking to sell the Zyto on. Quite a difference in capability, the Harrison just eats deep cuts with carbide and leaves a beautiful finish.

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