Metal Lathes....
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Rudy Vey
Member
I use a metal lathe for my Titanium pens.
Chuck Key
Member
btboone
Member
I do, but my lathe has its own tools and follows the contours by computer.
Ligget
Member
Bruce, some of us are not as rich as you are! LOL[
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btboone
Member
If the lathe didn't pay for itself, I wouldn't have it to play with. []
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bob393
Member
I bet that's true too!
Originally posted by btboone
<br />If the lathe didn't pay for itself, I wouldn't have it to play with. [
I turn all of my pens on a metal lathe. It is ideal for straight cuts. I use a piece of flat bar in the tool holder for my tool rest for hand tools.
B. Corder
TN
It is great for making my own bushings as well. I got my cheap a at an equipment auction. It is older, but it still works great.
B. Corder
TN
It is great for making my own bushings as well. I got my cheap a at an equipment auction. It is older, but it still works great.
I suppose if I had the money, I would have bought a metal lathe too.
But if you aren't going to use all of the features you have to pay for, I can't see any advantage. There is little that you can't do with a decent sized wood lathe. One of my best investments was to buy a compound table and mount it over the bed. There is a reasonably good pic in my Spiral Jig pics. I use it for cutting flat facets, tapers and making bushes from scrap brass,etc etc. If you get one, you won't regret it and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Oh, BTW, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my Cyber Buddies. Joining the IAP was probably an even BETTER investment[]
But if you aren't going to use all of the features you have to pay for, I can't see any advantage. There is little that you can't do with a decent sized wood lathe. One of my best investments was to buy a compound table and mount it over the bed. There is a reasonably good pic in my Spiral Jig pics. I use it for cutting flat facets, tapers and making bushes from scrap brass,etc etc. If you get one, you won't regret it and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Oh, BTW, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my Cyber Buddies. Joining the IAP was probably an even BETTER investment[
]
btboone
Member
The big thing that a metal lathe does that a wood lathe doesn't is make threads. This allows you to make metal pen parts instead of having to rely totaly on kit parts.
PenWorks
Member
So that's why I bought it [:0] I guess you have to turn it on to make threads [
]Mikey
Member
Wish I had a metal lathe. Coul make all sorts of parts, bushings, chucks, and even use it to bore holes through stuff with total accuracy. Too bad the one I want cost a few grand.
btboone
Member
The little "toy" ones cost around $400 and do just about anything a larger ones do, just on a smaller scale.
wade
Member
Check out www.sherline.com. I have one that I use for metal stuff. It works great. I got started woodturning with this as well, but quickly switched to using my jet mini. Now I have a delta 46-765X (16" x 42").
Wade
Wade
M
Mudder
Guest
I can thread on my wood lathe. [
]My threading jig can do 8 threads per inch and 16 threads per inch.
It would be a little tough to thread a pen cap tho. [
]
jcollazo
Member
Mudder, which threading jig do you use?
Wanna see some really hi-tech thread cutting jigs? And for internal and external threads?????
....
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....wait for it.... there good....
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....wait for it.... there good....
Paul in OKC
Member
I used to have one of the Harbor Freight 7x10 ones. Worked well for small metal items and some wood working.
Chuck Key
Member
Thread chasers are also available for use with wood. I picked this one up recently that does both inside and outside threads in one combo tool.
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Set up for inside threads:
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Set up for outside threads:
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Chuckie
Set up for inside threads:
Set up for outside threads:
Chuckie
bradbn4
Member
Not that I am looking to buy one - but how much add ons does it take to lets say make a pen nib replacement for a Junior Statesmen II?
Or for that matter - how much additional hardware to make the metal parts out of soft metal? - - all but the clip?
Bradbn4 - still having fun in Colorado
Chuck Key
Member
A link for you metal lathe users:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGq-9NNmr3o
Chuckie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGq-9NNmr3o
Chuckie
M
Mudder
Guest
Truth be told the jig belongs to my club but it's an early Binnie Klein that has been modified.
btboone
Member
Brad, you would need a turning tool, V shaped threading tool, drill chuck, and maybe a couple other minor tools. To do internal threads, you could use a tap or an internal threading tool.
bradbn4
Member
CyberCNC's FastCut-1540
As a tool junkie - that is some hot footage on the lathe. There was a follow up video on the metal lathe/cnc machine making a nice screwdriver - - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpAAmxVUyxs
So from what I understand that a large lathe would not be necessary - and the total costs for add on tools should not exceed the cost of the lathe? Or the tools in line with what a good wood chuck can cost - often as much as the small lathe cost.
There were some old Fisher space pens that I just knew I could build better than they could - and with the ability to design tip / coupler and a few other odds and ends - its something worth thinking about. Right now I think I would be way over my budget - but worth kicking around.
Thanks for the info- quite helpful.
Bradbn4
(I bet the CNC software cost more than my new lathe that I bought on amazon)
As a tool junkie - that is some hot footage on the lathe. There was a follow up video on the metal lathe/cnc machine making a nice screwdriver - - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpAAmxVUyxs
So from what I understand that a large lathe would not be necessary - and the total costs for add on tools should not exceed the cost of the lathe? Or the tools in line with what a good wood chuck can cost - often as much as the small lathe cost.
There were some old Fisher space pens that I just knew I could build better than they could - and with the ability to design tip / coupler and a few other odds and ends - its something worth thinking about. Right now I think I would be way over my budget - but worth kicking around.
Thanks for the info- quite helpful.
Bradbn4
(I bet the CNC software cost more than my new lathe that I bought on amazon)
btboone
Member
Brad, the lathe you showed is a special type called a Swiss Turning Center. They are very expensive. This is the kind where the tools stay around 1/32" from the collet, and the stock is pushed through. They have live tooling, twin tool slides with back turning capability, and have a sub spindle and parts catcher. A bunch of operations can take place simultneously. I had a low end one once like the one shown, and it was $460,000.
Fot the small lathes, tool holders might be $40 to $70 and inserts are around $15 each. It all might add up to a few hundred bucks.
Fot the small lathes, tool holders might be $40 to $70 and inserts are around $15 each. It all might add up to a few hundred bucks.
M
Mudder
Guest
Just for giggles;
We use EdgeCam and I believe that our initial purchase was in the neighborhood of $6,000. I just wrote the purchase order for our yearly maintenance (for updated and tech support)and that was $2675.00 for 2007. This stuff is not cheap! Our 3-D Design software is Solidworks and it cost $5000 a seat initally and $1250.00 per seat for yearly maintenance. Again, not cheap but essential to our business. I can take a Solidworks object and drope it into edgecam and spit out code for our machining centers, cnc lathe or the cnc millers in a matter of minutes. Thus stuff would have taken weeks to do years ago.
seht
Member
I want 1, make it 2 I don't like to wait.
btboone
Member
Those Swiss machines have so many axes that I had to program by hand. It had something like 6 or 8 axes. I drew the inside of the machine to scale in CAD to be sure tools would all clear each other when machining. They would sometimes come within about 1/16" from hitting each other. It was very tight in there. I couldn't watch when proving out programs; the reflexes were not fast enough. You had to just have faith in the program and push the button. With mine, it had to do all the turning in one pass. It ended up stalling out a lot in titanium and causing all kinds of havoc. My intention was to make an entire line of titanium bolts, but the machine couldn't cut the parts. It would constantly break a tool and then break all the tools after it because the first tool hadn't cut its part. Those tools were darned expensive on that thing. I finally had the machine company take the thing back after months of frustration and gnashing of teeth. I lost my patooty on that machine. It would have more efficient to just burn suitcases full of cash and be done with it. The School of Hard Knocks strikes again.
bradbn4
Member
If I sold my new lathe for what I paid for - I could afford the tech support for one year. Amazon had a deal for free shipping + around 200 dollars off on the powermatic lathe. Good software is never cheap and often cheap software is to expensive to put up with.
I knew that other lathe was high in price - I just love to watch it do it's thing. . . for a toy - I guess I would have to win the lotto a few times.
bradbn4 - still having fun in the snow in Colorado
btboone
Member
I love going to the machine shows. You see parts like those screwdrivers made in seconds by some really amazing machines. I already have in mind the next lathe I would want. I just need to find a way to get it in and power it. []
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