Originally posted by btboone
<br />I do, but my lathe has its own tools and follows the contours by computer.
Originally posted by btboone
<br />If the lathe didn't pay for itself, I wouldn't have it to play with. []
Originally posted by btboone
<br />The big thing that a metal lathe does that a wood lathe doesn't is make threads.
Originally posted by btboone
<br />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.
I used to have one of the Harbor Freight 7x10 ones. Worked well for small metal items and some wood working.Originally posted by btboone
<br />The little "toy" ones cost around $400 and do just about anything a larger ones do, just on a smaller scale.
Originally posted by btboone
<br />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.
Originally posted by jcollazo
<br />Mudder, which threading jig do you use?
Originally posted by bradbn4
<br />(I bet the CNC software cost more than my new lathe that I bought on amazon)
Originally posted by Chuck Key
<br />A link for you metal lathe users:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGq-9NNmr3o
Chuckie
Originally posted by Mudder
<br />Originally posted by bradbn4
<br />(I bet the CNC software cost more than my new lathe that I bought on amazon)
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.