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I got bored....mostly machining content for no damn good reason

Turbocharged400sbc

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Made 3/16 6061 phone stand.
Fuck yer wood etsy stand....
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Turbocharged400sbc

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I have revised that phone stand design to make it so that you can stab it with your finger and not have it tip over backwards.... it was fine if you're gentle but as a mechanic/machinist/hack with heavy calluses I end up using my knuckles most of the time.

Finally got around to this.... I said screw it and I'm making the top plate for a 4 barrel and I'm going to do a 2 barrel adapter plate on top of it for now.

I figure I'll likely come across a 4barrel Holley I can toss on in place of the 2 barrel Motorcraft before I finish making a 460 efi using a 3800 pcm

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BS ISF

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Gamble

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well i did it. I bought a cnc lathe. It's a baby sherline. But I think it's good enough to learn on. Ideally Id love a chucker lathe but maybe in a few years after I learn this. I do want another one as manual but no rush on that. Gotta make room in the garage for this
This guy had it listed for 3k. I figured with tax I'd be near 3300 and he would be 2600 after fees. So I offered him 2650 outside of ebay and he took it. Should be a complete turn key setup.
No I need to figure out how to draw stuff in fusion for a lathe, program it and make stuff. no idea where to start

here is everything included. i priced it new. the lathe and controller are 2400 alone with shipping/tax. plus the qctp is 365, plus everything else. seemed like a good deal to me
 

Mr_Roboto

Doing the jobs nobody wants to
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It's......cute. 0xa tool holder I'm guessing? The steady rest will be your best friend since it looks as if it doesn't have a through hole. I'd think you're doing aluminum at best just because of the look rigidity wise. I may stand corrected with it being a CNC, but man I'd think you'd have a lot of very shallow passes doing steel. I'd like more rigidity in my Atlas even to be honest.

How does the CNC hand backlash? On my clapped out Atlas it's um interesting. I don't feel quite like I have the skill yet to really deal with it, although it's getting better.
 

Gamble

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May 23, 2015
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It's......cute. 0xa tool holder I'm guessing? The steady rest will be your best friend since it looks as if it doesn't have a through hole. I'd think you're doing aluminum at best just because of the look rigidity wise. I may stand corrected with it being a CNC, but man I'd think you'd have a lot of very shallow passes doing steel. I'd like more rigidity in my Atlas even to be honest.

How does the CNC hand backlash? On my clapped out Atlas it's um interesting. I don't feel quite like I have the skill yet to really deal with it, although it's getting better.
Yeah it's super small. I only plan on doing aluminum anyway
there is a guy online with a taig cnc lathe which is not much bigger than this making titanium pens. confoundedmachine.com now he has a bigger lathe
I talked to them and they said their leadscrew has something like .001 backlash per 3" or something like that but he said he was almost a ballscrew. They make them in house in usa.
here is factory tour video with shit sound. I just skipped around but basically they use a lot of their own machines to make parts so that inspires a lot of confidence.


I guess the guy that makes the 0xa uses sherline equipment too. https://tryally.com/qctp-quick-change-tool-post
I don't think much has changed in these since 1974. Their ballscrew chucker lathe is $3500 with no chuck, no tools, nothing. Their ballscrew with Masso controller is like $6-8k. So I guess they are known for being pretty damn accurate but just small.

haven't seen many of this guys videos but everyone seems to love them and the quality. he uses the same machines

so idk. it's something to get me started I guess. dont get me wrong would love a huge 9x20 grizzly or something but this fits my space. or it will once I clean up lol
 

Mr_Roboto

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That's pretty damn wild the design goes back that far, and awesome they "eat their own dog food" so to put it. Sounds like it's solid for the size, using them for production evokes confidence since your or I would have a fraction of the hours on anything we did probably. Just like most machine tools they work if you know the limits.

I'd have something bigger myself if I had space for it. The Atlas is about as big as I'd feel safe getting into my basement. Wish I had root cellar doors I'd smuggle in something bigger.

I also feel like even the 10X36 I have is too big for some things, really wish I had something small like that. It may well also be that my skills aren't there for doing it yet either/I'm misisng some tooling like a follow rest.

Does that actually have a through hole? If so how big? You mentioned a feeder as well, so I'd think so.
 

Gamble

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May 23, 2015
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That's pretty damn wild the design goes back that far, and awesome they "eat their own dog food" so to put it. Sounds like it's solid for the size, using them for production evokes confidence since your or I would have a fraction of the hours on anything we did probably. Just like most machine tools they work if you know the limits.

I'd have something bigger myself if I had space for it. The Atlas is about as big as I'd feel safe getting into my basement. Wish I had root cellar doors I'd smuggle in something bigger.

I also feel like even the 10X36 I have is too big for some things, really wish I had something small like that. It may well also be that my skills aren't there for doing it yet either/I'm misisng some tooling like a follow rest.

Does that actually have a through hole? If so how big? You mentioned a feeder as well, so I'd think so.
.405 through hole

Id like a manual like one of these

I took a manual machine class and we had a huge clausing lathe, I think 10x36. I would love something like that but it scares me to death after seeing videos. I did watch my teacher take a 1/4" doc on it and was like WOAH

Like all my machines they are way more machines and will be forever more than my skillset. lol

Also taig sucks at customer service and sherline is a bit better. The vp of marketing spent a good 20min on the phone with me answering my dumb questions and they have a ton of videos on their site. I like how they have a mach3, or 4 controller, linuxCNC controller, Masso controller and they are coming out with a centroid acorn controller too.
Also the fact that they have a bar feeder for the tiny lathe is pretty fucking cool: https://www.sherline.com/product/pneumatic-bar-feeder/#description
And a lever collet closer: https://www.sherline.com/product/1150-lever-collet-closer/#description


Check out the site. some cool shit. they said they won't make anything larger because china has crowded that market already
 

Mr_Roboto

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Well, fuck. I had the keyway go out on my lead screw shaft collar so I made another one and didn't think much of it being a 3d printed part. Pretty sure the lead screw was bound up at the end and the torque was retransmitted back to the spindle and first gear. I cleaned some derbis out, added some grease and it seems fine now. Tempted to go to some form of tapered roller bearing conversion.

This is really the first trouble from pot metal change gears.
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Mr_Roboto

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Still haven't gotten around to getting my threading fixed. Need to do so pretty badly at this point. Frustrated with the spindle threading being gommed up etc. Thinking about another spindle from ebay at some point, but not right now. I will say I'd love to do a spindle that would convert this to some sort of QD lathe. Neither my skills nor equipment are there yet however.

That out of the way, I did do a bit of messing around with it. I had a 1/2" bolt in the tool post and I never really liked the setup. I felt like it left something to be desired for rigidity. The AXA tool post came with a 14mm stud that didn't fit my 50+ and likely 70+ year old Atlas altogether well. My solution was to turn the 14mm end of the stud off and thread it for 1/2. No it's certainly not as good as a 14mm stud all the way down, but it's still likely an improvement.

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I call this the poor man's threading die holder. It worked well. I'm thinking I'll get a 1" diameter socket and do the exact same thing to a chunk of hex stock I have here too that I can use for running taps in. If I were doing a longer run, I'd probably end up getting a deep well socket out. I just put on the threading gears and let it do its thing then stopped it as appropriate.
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I also did a firing pin for a project today. 3/16 for about 1.75", 1/16 on the tip. I still can't believe it'll do this. The material was grade 8 bolt, it seems really tough even with the carbide. I had the RPMs up which improved quality some, but still not spectacular. Need to figure something out here. I may need a follow rest truthfully. I have some cam followers I never did anything with....
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Mr_Roboto

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I keep breaking carbide inserts when I'm trying to do threading. gah, this is driving me fucking batty. Any suggestions? I'm trying to do 16tpi on a 1.1" diameter piece approximately. It's really frustrating. I'm trying to use a 60 degree tool on the outer threads and am going to have to order some more inserts for the inner threading tool I have. Just about to say fuck all this and try to cut a piece of HSS to do it with.
 

Mr_Roboto

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This is probably one of the tighter pieces I have ever turned. I used a snap gauge to mic the tube and turn this down. It is not press for but it was easier to insert after it cooled vs before it was.
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I am thinking say fuck it and get an M28 tap and die instead of bothering with trying to cut threads.
 

PJx5x

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Sep 29, 2005
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Guess I get to join in on this thread finally...

Don’t have a VFD yet to run the spindle so I’ve just been playing with the Sony Windows 95 CNC. I have learned how to program basic shapes and the bed moves as it should. Pretty cool

I’d like to learn how to actually import g code from a CAM software based on a model but that’s a problem for later. I don’t know how to even transfer that yet since it only has a floppy drive lol

I was able to get the head rotated to get the mill under my garage door, but the worm gear is broke and won’t go back up. Fail. Need to figure out how to change that, since my engine hoist legs won’t fit around the pallet

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