How to make money with a small metal lathe

How to make money with a small metal lathe

Posted: Statek Date of post: 27.06.2017

Lathe I started off making parts for the submarines with a Mini-Lathe. While this is most likely the least used tool in my shop it is one of the most indispensable for making parts that seal with o-rings, the odd PVC fitting, a perfectly round hole in a jig or for just polishing a cylinder. It took a few years but it actually paid for itself. Starting small is a great idea, and if you move up you'll still have the small one that you can let the friends and family use.

If you want to save money then visit your local scrap yards. I needed stainless steel round bar in order to make wheels for the boats ballast sled and found a 1. The sled will weigh over 1 ton, and weight is a plus so stainless steel made sense but it is a lot harder to work with than aluminum.

Surprisingly you can cut it with the same HSS steel bits used for aluminum, but is it necessary to sharpen them frequently.

I gave up on facing the outside of the bar and just settled for getting it close to parallel to the bed. Each cut needs to remove a piece least as thick as paper. This will often come off in a continuous ribbon of steel. The bad thing is that the deep cuts mean that the surface will not be very smooth and a file will not do much to help, but I'm making wheels and not pistons or valves.

Long enough to get snagged in the chuck and turn your lathe into a ban saw. I made the mistake of trying to clear one of these long shavings with my bare hand.

About the time I grabbed it, the other end got tangled in the jaws. I still have my finger, but I don't have any feeling in it. Now I always either shut down the lathe or clear the shavings with a screw driver or brush. I sometimes wear gloves but it goes against common advise which stays you should not wear gloves, long sleeve shirts, rings, watches or other jewelry that might get tangled in the lathe or work piece.

A good suggestion came to me from a real machinist who pointed out that a groove type cutting tool would eliminate the problem by causing the shavings to break up into short pieces. It's well worth pursuing while you still have fingers to turn the pages of the " Machinery's Handbook ". No telling how long it would go if I would only stick to cutting aluminum. The mini lathe can be converted into a mini mill.

Details are on Iibf forex course Al's site: It's not a complete waste of time if you are only going to need a mill infrequently and only on small items.

how to make money with a small metal lathe

Otherwise, it's a better idea to save your money and invest in a real mill. I finally settled on a top hatch design. It's the most critical part of an ambient submarine because unlike a normal 1 atmosphere submarine, this hatch wants to blow outward and not inward.

how to make money with a small metal lathe

For this reason I was glad to discover that it is not too inconvenient to have the hatch open inward. But I did want the hatch to be quick opening and able to be opened from both the inside and outside. On the inside a wheel turns and drives four bars into slanted openings.

how to make money with a small metal lathe

This motions forces the hatch upward, sealing it against a neoprene gasket. Each of the four stock market program c++ connects to the center wheel with a pin that is held in place with a snap ring. In short you need to pay attention to the amount of compression applied to an o-ring.

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Harbor Freight sells a kit of o-rings that are. The width of an o-ring is a measurement of the rings cross-section. If the o-ring is going to seal on a shaft or axis that moves then it is dynamic and if it is.

If the shaft does not move or it is static then it needs to be compressed In each cast the groove depth is. Actually a hair deeper, up to. The groove width is. An exception can be made for hatch rings where you want the top of the groove a bit smaller than the width of the o-ring so the o-ring will be held in place when the hatch is open. For the top hatch can you make money fishing for tuna shaft is 1.

Since how to make money with a small metal lathe o-ring is. Unfortunately we had to build the parts and hold them in place before noticing the obvious problem. This design lost the external handle if access to the cabin must be done from the outside, it will have to be done through one of the bottom hatches. That will likely be better anyway as opening the top hatch inward will exposed the cabin to flooding.

And even with the submarine on the bottom it is still possible to fit through the lower hatches.

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The shaft and the bushing need to be sealed with an o-ring. Since the bolt or shaft moves up and down I can not just simply cut a groove in it. Then just the square up the last. Finally the end of the bit, and the outside edge of the tip can be ground so the tip is finished dimensions.

Then it was only a matter of measuring the travel of the cut using a dial caliper. You can buy or make a grinding wheel that fits onto the tool post, but if your not looking for perfection, just hand holding the grinder works great. In the photo to the left I am making an adapter to attach the drive shaft to the flywheel of the diesel engine. Once centered in the 4 jaw chuck, the lathe is brought up to full speed and the grinder is fitted with an abrasive cut-off wheel.

After a few minutes of sparks flying the plate is round to within hundredths of an inch.

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The Grizzly 12x36 comes with a Series tool post. You'll need to know that when you go and buy additional tool holders. The tailstock has a 3 morse taper.

The left and right hand carbide insert tool holders that come with this lathe are Grizzly part numbers: The carbide inserts are G and G The tread cutting tool is the G and the treading bits are G Metal Lathe How-To Links: Grinding Your Own Lathe Tools YouTube: Turn Wright Machine Works YouTube: Lathe Tool Supplies www.

Good place to check price before going to the scrap yard www. I used his "Milling Attachment" info.

Don't try to clear the scarf while the lathe is running. That's likely in the safety instructions I threw in the trash. Mini-Lathe setup as a mill. Grinding on a lathe.

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