- Joined
- Nov 16, 2012
- Messages
- 5,596
J.B...
Do yourself a big favor and start-out with aluminum and low carbon steel (preferably in that order). Tool $teel i$ expen$ive and not easy to work with for a starter. Good old AL 6061 is great to work with. Steel, 1018/20 is nice and any of the 11xx or 11Lxx make for a a beautiful cut.
You won't need a collet or even a chuck to align your TS. First though, you need to setup the bench and "level" the lathe. If you hang on until tonight, I'll show the steps of how I leveled/aligned my lathe. Once that is done, you can go on to align the TS and it's all but trivial. You spin between centers using a lathe dog. Take any old shaft, put two aluminum donuts on each end (it will look like a dumbell weight) and take cuts. Measure the diameters and make adjustments in the TS. When the diameters are the same you can stop making adjustments. -Simple as that.
To start-out, you need a dial indicator (and a test-dial indicator would be an added bonus) and a measuring micrometer or caliper.
Ray
Do yourself a big favor and start-out with aluminum and low carbon steel (preferably in that order). Tool $teel i$ expen$ive and not easy to work with for a starter. Good old AL 6061 is great to work with. Steel, 1018/20 is nice and any of the 11xx or 11Lxx make for a a beautiful cut.
You won't need a collet or even a chuck to align your TS. First though, you need to setup the bench and "level" the lathe. If you hang on until tonight, I'll show the steps of how I leveled/aligned my lathe. Once that is done, you can go on to align the TS and it's all but trivial. You spin between centers using a lathe dog. Take any old shaft, put two aluminum donuts on each end (it will look like a dumbell weight) and take cuts. Measure the diameters and make adjustments in the TS. When the diameters are the same you can stop making adjustments. -Simple as that.
To start-out, you need a dial indicator (and a test-dial indicator would be an added bonus) and a measuring micrometer or caliper.
Ray
I been thinking about the things I need to get together before the lathe arrives, One of the first things that i want to do is align the tail stock do i need to pull my chuck off and put a collect in the headstock.I'm guessing That I am going to have to purchase a test bar .I also was wondering Where can you buy tooling made in the usa and what do you recommend for a newbie?I will be turning tool steel and some low carbon steel @first Thanks J.B