I finally made a decision

[Ray C]

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

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

 

[slingshot]

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

Thanks ray I jumped ahead of myself I realized that I needed to wire it up oil it up and level it up.I actually was speaking after this was done. But yes I would like to see your procedure for leveling up.


Well I guess there is more than one way to align the tail stock I just was not sure which was the best way. I have seen the test bar alinement before.So once you get the tail stock zeroed in tolerances should be good unless you have a sorry chuck? thanks