It's time to aquire metals. What do I want?

Cast Iron is the WOOOOORST. The chips suck and it gets everywhere. Also, in my experience, it is REALLY sensitive to Feeds/Speeds, and seems to hate lube. I find you can get 1018 REALLY often at metal supply shops (my local supports welding only, so thats what you get most easily!) and is often just sold as 'cold roll'.

1040 pre-heat is awesome for anything that requires a bit of strength, but it is harder to machine. It is a pre-heat-treated steel, so its a bit harder (though soft enough for HSS/Carbide tooling) thus more difficult on the machine.

6061 aluminum is really easy to get your hands on and is about as forgiving of a material as is possible. When I had a smaller lathe it was my go-to material for affordability and ease of maintainability.
 
Thank you gentlemen, this is all great info for a newbie.

I need to make an el-cheapo spectro-thingy.....a hollow plastic tube and ball bearing......to drop onto the scrap that I have, to give me an idea as to it's hardness. I do want to pass [ for now ] on the hardened steels for learning, as advised.

I need to learn what 12L14 is...…...
 
For plastic, Delrin and HPDE are both really great metals. I've not turned ABS, but I hear good things too. There is a plastics sales company that sponsors the forum (https://www.plastiblocks.com/) that sells and ships small quantities.

12L14 : This is a good description: https://www.alro.com/divsteel/metals_gridpt.aspx?gp=0009
Basically just a phosphor/sulfur/lead rich steel that ends up being incredibly easy to machine for metals.

I use this chart to get a good idea of how machinable something is: https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/machinability-metals-d_1450.html
While that chart isn't perfect, it does a really good job showing how difficult a metal will be to machine compared to others. For example, normal "Cold Rolled Steel" is typically 1018, which you can see is 78% machinabillity index (100% is based on 1212). 12L14 is 170%, so 2x as easy to machine.

NOte all the cast irons are about 50%, and aluminum can be as much as 450%! That chart doesn't have brass unfortunately, but it is quite easy as well.
 
Spokerider said:
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I need to make an el-cheapo spectro-thingy.....a hollow plastic tube and ball bearing......to drop onto the scrap that I have, to give me an idea as to it's hardness.
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I would like to make one too. I haven't been able to find any good plans. I can't afford a real one, unless I could somehow get it to pay rent.

Lots of good suggestions. Sometimes, when buying tools on Craigslist, there is a pile of junk metal that one can make a deal for. I went to a fab shop which was getting liquidated to buy some tools, and they gave me a bunch of bar end drops for free. They were only about 4-6" long, but the price was right!
 
+1 on 12L14. Machines very easily and produces a better surface finish than 1018.
 
I would suggest purchasing metals from local machine shops, salvage yards, and surplus dealers long before going to online retailers. I buy literally hundreds of pounds of 1018, and 4140 steel, 316 stainless, and 6061 and 6057 aluminum each year. I stock a fair amount of 6061 in both round and flat stock ranging in size from 1/4" to 8" rounds, and 1/4"x1/4" to 4" x 4" square.

Most is purchased from a surplus dealer @ $2.00 per pound for 6061, and $1.50 pre pound for the mild steel. The 316 comes from a wholesale supplier generally about $2.25 to $2.45 per pound.

Last week I purchased some lengths of 2" x 2" 6061 from the surplus dealer. One length was about 4'6" weighing 21 lbs. and the other about 2' weighing about 17 lbs. Both were new drops. The cost was $75.00. Just for comparison sake I looked up the same lengths from Speedy Metals. It would have cost me about $300.00 plus shipping for the same lengths.

If you already have a friend in the machine shop business I would give him a list of the drops you are interested in and ask him to keep an eye out for you. They will be most likely selling it at scrap prices which is usually in the $.25 per pound range. If you offer $1.00 to $1.50 per pound you'll both come out ahead.
 
Spokerider said:
Ok. I've bought a small 6" Craftsman lathe, bought a few HSS tools, now I need material to learn / try this lathe out. Turning, facing, drilling and boring, etc. I'm a 1st time turner here.

What do I want? To buy new and known steels, alloys and aluminum locally, I'll be opening my wallet at Metal Supermarkets. Yep...they have it, but they IS spendy.
What do you suggest? 1020? 6061? or?

To date, I have acquired a few lengths of round bar stock and old machinery shafts with splines and even roller bearings still insitu. These machinery shafts are going to be hard for sure, but I dunno how hard. Maybe not the best for turning for a 1st effort. The other unknown assorted round alloy stock bars / shorts, came from a friends machine shop scrap pile. They could be anything from low carbon scraps on up to high carbon / hardened and even a length of stainless.

Thanks for your thots.
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Broom handles, if you want to make some chips, turn some hardwood, you get the "feel" of your machine, it's a lot cheaper and easier than metal and you can use the chips in your smoker. My grand kids had a ball making boats our of 2 X 6 scraps in my mill.
 
I buy metals from 3 different places. 1 is Alro outlet. Buying remnants by the pound is the most expensive way I buy metals but they usually have a good selection of different metals. Aluminum $2.99/ pound, mild steel $1.99/ pound and tool steels $1/pound.

The second place is a combination manufacturer and metal supply place. They have a few types of steel and 6061. Prices are competitive. But if I go through their scrap bins I get everything for $.25/pound.

And then there are the various manufacturers local to me. They scrap out cutoffs and will let me dig through the bins containing scrap that in many cases is way too big for my uses, but that just means I get to make more chips.
 
I don't do much steel with my mini-lathe and mini-mill but there are things I'd like to make now that should be made in steel rather than aluminum. I see so much support for 12L14 and I've been able to find round and hex stock easily and a little bit of square stock. But what I can't find is 12L14 rectangular bars, like 1"x3", 2"x4", or larger bars/plate.

There must be some reason nobody sells that form but the reason escapes me. Am I looking for a unicorn?
 
tonydi said:
I don't do much steel with my mini-lathe and mini-mill but there are things I'd like to make now that should be made in steel rather than aluminum. I see so much support for 12L14 and I've been able to find round and hex stock easily and a little bit of square stock. But what I can't find is 12L14 rectangular bars, like 1"x3", 2"x4", or larger bars/plate.

There must be some reason nobody sells that form but the reason escapes me. Am I looking for a unicorn?
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Have you looked on eBay?
 
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