- Joined
- Oct 7, 2013
- Messages
- 305
OneIWilly,
Being in a similar position to yourself, just starting out with metal cutting, only a month or so ahead of you, my recommendation for your first purchases would be measuring equipment. You are not going to be able to do much of anything on your lathe, other than cleaning, without some basic precision measuring tools. You are going to need a couple types of dial indicators, a magnetic base, some calipers and/or micrometers, a small steel precision rule, and a few other small things, just to get the lathe set up and do anything useful. I bought Shars stuff to start off with, but eventually I will step up to better stuff. The Shars, or probably any of the cheap Chinese stuff offered on eBay is sufficiently accurate for what I'm doing, although I can't vouch for the durability or the accuracy over the long term. If you can afford it, I'd suggest getting good stuff to begin with, but you're talking about a difference of orders of magnitude in price.
After the measuring gear, I'd invest in a 3-jaw chuck. I think you said you have a 4-jaw. You can do anything with a 4-jaw that you can with a 3-jaw, plus you can dial it in with a dial indicator to have absolutely no runout (provided it's in good shape to begin with), which you cannot do with a 3-jaw, however, a 3-jaw is so much faster to set up, that if you are doing an operation in which you can tolerate runout of maybe .001, then the 3-jaw is the way to go. I have both and find myself using the 3-jaw a lot more than the 4-jaw.
You are also going to need some centers. I find a good dead center quite useful. Dead centers are more accurate and cheaper, but live centers are great. Since you have the headstock adapter (which is very difficult to find, by the way) you should get at least one center in MT2 for the headstock, to use with your drive plate and dogs. The rest should be MT3 for your tailstock. I would also recommend a good keyless Jacobs chuck with a MT2, so you can use it in the headstock or tailstock (with an MT3/MT2 sleeve adapter).
You'll need a set of center drills, and some bits of appropriate size for your tool post. If you can afford a quick-change tool post of some variety, I'd recommend getting one. I am using a lantern tool post right now, like the one on your lathe, and while it works fine, I find it very tedious resetting the tool height and position for every operation. If you don't have one, you'll need to buy a grinder. It doesn't have to be an expensive one, but it will need to have a decent tool rest. You'll need this to grind your tool bits.
Collets are really nice for precision work. Your lathe will take 5C collets, which are readily available and not too expensive, but the collet adapter and closer are killers. You will be looking at $3-500 for a collet set, closer, and thread protector, so mark that as a Christmas present to self for another year.
There. I think that will suffice for now. As you get going you'll find other things to put on your wish list, but these things are what I found to be necessary for me to do the basic things I needed to do right away with my lathe.
I have a DR 11 like yours that I am rebuilding, although it is the older model, and have been using a South Bend 9A to make replacement parts for it...and enjoying every minute of it.
Being in a similar position to yourself, just starting out with metal cutting, only a month or so ahead of you, my recommendation for your first purchases would be measuring equipment. You are not going to be able to do much of anything on your lathe, other than cleaning, without some basic precision measuring tools. You are going to need a couple types of dial indicators, a magnetic base, some calipers and/or micrometers, a small steel precision rule, and a few other small things, just to get the lathe set up and do anything useful. I bought Shars stuff to start off with, but eventually I will step up to better stuff. The Shars, or probably any of the cheap Chinese stuff offered on eBay is sufficiently accurate for what I'm doing, although I can't vouch for the durability or the accuracy over the long term. If you can afford it, I'd suggest getting good stuff to begin with, but you're talking about a difference of orders of magnitude in price.
After the measuring gear, I'd invest in a 3-jaw chuck. I think you said you have a 4-jaw. You can do anything with a 4-jaw that you can with a 3-jaw, plus you can dial it in with a dial indicator to have absolutely no runout (provided it's in good shape to begin with), which you cannot do with a 3-jaw, however, a 3-jaw is so much faster to set up, that if you are doing an operation in which you can tolerate runout of maybe .001, then the 3-jaw is the way to go. I have both and find myself using the 3-jaw a lot more than the 4-jaw.
You are also going to need some centers. I find a good dead center quite useful. Dead centers are more accurate and cheaper, but live centers are great. Since you have the headstock adapter (which is very difficult to find, by the way) you should get at least one center in MT2 for the headstock, to use with your drive plate and dogs. The rest should be MT3 for your tailstock. I would also recommend a good keyless Jacobs chuck with a MT2, so you can use it in the headstock or tailstock (with an MT3/MT2 sleeve adapter).
You'll need a set of center drills, and some bits of appropriate size for your tool post. If you can afford a quick-change tool post of some variety, I'd recommend getting one. I am using a lantern tool post right now, like the one on your lathe, and while it works fine, I find it very tedious resetting the tool height and position for every operation. If you don't have one, you'll need to buy a grinder. It doesn't have to be an expensive one, but it will need to have a decent tool rest. You'll need this to grind your tool bits.
Collets are really nice for precision work. Your lathe will take 5C collets, which are readily available and not too expensive, but the collet adapter and closer are killers. You will be looking at $3-500 for a collet set, closer, and thread protector, so mark that as a Christmas present to self for another year.
There. I think that will suffice for now. As you get going you'll find other things to put on your wish list, but these things are what I found to be necessary for me to do the basic things I needed to do right away with my lathe.
I have a DR 11 like yours that I am rebuilding, although it is the older model, and have been using a South Bend 9A to make replacement parts for it...and enjoying every minute of it.
) I'd say it was a good trade!
