Find a supplier of brass, aluminium and steel that's intended for machining, either locally or on the web.

When I first had a mini-lathe I fed it with anything that came to hand and the results were often disappointing. Most of the scrap metal in my garage was bad news. Sticky aluminium, gritty steel, tough welded pipe, and work hardening stainless. DIY store metal is mostly horrible too. Cutting decent metal with sharp tools made a huge difference.

Tip two: don't get discouraged when you make mistakes. It's all part of the fun.

Enjoy,

Dave

Don't be afraid to ask , Assume nothing and take the chuck key out of the chuck before hitting the on switch – they hurt when they hit you but hurt even more when they plough out a nice big chunk of your previously undamaged lathe bed !

Ian.

My Tips are, don't buy metal from a scrapyard (see what SillyOldDuffer says).

Lock your vertical axis (and any others you can) when you get a mini mill.

Don't go too small on your mini-mill. I wish I'd got a bigger one (I have a CMD10 /Sieg X1)

Come back to Yorkshire. It's crackin' up here!

Iain

If I had realised I suffered from OIS and hence how much old iron I would thus acquire I'd have bought a bigger workshop, or at least organised it differently.

There are also two rules to obey, once you've bought proper material of known provenance:

Rule 1 – Never buy cheap cutting tools

Rule 2: See rule 1

Andrew – near Cambridge

OIS = old iron syndrome

Hi Richard!

Welcome. (i am a little further north, just off the A1 and A47)

You will get a lot of advice and knowledge here, (and some leg pulling).

When I first started, I was a Chronos customer, (still am from time to time), but mostly deal with Arc EuroTrade.

Ketan sometimes posts on here. he is a really fair minded bloke, and will help even when there is nothing in it for him as a trader.

Tooltips, I tend to buy from Jenny at J B Cutting Tools. Again, a pleasure to deal with, and is at most of the shows.

Try making a Tangential Tool Holder, it will be time well spent, and cheaper than buying one.

You can make a lot of tools and fixtures for that "one off" job, and save time and temper!

If you are not a member, do find your local M E Club and join. Again, you should get a lot of help and advice.

If you have a problem having someone come round and help, hands on, or saying "Bring it round, and we'll sort it out" is a HUGE help.

Enjoy yourself

Howard

Richard,

I've used Chronos, amongst others, regularly over the years and haven't had any issues. If they are only 20 minutes down the road you can see what you are buying and potentially save on a lot of postage charges.

Reg

Hi Richard,

Welcome to the forum.

– I would direct you to invest in Neil Wyatts book on the Mini-lathe.

– Join a club…probably St.Albans ME club in your case.

– Look up classes at SMEE in London. I think train goes from St.Albans to Loughborough Junction station in London, walking distance to SMEE. You will probably bump into like minded people boarding at St.Albans going to SMEE on first Saturday of each month.

– to be fair, Chronos are a good business and very close to you. You get what you need for the budget you have. This may be good, bad or ugly, and also open to perception/misperception for the price. So do go and pay them a visit. They are good people, just like most of the model engineer suppliers… including ARC, even if I do so so myself.

– Above all, this is a hobby… so enjoy.

Ketan at ARC.

Chronos only failing is that they only stock material in 12 in lengths not 24.

Milton Keynes may be your nearest club, and Bedford too. Luton has a boat club with interest in steam but not specifically ME.

Edited By Bazyle on 13/09/2016 13:06:29

Milton Keynes Metals is just west of MK itself, Little Horwood Farm. Ian will sort you out.