Welcome Bob,

Expect to spend a fair bit on tooling and accessories to kit your new lathe.

What are you thinking of building?

You'll get plenty of help and advice here

Regards

Roger

Welcome!

Apart from the advice freely available on here, may I suggest some reading matter, to help you?

Depending on what lathe you have ordered, some on list may not be appropriate, but will relate basic principles.

Without understanding the basics, life can be very frustrating, and difficult!

You will find a set of Zeus Charts extremely useful. I have later editions, but still use mine, bought in late 1958!

Both Neil Wyatt and Dave Fenner have written books on the mini lathe..

In back issues of Model Engineers Workshop, Alistair Sinclair and Mike Cox have written articles on modifications that they have made to their mini lathes.. Some of which, I have incorporated into mine.

Ian Bradley "The Amateur's Workshop" Not exclusively about lathes, but lots of useful information.

L H Sparey "The Amateur's Lathe". Written some time ago, so tends to be aimed at owners of Myford ML7, but an extremely useful book, all the same.

Tubal Cain "Model Engineers Handbook" An extremely useful reference book, filled with useful information.

Harold Hall "Lathework"

Some of these will advise on how to install the lathe and set it to perform at its best. You will also become familiar wit names for lathe parts and machining processes.

What you learn from the books, and your early experiences, will enable you to move from crawling, through walking to running more quickly.

Make mistakes on metal that is just stock material, in preference to ruining an expensive casting!

As you progress, you will find a need for others. (browsing the bookstalls when Model Engineering Shows resume, later this year, you may find some others.

Do find a local Model Engineering Club, and join. You will find like minded enthusiasts who are also prepared to advice, guide and possibly demonstrate.

Extras for which you will find a need, eventually, no doubt, are likely to include.

Cutting tools: High Speed Steel will allow you to learn how to grind tools, (sometimes for specific tasks, for which no other tooling is available, such as a form tool ). At 8:00 pm on a Saturday, you can regrind a HSS tool when no one will be open to replace a carbide tip that you have just chipped!

Carbide has its uses. It will will cut steel that has been hardened, where HSS cannot. It was developed for industry where time is money, to run at much higher speeds to remove metal fast.

I use a Tangential turning for a lot of mwork. One of my nhobby bhorses!

Bench Grinder, Digital calliper, Dial Test Indicators (Plunger and Finger types, if the budget will allow) and a Magnetic Base.(My preference is for the non adjustable type, because they are more rigid.)

Soon you will find a need for a four jaw independent chuck. This is where the DTIs will be needed.

On the subject of chucks, unless you are EXTREMELY lucky, your 3 jaw will not hold work concentric. A new one can have run out in the region of 0.075 mm.

Do not expect micron accuracy from a hobby lathe. You get what you pay for! Not that they are bad machines; just that for the price, they cannot match precision industrial toolroom machines costing fifty times as much.

Here ends Volume 1 of "War and Peace"

HTH

Howard.