Hi folks

[Myles Douglas-Withers 1Participant @mylesdouglas-withers1]

Hi all,

I'm Myles and I live in NZ's South Island just north of Christchurch. I don't have a background in machining but I have bought myself a lathe and a mill which I am learning to use, mostly from YouTube. I have not many projects yet other than a few parts for my car and repairs for bits and pieces.

I do have questions from time to time and would certainly appreciate an expert or two.

Cheers

Myles

[Myles Douglas-Withers 1Participant @mylesdouglas-withers1]

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Hi Myles,

Welcome to the forum. A few books (from the Workshop Prectice series) may also be of help:
Vertical Milling in the Home Workshop by Arnold Throp
Screwcutting in the Lathe by Martin Cleve
Lathework, a Complete Course by Harold Hall
Milling, a Complete Course by Harold Hall

Thor

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

Welcome Myles. I am just across the ditch in Sydney.

This is a link to Harold Halls web site with a lot of machining tips and projects to build: **LINK**:

Cheers, Paul.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Welcome Myles.

The "bible" for lathes used to be L H Sparey "The Amateur's Lathe". This was very much noriebted towarsd the Myford ML7, butb the basic pribciples are applicable mto almost any lathe.

Stan Bray's "Basic Lathework" is also a ,good book, and Ian Bradley's "The Amateur's Workshop" gives useful advice on setting a lathe sonm that nthere is no twist bvin the bed. (Otherrwise, the lathe will cut tapered, rather than parallel. )

It will be worth making a Centrre Height Gauge, to aid setting tools on the centreline of the lathe, so that they cut properly, and do not leave a pip in the middle of the work..

You might find Tubal Cain's "Model Engineer's Handbook" a usedul reference book to have around.

For older lathes, the high speeds rquired to get the best from carbide tools can injure plain bearings.

Learning how to grind HSS tools, is useful knowledge. Tangential Turning Tools, such the Diamond tool make life simpler, since there is only one face to grind, but a Centre Height Gauge becomes virtually necessary for setting afterwards. At least two designs for shop made Tangential Turning Tools, using 1/8" toolbits, have been published in M E W

I like HSS sincer the last carbide tip seems to fail on Sturday evening adter everywhere has closed. HSS you ncan rergrind yourself; and it works out chesaper. A toolbit can be bought mfor aboutb the same price as one carbode insertt, and can nbe breground many times.

Don't think that carbide is no use for you. I use carbide tips for roughing and boring, but a tangential tool for finishing. Horses for courses.

HTH

Howard.

[Myles Douglas-Withers 1Participant @mylesdouglas-withers1]

Thanks for the warm welcome folks.

Howard: I have little or no HSS tooling so it looks like I should acquire some. I bought inserts for machining aluminium and they give a very nice finish but I have had less success with inserts for steel. I learned something new already – I'd never heard of tangential turning tools!

Where would you buy HSS toolbits?

[Myles Douglas-Withers 1Participant @mylesdouglas-withers1]

I started looking in to posting a question about my mill but I can't seem to rotate images in an album correctly. It seems to make all images landscape even if they were originally portrait. Did I miss something?

[Thor 🇳🇴Participant @thor]

Hi Myles,

I use a program on my computer to rotate photos the right way before uploading to my album.

Thor

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

You should be able to buy HSS toolbits from almost any model engineering supplier.

In UK, Arc Euro Trade, RDG, Warco, Chronos to name a few. Shipping from UK, might exceed the cost of the toolbits, though. Although one or two may well fit into a padded envelope to be posted as a letter.

The books mentioned will show the angles at which the tools should be ground.

For most purposes, the angles are not so critical that adegree or two either waywill cause problems.

Since you are in NZ, the Eccentric Engineering Diamond tool may be more easily, and cheaply, available than in UK, (Since the UK agent ceased trading ) from Australia. This uses 1/4" toolbits.

The designs published in M E W used 1/8" toolbits.

Howard

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