Doodads and Gewgaws

March 29th, 2009

A Lathe is Like a Cake With no Frosting

Before I chose my lathe, people told me the tooling would be the big expense. What they did not make clear was that it would also cause most of the headaches. It’s hard to figure out what I need.

I have to have measuring equipment. A VFD. Tool post holder set. Cutters. And knowing almost nothing, I am ill-equipped to choose things. Especially before the lathe arrives.

Og is giving me all sorts of advice, and I’m picking the brain of a 5914 owner at Practicalmachinist, and I’m getting good input at The Home Machinist. It looks like I may want to get a Phase 2 tool post set from Enco; they’re running a great monthly special on it. I don’t know which size I need, so I fired a question off to the Practicalmachinist guy.

Clausing gave me a manufacture date for the lathe: 1965. I’m hoping they didn’t work it too hard at the prison.

Clausing made a milling attachment for this thing, but I’ll bet it’s impossible to find one. It’s some sort of vertical thing you mount on it, and I suppose it moves workpieces across the bed, while you spin cutters mounted in the chuck.

I would imagine that it’s not hard to make a milling attachment. If you have a milling attachment.

If you want to know why they don’t make lathes in the United States any more, here’s a clue. The top brand of lathe tool post is Aloris. Made in the USA. I just found a place that has a new set for sale. Price? Only $625. Price for the Taiwan version mentioned above: $189.

This is why the carmaker bailout is a waste of time. Five years from now, you’ll see Chevy Malibus for $35,000, comparable cars from Taiwan for $25,000, and nearly comparable cars from China for $15,000. That’s when the US automaking industry will cease to exist. UAW members think the bailout is going to get them over a rough spot, so they can keep making several times what they’re worth. They don’t realize the Chinese are about to put an end to them and their gravy train.

Thanks again, Mr. Obama. Shrewd use of all that money. Which, oddly, is also Chinese.

We’re going to be using China-financed dollars to buy Chinese-made cars, while we struggle to earn enough money to pay the sky-high taxes required to pay China the interest on the money they subsidized. I’m assuming we’ll be able to afford cars. Maybe we won’t. We deserve it. We are idiots.

I have a new project. I rented a whole series of machining videos from Smartflix, and I know I’ll forget everything I see. So I got two notebooks and some three-hole pads. I’m going to use one notebook for lathe information and the other for milling. I’m taking notes as I watch the videos.

I could just copy the videos, which is what Smartflix probably expects me to do, but that’s stealing. I copied some awful CLE recordings, but that’s completely different, because I will only hear those ONCE, unless I am kidnapped and forced, at gunpoint, to listen a second time. Even then, I might choose the gun.

Creating these notes is very slow business. If I can manage one DVD per day, it will be a miracle. But at least I won’t be throwing the money down the toilet, which is what would be happening if I didn’t take notes.

Here’s a sad fact. The useful lathe videos won’t be coming my way for quite some time. So I’ll be sitting here collecting milling information while a lathe rots in my garage. Maybe I should break down and buy one video.

My problems could be much worse than these. I can’t wait to get this machine running. It’s going to be a blast, start to finish. Let the rest of the world worry about the Obama Depression. I’ll be in the garage, making chips.

10 Responses to “Doodads and Gewgaws”

  1. og Says:

    the phase 2 is a pretty decent set. aloris toolholders will fit it too.

  2. Rick C Says:

    “I could just copy the videos, which is what Smartflix probably expects me to do, but that’s stealing.”

    If the videos are going to be useful, _buy_ copies of them later.

  3. Steve H. Says:

    Let me recommend that you check the prices of these videos before you suggest that.

  4. Ed Bonderenka Says:

    I’m sure og has made some good recommendation’s. Not knowing what they are, I’d say get the tool post, an indexable carbide tool holder with diamond shaped (2 points) carbide bits (negative rake) for facing and another tool holder for grooving/parting bits. Alternately, you could get a tool holder for a HSS blade and grind/sharpen it as needed for parting and grooving for less bucks.That and a big jacob’s chuck and you’ll be good for 90% of what you need to do, don’t you think?

  5. Wormathan Says:

    “Let the rest of the world worry about the Obama Depression. I’ll be in the garage, making chips.”
    .
    Assuming you can still get electricity after the greenies are done…

  6. JeffW Says:

    “Let the rest of the world worry about the Obama Depression. I’ll be in the garage, making chips.”
    .
    Assuming you can still get electricity after the greenies are done…
    .
    Of course the next step is a 10KW generator…or am I enabling again?
    .
    And then there’s the question of whether gas will be available…et absurdum.

  7. Wormathan Says:

    I am assuming I should learn the art of flintnapping since only rocks and sticks will be available…

  8. Harry Says:

    Obviously Steve needs a solar panel-based power system and a windmill backup (or maybe the other way around).

    I expect that he could find windmill plans in the internet and fabricate most, if not all of the parts himself.

    More on-topic, I’m not sure why you’d want a VFD for a lathe with a gearbox, unless the gears are shot (if the gears are shot, you shouldn’t even consider buying the lathe). You’d still need to change gears to set spindle and crossfeeds.

    Just my $0.02, YMMV.

  9. Steve H. Says:

    The VFD provides 3-phase power.

  10. Leo Says:

    A hamster farm. Thousands of hamster wheels spinning and spinning and generating electricity.
    .
    Tired, worn out hamsters for hamster dishes. Hamster stew, hamster omlets, hamster steaks, hamster fricasee, all eaten by the light generated by the enormous potential of hamster power.
    .
    Think about it.