Renewal of Tools

December 6th, 2011

What’s a Good Swarf-Removal Shampoo?

The Holy Spirit is unpredictable. I suppose that’s one reason we’re supposed to let him inhabit us and tell us what to do. It keeps Satan guessing. The written law was considerably more predictable. It telegraphed our punches. It was still more than adequate to make a fool of the enemy, notably at the crucifixion, but the Holy Spirit himself has more flexibility, and he can tailor our actions to each situation, with more specificity.

Why mention this? I think he told me to buy something for myself. He has done this before. Probably many times, I guess, but I’m thinking of one particular example. I was driving on US1, and I started thinking about an Epiphone guitar I had read about, and I felt like I had to make a detour to Guitar Center and pick one up. I found myself saying, “Okay, I’ll buy it.” I walked in and asked if I could take a look at a Riviera P93. The workmanship was surprisingly good. It had features I wanted. And I had always wanted to see what an ES-style guitar was like. Sold. I didn’t even play it in the store.

It turned out to be an amazing guitar. I play it more than any other. The playability is so good, it’s shocking. The pickups were not great, but I put Lollars on it, and now it’s a monster. It’s a perfect blues machine. A little raw, a little dark, and highly expressive.

You can always rationalize when you buy something you want, and it’s easy to get confused and think God is in your own desires, but this was different.

Yesterday, I felt the same bizarre compulsion. And I was thinking about mini lathes.

I have a Clausing 5936. It’s an excellent lathe, crafted to insanely high standards, but it’s not practical for everything I want to do. Trust me on this–I know more about it than you think, even if you’re a machinist–making metric threads on this thing is a nightmare. Just getting the parts costs hundreds and hundreds of dollars, and you can’t get them, anyway. Finding a steady rest or follow rest at an acceptable price is impossible. A taper attachment…you might have to mortgage your house. Of course, if I had listened to Og, I’d have a Chinese lathe, and it would have all the stuff I need, but that’s another story.

I decided to put a DRO on the lathe, and I plan to follow up with an ELS (Electronic Lead Screw). The DRO is in progress. It will make the lathe easier to use. The ELS is a device which is about halfway to CNC. In other words, it’s a computerized, motorized apparatus that guides the lathe, but it doesn’t require CAD and whatever else CNC requires. And you can still use the lathe manually.

An ELS will let me cut any threads I want, and it will do tapers. But it’s a hellish project, and I know it will take a long time to get it together.

Yesterday I felt a very strong urge, and I have since ordered a Big Dog 7×14 mini lathe, plus a little bit of tooling.

This thing is big enough to do just about any threading project that interests me, and it’s small and portable. It comes with rests, a drill chuck, a 3-jaw chuck, change gears, and other stuff old iron usually lacks. Oddly enough, it might be very useful when I’m working on the ELS conversion on the other lathe. It should be a big help to me.

What will I do with it when the ELS is set up? Danged if I know. I believe the Clausing will eventually be easier to use and more versatile than the Big Dog. I suppose the small lathe will be better for anything requiring a rest, up to a certain size.

I have a quick change tool post on the way, plus a couple of random lathe doodads, but because I have the Clausing, I already have a lot of stuff I’ll need. Much of it works with any size lathe. I have tool blanks, measuring tools, acid brushes, a fish, cutting fluid, and so on. The tooling is cheap, which is extremely liberating. The tool post set, which is all steel, was $130.

I’ll have to get a 4-jaw chuck. Life without one is unthinkable.

The mill is benefiting from the lathe DRO. The mill came with a Sino DRO, from China. These things are very cheap, but they work. I have never seen anyone complain about the reliability. Sadly, it was a 2-axis DRO, and I wanted a z readout. I found a guy in Singapore who sells these things, and he said I should buy a 3-axis Sino display, plus a z scale for the mill and two scales for the Clausing. I could put the new display on the mill, and then I could install the z scale. After that, I’d have enough stuff left over for the lathe. Sold. The mill already has the new display on it, and I’m working on the z scale. It’s doable, even for me. The lathe will be a pain, but it will work.

I might as well point out that there was no reason at all to try buying a DRO here in the US. The guy who sold me my mill is unreliable; he still owes me a part. He sells Chinese DROs. I got a 3-axis DRO plus three scales shipped from Singapore for $520. That includes a huge $100+ shipping fee I could not get them to reduce, so the parts themselves cost me around $400. The mill guy would have charged at least $595, plus shipping, and who knows if he would have vanished again. The seller in Singapore was polite, fast with his responses, super cheap, and very helpful with tech advice. If having Asians take over the world means getting this kind of service and pricing, maybe it’s not such a bad thing. It looks like we deserve it.

There are better DROs out there, if you have to have the best. For me, this thing is a phenomenal deal.

I’m also working on the x power feed. I have a feed made by Align, a Taiwanese outfit. Over time, the handwheels required more and more inward pressure before engaging, and now they don’t engage at all. The power feed doesn’t seem to do anything. I’m trying to get it apart so I can see what’s going on. The US representative for Align has not replied to my email yet, nor has the manufacturer. People on forums are giving me tips. I guess it will work out eventually. If I have to replace the entire thing, the most I can possibly spend is $375. I would not want to do that, but it proves the problem is not catastrophic.

It’s supposedly a pretty good power feed. Cheaper than Servo, of course.

Within a few days, I should have a 3-axis DRO and a working power feed (or I should be waiting on the right part to fix it). It’s just a matter of persistence and prayer.

11 Responses to “Renewal of Tools”

  1. Juan Paxety Says:

    Asians may be too broad. I’ve had nothing but difficulty dealing with Chinese businesses.

  2. og Says:

    You can usually sell the lathe for what you have in it, and buy a new one. Decent quality lathes rarely decrease in value, and if you’re willing to let it sit on the market until someone is willing to pay your price, you can do OK. Then get the Griz with the inch/metric. Make sure you buy a gap bed.

  3. Steve H. Says:

    Hope all is well, Og.

  4. og Says:

    All is well. Thanks. I pray for you every day.

  5. Steve H. Says:

    I truly appreciate that. You have your work cut out for you.
    .
    You are probably right, but I’m starting to feel like I’m married to the Clausing. If the DRO and ELS work, I’ll probably lack motivation to switch.
    .
    I am severely tempted to CNC the small lathe with a kit that doesn’t prevent manual machining. These days it seems like everyone has used computers lying around, and I’m no exception. I have more than enough junk to set up an adequate PC in the garage.

  6. og Says:

    I am not a lawyer, but I am unaware of any state or federal laws which prevent the posession of two lathes.

    Once in a while you can find an Emco Compact 5 lathe out there, they usually go for around 1-5k, and they are the original CNC trainer lathe. A lot easier than retrofitting any lathe to cnc, and a good place to start.

  7. Steve H. Says:

    “I am not a lawyer, but I am unaware of any state or federal laws which prevent the posession of two lathes.”
    .
    Sadly, for me and my garage.
    .
    RE the Emco, perhaps I will once again pay the price for not listening to you. But I think I can deal with a kit, if I put my mind to it.

  8. og Says:

    Kits are not hard. What’s hard is knowing how the thing is supposed to work, so you know if it’s working correctly or not.

    The problem with most cnc lathe kits is the spindle motor. You have to change or modify the motor to be able to do threading- in other words, the CNC control has to be able to accurately regulate the relationship between the actual spindle speed and postion, and the cutting tool Otherwise the CNC control can only do contours. I don’t know if this is making any sense.

    There’s a nice CNC simulator at CNCsimulator.com that does a pretty good job of showing you how an actual CNC machine is supposed to work, and that helps a lot.; It’s freeware (though you have to keep going back to the site to prove to them you’re doing something, I don’t know what)

    http://www.cncsimulator.com/

  9. Steve H. Says:

    Thanks, Og. I don’t really know what CNC can and can’t do. Since it’s the big brother of ELS, which does threading, I just assumed threading would be no problem.
    .
    The nice thing about a kit that allows me to do both manual and CNC is that I could go manual for threading if I had do. Again, I’m assuming there are no other weird factors I’m unaware of.

  10. Steve H. Says:

    By the way, if you want to feel good about being right about something else, I’m still thinking about getting oxy-acetylene. Seems like it does absolutely everything I want to do, for like 10% of the price of the electric stuff. I was put off by the harping I heard about the learning curve, but you can get a lot of welding videos for the money you save by avoiding a garageful of Miller products.

  11. Dan L Says:

    My brother is a machinist (I just play around with my mill, lathe and welders, etc.), and while admiring one of those little Emco’s, he mentioned the fact that the best you will get out of it is 0.002″, since the minimum movement on X axis is 0.001″. Ugh! good enough for learning and rough work, but certainly not good enough to drop $4-5K on. Anyway, enjoy your ramblings, Steve. I’ve bookmarked your site, love your links and love that we both share a loving relationship with Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Spirit ! 😉