{"id":2745,"date":"2009-02-06T13:54:41","date_gmt":"2009-02-06T18:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/?p=2745"},"modified":"2009-02-06T14:32:27","modified_gmt":"2009-02-06T19:32:27","slug":"the-turning-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/?p=2745","title":{"rendered":"The Turning Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lathe?<\/em><\/p>\n

The more I look at machine tools, the more confused I get.<\/p>\n

I think a mill is a necessity, if I ever expect to think of myself as a man. But I was hoping to avoid buying a metal lathe.<\/p>\n

Well, look what I have learned.<\/p>\n

You can use a metal lathe on wood. Also, really good used metal lathes sell for very low prices. Finally, you can get a 9 x 20 Chinese job that will do a lot of stuff and teach you a great deal…for $700. Now, I realize you can get a used South Bend for less than that if you watch the ads. BUT, unless what I’ve read is nonsense, it’s a very bad idea to buy a used lathe unless you have some experience using this kind of tool. So this may be an example of one of the rare occasions when buying small, cheap, and Chinese may be a great idea. What do you lose when you resell one of these things? No more than $700. Probably more like $300. For that, you get a course in using a lathe. My cheapness gene is alert and ready to pounce.<\/p>\n

I believe it should be possible to make pulleys on a machine this size. The “9” refers to the diameter of the largest possible object you can turn. You can’t really go that high, but you can get close. So 6″ should be no problem. HF sells a metal cabinet, but I have a bunch of two-by-sixes I need to get rid of, and this thing only weighs 300 pounds or so, which means wood is way more than adequate.<\/p>\n

Dang, I may do this. The local HF could get it for me, saving me money on shipping. I could learn a little bit about machining, and I could get smart enough to evaluate a real American used lathe, and then I could upgrade for a few hundred bucks. Maybe this is smarter than farting around with mills right off the bat. Right now, there are some really fine machines on Craigslist.<\/a> It’s too bad I’m not competent to buy one.<\/p>\n

More<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s say I have a spiffy HF 45861 lathe, as well as a pulley that is 6″ wide and 6″ across. Can I use the lathe to drill a hole for an axle, centered correctly in the pulley and going from one side to the other?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lathe? The more I look at machine tools, the more confused I get. I think a mill is a necessity, if I ever expect to think of myself as a man. But I was hoping to avoid buying a metal lathe. Well, look what I have learned. You can use a metal lathe on wood. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toolsofrenewal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}