My dad is a retired tool and die maker and he just bought a hu****ous South Bend gap lathe, it is 6' long and has a 15" swing with the gap removed. He's not a hot rodder and I'm not a machinist, what kind of projects can I give him to do?
i use mine to turn armatures for starters and generators.shortening driveshafts? yep.had to modify some of the parts when i installed a kickstart on my sportster.i've made several things for my nephews mustang project;several spacers,some bushings,a timing pointer,a (gasp!) billet coil bracket.is your dad online? he should check out www.homeshopmachinist.net and www.practicalmachinist.com you should start learning yourself,a lathe is a really handy tool for any shop-george
That is a dream lathe.... I have a little dinky one... I turned down some fender washers to a smaller outer diameter on my "toy" lathe when I needed them to fit on my thermostat housing. "Bored" a hole to the proper diameter in a freeze plug when I made my road-draft tube thing. made other stuff, can't think of it now.
Once you have access to a lathe and a mill there is no turning back. You will find yourself inventing reasons to use them. If you have no experience check into a night cl*** on basic machining.(usually available through the local high school or junior college) you'll be glad you did. Frank
You can make your own 4-link bars...You can even make some cool lookin' nuts and bolts if you so desire...The options are endless if you just let your imagination go...
Wow that's a nice big lathe, I can't stop thinking what you can't make. I just did a tech on how to build a column and you could make a wheel adapter for it , column support, quick change hubs and adapters. Really if it round and can swing it, your good.. Good luck with it! Wear your safty gl***es
It's not only round stuff that can be knocked out on the lathe. You can make a perfect square on a lathe. No special setups required. A few examples follow. This one, a column drop made from 1/2" thick 6061 T6 aluminum with the hole bored on the lathe. The retainer piece made on the lathe as well. (This pic goes along with some more in a make your own aluminum steering column article in this months FSRA.org site. Options for a steel column are discussed.)
Here's pic one of two, a throttle rod floating Teflon seal. Note the rod is at the top of the center hole in the first photo.
Pic 2 with the rod at the bottom. The rod shown at extremes of available movement. In use the rod doesn't float quite as high or low. A 1/8" Teflon washer is bored 1/4" for the polished 1/4" stainless throttle rod. The Teflon washer floats inside a step bored within the aluminum retaining plate. The aluminun retaining plate also sits up on a Teflon ring/washer making things very slippery for the floating Teflon washer. This little gadget works good and seals the heat well. Probably over 25,000 miles on the 32's and no real wear on the floating Teflon washer.
Here's a simple and compact brake return spring setup. The coil spring is opened up at bit so that it goes over the master cylinder spigot or whatever you want to call it. The aluminum piece is 1/4" thick and a step is bored - about .125 deep - to locate and ***ist in retainment of the spring. Simple and it works good with over 40,000 trouble free miles on the 32. Additional photos and explanation in an article ***led: Front Stoppers over at FSRA.org
Burndup - you need a 4 jaw chuck with independent jaws. Say you have a piece of round stock, saw the ends off reasonably square. Clamp it in the 4 jaw with a rounded edge sticking out. Cut the rounded edge workpiece to a flat. Reverse the workpiece 180 degrees so the flat is up against the chuck face. Cut another flat. Turn the workpiece 90 degrees, cut a flat and so on until you come out square. The lathe tool holder block shown was cut square in the lathe by this method. The groove in the block was shimmed up to the desired height and cut with an end mill in the chuck*. *you can clamp the end mill directly in the chuck, but they're so hard it's easier on the chuck to get Morse Taper (MT)end mill adapters that go directly into the MT inside the spindle. There are some additional features with this particular tool block I'll explain if anyone's interested.
Hows about a Dzus countersink tool for sheet metal? The one shown here is fairly self explanatory. Advantages with this device is that you use wrenches to countersink the sheet metal and no hammer required. You can control the depth and shape of the countersink as you wish by controlling the torque applied. The phillips flathead bolt works, but you're better off with a flathead allen bolt. Use grade 5 or 8 bolts and similar nuts. Forces aren't large, but grade 5 or 8's work smoother than stainless which will gall and drag after a while. A drop of oil on the tool threads helps, but no lubrication is required on the countersink. An additional advantage with this tool is you can get into tight places with it as compared to the hammer and anvil bit. You can make this tool for about two bits. A bit of a savings over the thirty dollar tool I see in catalogs. A couple more photos are available if this one doesn't do it.
I'll be honest , i never used a lathe before untill about 3 days ago. I started to play around with no teacher to help me out (metal shop cl***) I cant beleive how much fun it is... Even though i was just fooling around , making some cool sharp objects, i'll never turn back!
[ QUOTE ] I'll be honest , i never used a lathe before untill about 3 days ago. I started to play around with no teacher to help me out (metal shop cl***) I cant beleive how much fun it is... Even though i was just fooling around , making some cool sharp objects, i'll never turn back! [/ QUOTE ] Kinda says it all I think. Aside from making neat parts and tools, the darned things are fun. Couple pieces of advice I'll p*** along for an absolute newbie: Get some machining books and read them. For home sized lathes - 12" swing* and under - keep the depth of cut to .025 for mild steel, cast iron or aluminum. Swing defined as - in the USA - the the largest OD you can cut. In the UK and perhaps other places, swing is defined as the radius of the largest OD you can cut.
The Jalopy Journal
