show us what have you made with your lathe/mill

Could do it on a mill,just depends how large the part is.Most machines even when new would have issues with flat and parralel less than .002.We have ground thes on a surface grind with a open grit wheel.Burl.

 

it can be done on a knee type mill if it has enough table travel. the only real differences with an auto machine shop head mill are that it is specialized for the job with a very large fly cutter (cuts the entire head face in one p***) and the bed facilitates setting up the angled surface of auto cylinder heads

 

I have a manual mill and Lathe and I am trying to learn to use this CNC, it is a lot more challenging than I had planned. I understand the programming, the cutting and all in between.....but trying to understand the controls and the menu itself is challenging.



one of my favorite pieces using the lathe and the mill.

 

Does anyone need a South Bend 10-L tailstock complete?

 

Practical machinist.com has a free cl***ifieds section.

 

Why would you be selling the tailstock?

And how much travel is in the leadscrew? more than 1 1/2 inches? 2 inches on the scale, less the 1/2 when you got a chuck in the taper.

Frank

 

Tried em last year, no interest.

 

That's all there is in the South Bend dept.

Got it a few years back from a wrecking yard that had been closed down for a decade or more.
Looked all over heck and gone for the lathe proper , but didn't find it.
Did find a couple of valve grinding machines that were rusted solid due to being outside all that time.

If you're interested I can measure the leadscrew travel.

 

Yes.....13,000 RPM max on the machine

 

All kidding aside, go to YouTube and do a search for CNC or similar.

Impressive machines.


Geez, my about 25 year old little 4x6" bandsaw is a "Rong Fu."

I think they're trying to tell me something....

 

That explains it!

Yes, if you could. mine is good for only 1 1/2 in of drilling, a real pain. Yours looks a little different then mine. Possibly an older machine? But should still be the same as far as interchangeability.

 

one of my favorites....listen to the variable speed kicking in and out it is runs thru the first minute.


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I want to get a lathe and a mill, Just like everybody says

ENDLESS POSSIBILITYS

 

Lathe/mill.
I had a combo Lath Mill Drill , a Smithy. I had to include it with my shop equipment as a package but i would have another in a heartbeat. Here it is flycutting a piston. I probably did over a 100 pistons on this unit includng three very experimental engine builds. I also did valve reliefs for other shops who though much bigger operations did not have this capability. I made the pieces for my front axle for the sr dragster on this. Shortened BB chevy 2.19 valves to BB Mopar length recutting the valve keeper grooves several years before bigger valves were available for these engine. Machined out centre dividers in maniflolds. Cut new keys in damaged camshafts. Made hundreds of cut to fit pushrods. Reduced valve diameters for modified six cylinder use. Made camshafts bumpers from br***. Even had this machine set up to cut seats and bore out cast guides. Made a torque converter a hi-stall once . It would fit in the lathe after i remove the welds from the ring gear and popped it off. Made many specialized engine tools including one for undercutting the bottoms of lifter bores so mushroom tappets could be used. Made many bushings. Made or repaired valve guide drivers for other engine machine shops. I have often said what couldnt be made on that machine probably wasnt needed anyway. The list of what has been done on it would be too long. It cost back then $995 brand new. I think they are about $1300 now and there is also now an automotive model with a longer bed. If I had a spare $1300 i would have another . I owned this one from 1990 to 2005. total repairs in all those years with hard use? $12.50 (New bevel gear for mill section drive. )

 

I call mine the "Glorified Spacer Maker" Thats about all I do with my little cheapo. But I have fun with it. Here is my lifter "looking" spacers.

 

Having your own mill is just wonderful! It opens up so many possibilities. They are so handy for so many things. The more you like to tinker, the more you will enjoy owning a mill. Used ones can be reasonable too, I bought both of mine used.
I bought my first standard full size mill about 5 years ago. I really like having it to use whenever I dream up something. I later bought a second, larger mill with a riser and a 750 pound table capacity to do head and block work. I bought a large flycutter and am able to do head milling too.
With the larger mill, I can stand up a head or block vertically.
One of my projects is a factory Pontiac Ram Air V alum block that was never machined except for the cam bore. some friends helped me make patterns and so far we have put in the mains, oil pan, bellhousing and front cover. It was then align bored at a shop. Now,I am going to machine the deck, add the head bolt holes and lifter bores.
With experiance and tooling from this project, I have 2 raw alum forgings I had made and plan to make my own Pontiac billet blocks for my front motor Top Fueler.

Steve Barcak
www.pontiacheaven.org

<DIR>Hosting 11th annual Pontiac Heaven, show, swap, drags, party and all around good time. Saturday April 4, 2009 at Speedworld near Phoenix, Az
Also hosting- 7th annual Nostalgia drags, show and swap coming Sunday April 5, 2009 to Speedworld. Phoenix, Az
</DIR>

 

Get a lathe first.

You can buy or make a milling attachment for it and do milling on the lathe.

Not as convenient as a dedicated mill, but some years back my nephew and I turned out some nice aluminum swingarm extensions on the lathe equpped with a milling vise for his CR500 Honda that was WidowMaker bound.

 

Those look like some fairly expensive chunks of metal. Forgings, not just cast billets? What grade is it, 6061-T6?
I am going to cast some aluminum this afternoon. Wish me luck.

 

New nickel plated headlight door mounting finials made on my belt drive Lodge and Shipley. New motor mount cast in 4130 and machined for a 1911 Excelsior m/c. Flathead fuel pump stand blockoff plate made from an O'Brien Truckers lakes pipe cap. Louver press dies. Pedal crank parts for the Excelsior. John

 

What is involved in casting chromoly? Excelsior motorcycles, pretty exotic stuff, are aware of the Jockey Journal?

 

I am sending the Excelsior patterns to Jeff Willis in Ohio. He makes the molds from them and has a nearby foundry pour the steel. He is the expert. A friend and I own 1911 X twin motors. We are building replica frames from scratch. The friend also owns a complete 1910 single that we have determined uses he same frame castings as the new 1911 twin. I took the 1910 frame to a company in Burnsville Minn. and they digitally measured each casting. A company in Ankeny Iowa fed the measurements into their 3D printer and produced the castings in ABS plastic that we use for patterns. These pattern then go to Jeff for the mold making and pouring. I am having 4-6 of each piece made and the total start to finish cost of each casting is approx. $200 I also had a fellow ultrasonicaly measure the wall thickness of each frame tube. I was surprised to learn that the lower frame tubes ( crank housing to rear axle ) and the front down tube had a thicker wall than the remaining tubes. I want to know as many specs as possible about this frame so that my copies weight and perform just like the originals. These are belt drive, pedal start, coaster brake, total loss lubrication machines and I want to ride the thing when finished. Yes I know of the Jockey Journal. Thanks. John

 

Thought you guys might dig this guys shop, check out the mini V8 video etc

http://www.weberprecision.com

 

You are my new freakin hero!

 

No ****! Do you think Schwinn and Henderson had any idea someone would go to these lengths, and apply this high of technology, to reproduce such a simple machine? My hat's off!

P.S, How about some photos of the Excelsior project?

 

We use laser scaning to produce solid models of part detail all of the time.Gives us the shape to write cnc progams to.We work on alot of offshore tooling that has no data available.A person could scan any item if if it wasnt all there and reproduce fairly easy as long as there were no patent or trademark issues.Burl.

 

Here are a few things I made for my "A" coupe on the mill and lathe.

 

Glen, good luck. We've got a couple Mazaks at work, real pain in the *** to program. I don't know squat personally. Real nice and impressive when they work, real frustrating when they don't. Boring as hell to feed parts into all day.

Most recently I made this fuel rail, and all the bits of the progressive throttle linkage in the mill and lathe at work.

 

Iv'e only got a 10" Atlas lathe, but a young CNC
machinist friend made this up for me. It would take
a machine like Glen has, interesting project.
Rich