Miniature Lathe inquiry

There are a some good books on using hobby size lathes - a lot of them come out of the UK, but if you are in the US, consider getting a copy of Doug Birney's book, The Home Machinist's Handbook. Although written for the excellent Sherline Lathes (a brand I would highly recommend, been using one for 20 years), the basic principles should guide through any brand.

Once you have the basics down, this page of tips might help too:

http://www.sherline.com/tips.htm

I build large scale (1/96) radio control warship model, and use my lathe for gun barrels, propeller shafts and bushings, details, small masts, all sorts of things. It would be very hard to build a nice model without one.

David;

My first miniature lathe (I still have it) Dremel Lathe. It works quite well for me. I build primarily in 1/35 scale armour etc. I checked with a few machinist friends of mine and it has more than enough power to turn barrels from aluminum for my future projects.

I am looking at buying a second lathe for some detail work that I can't do on my Dremel Lathe. So I am looking at buying a TAIG Lathe.

I located a dealer locally and it is $300.00 Canadian Dollars. If you haven't already bought yours check out a TAIG metal working lathe and import it from Canada. With the exchange rate you will save money. I have sourced mine out at LEE VALLEY their website is www.leevalley.com

Cheers;

Gregory

Nice leads! I inquired here about lathes a long time ago and got pretty hung up on the prices. that TAIG looks to be a solid unit at a rock bottom price! almost suspiciously so - but you seam to reckon it will do the job? I have very little lathe experiance, but am hoping to turn masters for things like crankcases for 72'nd radial engines (small!) etc. that sherline shure is purty but a little out of the budget...

David,
I have been a machinist for many years and have my own lathes and milling machine in my basement work room. I use my tools for my plastic modeling hobby and I also build working steam and gas engines. You say you don't have any experience or knowledge. My suggestion is to find something very inexpensive to begin with. I know how that sounds but to invest in a new machine is just the beginning. Most only come with basic tooling and additional tooling can add up quite quickly. If you could pick up something from ebay within your budget you could learn on it and see if you really want to do this type of work. At one time there were Unimats around and now they have been replaced with Sherlines and others. They will all do a good enough job for modeling work. It's not the machine as much as the operator. If you have a good mechanical apptitude and with some good basics you can make quite a few parts for modeling. Here's a link for some of my metal models, all of which have been machined from solid stock or from castings. They range in size from 22 inches (Case traction engine) to 2 inches (small vertical steam engine)
http://photobucket.com/albums/v43/gbritnell/Modelengines/
gbritnell

David:
When you've decided on the specific lathe, also buy a set of pre-shaped tools. I bought a 7"x 14" lathe last year and didn't discover, until I got home, that no cutting tools were included. I bought a 12" length of 1/4" square steel stock at a local hardware store, cut it into 2" lengths and ground the ends to shape. They work great for shaping plastic, but weren't quite hard enough for metals. So, I ordered a set of pre-shaped tools from Micro-Mark for metal work. Buy the HSS set that is 5/16" square. That set will take care of most metals you'll want to turn. Don't buy the high-priced carbide-tipped tools unless you intend to turn high carbon steels and tungsten.
I see by your profile that you live in California. You should be able to find books concerning lathe work out there. Check at a junior college or trade school that teaches metal working and see if you can buy a text book. Years ago, Sears sold a book about hobby lathe use.
Good luck .

Gbritnell: I am kind of curious about something and since you have more experience than I do I will ask you this about machining. How does one go about machining a round edge like a semi circle or an end of stock? I have not been able to locate a cutting bit that is for turning something round or even fillets. Are there turning bits out there for certain radiis or is it a go by sight and feel? I have some experience at lathe work but mostly turning down stock, face offs, tapers, and coarse thread cutting.

Scott

Scott,
If you were doing this type of work on a regular basis there is a fixture that you could build to cut radii on the end of pieces of stock. Being as these radii never have to be perfect I usually cut it close with my regular turning tool and then file it to shape using a radius gauge as a template. Let me know what exactly you are trying to make and I can be more specific.
gbritnell

gbritnell - Thanks for the info. I am not making anything yet, but I was thinking about scratchbuilding some Star Trek models from the website - starfleet museum. A lot of the parts have some pretty good sized rounds. I first have been thinking about getting a lathe since I no longer work at a place that has a lathe. This weekend I was looking bidding on an old SEARS lathe by Atlas. I did not get the winning bid. I will just keep looking.

One of my lathes is an old Craftsman/Atlas. I bought it new in 1973 and will do almost anything you need to do in modeling. If you can find one in decent shape you won't go wrong buying it. The nice thing is you won't need cut down tooing for it like a Sherline or Taig.
gbritnell

My brother-in-law has a Craftsman/Atlas wood lathe but the manual says it can turn metal (soft metals I would think). It has the wood cutting toolrest but no tool post. I would not want to be the one holding the cutter in my hand when it grab the metal. Say good bye to the hand. I keep looking around for lathes that go with my budget but my wife keeps reminding me about the budget situation. Some day, shortly, I hope to be getting one.

Snoopy,

To turn a radius on the end of stock, you can do a lot of calculations to determine the steps to be cut, or you can eyeball it and then blend everything together with a file. The latter is the way I do it, and for modeling purposes, it is fine.

Another way is to make a form tool for the purpose. This is a piece of HSS stock that is ground to the desired final shape. A fair amount of work, I would only recommend it if you do a lot of the same shapes over and over again. You need a larger lathe and very rigid setup to use this type of tool without it chattering.

Hope this helps a bit

Kurt

You can also get a set of collets and use gravers to turn small radii.....do not try to use gravers with a chuck, you must use collets.

Thanks guys. I will keep all this in mind when I go to purchase my first lathe or find a friend that has one.

Or just build your own! http://cgi.ebay.com/Midget-Mini-Metal-Turning-Lathe-Plans-on-CD_W0QQitemZ6009235164QQcategoryZ2594QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Wonder how practical or easy this would actually be, but if you could pull it off for a couple hundred with a motor your lovin' it! lots of really, really good books on e-bay right now!