Swifty
Well-Known Member
Have to agree about the double T slot, what a great idea, I wish that I had it on my lathe.
Paul.
Paul.
South Bend 8K photos
- Thread starter mikbul
- Start date
Help Support Home Model Engine Machinist Forum:
Nice to know somebody's reading this!
Happy turnings Swifty
and greetings to Australia!
Mike
When I was first looking at the SB1001 as a purchase one thing kept bothering me, the compound looked like it would flex. Since I come to realize those worries were unfounded. The compound has a short, (The key is short) stout chunk of Iron bolted with five bolts to a thick piece of steel and captured by another thick piece of Iron that's as wide as the crosslide. Just enough room for the two t-nuts that at 90 degrees are fully exposed and at 45 where I keep mine half the nut is showing, plenty to find it with a wrench. In practice I find no flex with steel or grabby brass with a cutoff tool, provided you've got that brass locked in with a center. Like my friends from Australia would say, " no worries mate"
JAndrew
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Mikbul,
Thanks for all the pictures. That t-nut slide idea looks great but leaves me wondering how they setup the gib screws for it? Or are there gib screws at all?
The only problem I see with buting a new machine like that is knowing that it will never be that clean again! MUAHAHA!
-J.Andrew
Thanks for all the pictures. That t-nut slide idea looks great but leaves me wondering how they setup the gib screws for it? Or are there gib screws at all?
The only problem I see with buting a new machine like that is knowing that it will never be that clean again! MUAHAHA!
-J.Andrew
Mikbul,
Thanks for all the pictures. That t-nut slide idea looks great but leaves me wondering how they setup the gib screws for it? Or are there gib screws at all?
The only problem I see with buting a new machine like that is knowing that it will never be that clean again! MUAHAHA!
-J.Andrew
There's gib screws on the compound and gib screws on the crosslide.
The compound base has t-slots. Go to page two post #20 and see the gib screws on the compound and the crosslide handle, there are dovetails under the crosslide like any other lathe. Page 1 post#10 shows the compound upside down and the dovetails. If you took your compound off and machined t-slots into the top of the crosslide, you would have the same thing.
Your right about being clean but it's the dings I've put in the paint that hurt.
Actually it was with the crosslide gib screws that I dinged the paint on the tailstock.
Here's some photos of the carriage, crosslide and compound. The photo in the crate the crosslide is off of the carriage and you can see the dove tails, screw and nut.
Took a trial pass down a piece of 16"X2" 6061 aluminum tube tonight and much better finish than carbide. I think the ticket is to rough down with carbide then finish passes with Cermet. One thing it showed me is I need to order a SB bullnose from Grizzly.
Swifty
Well-Known Member
I just finished turning some aluminium for the cylinder on the twin flame licker that I'm making, 54mm dia as both bores are in the same block, and the finish with carbide was excellent. I suppose it depends on the grade of aluminium, mine was an unknown piece that I had lying around.
Every time I see pictures of your lathe I'm envious, it's smaller than mine, but it looks very well built. Would love to have one as a second lathe.
Paul.
Every time I see pictures of your lathe I'm envious, it's smaller than mine, but it looks very well built. Would love to have one as a second lathe.
Paul.
I've been able to get some good finishes with carbide then all of a sudden :fan: I ordered a South Bend Bull nose and I think that will give me consistent turns. I machined a brass piece that fit's into the 6061 tubing and had it drilled for a dead center. I think the problem was the brass was too soft and would loosen up if I forgot to adjust it and oil it all the time. So for the heck of it I machined a regular bearing into it and it needs a thrust bearing to make it work right. The tubing is 16" long so it has to be rigid or you get bands in the finish.
The bull nose will take care of that.
What shape is the nose of your carbide tool?
BTW the 8K is on sale $1,000.00 off. Buy yourself a Christmas present!
Swifty
Well-Known Member
The carbide insert is a DNMG 432P, with a 0.8mm nose radius. Probably not made for aluminium, but works great as an all round tip. If I'm having trouble with surface finish, I will rough out with carbide and finish with HSS.
The discount on the lathe is great, trouble is I live in Australia, freight would kill me.
Paul.
The discount on the lathe is great, trouble is I live in Australia, freight would kill me.
Paul.
Your HSS tool is not an insert, correct?
I got a good finish with an HSS insert but it lasted only I turning on that 6061. I don't know why they make HSS inserts! I'm trying to get out of grinding any tools, I went through that with my sawmill and found sending the blades back to Wood Miser was faster, and they come back perfect. Price was not that much considering time saved. At that time I wanted to be at the sawmill controls, not the grinding and re-kerfing station.
The cermet stays sharp much longer.
I looked up that insert and it's a diamond shape where all my carbide inserts are a triangle with 1/32 nose radius.
Actually 1/32=.7938 mm so not much diff. from your .8mm
I whipped up another brass plug for the dead center and that's better but can't wait for the bullnose to get here. Also I've decided I'll use the 4" chuck for aluminum pipe only that way if I have a 16" piece in and need to do another job I can pull the chuck and pipe off and leave them connected, stick e'm under the bench and finish anytime. Also I've come to the conclusion that I'll have to order a little extra for chuck up waste instead of trying to turn the last piece around finish the turn. The first photo's of cermet dry on one side and WD40 on the other, I don't see enough difference to bother with the WD.
Swifty
Well-Known Member
The more I machine the piece of aluminium that I have, I'm convinced that it's a piece of hard "tooling aluminium" used for moulds.
Some of the extruded aluminium is fairly soft and gooey to machine.
Paul.
Some of the extruded aluminium is fairly soft and gooey to machine.
Paul.
I turned two pieces of 6061, one with Cermet and the other with carbide. A good finish was achieved with carbide but with more work, a couple extra light passes to clean up the surface. That wasn't necessary with the cermet but a final light pass did improve the finish slightly. This is not a real absolute comparison because of the less than ideal tube plug for the center made of brass, wears fast, needs constant adjustment etc. etc. As soon as my South Bend Bullnose arrives I'll have a re-do.
First photo is Cermet, 2nd &3rd carbide, 4th carbide cleaned up, 5th cermet, and last both side by side. Carbide's on the right.
First photo is Cermet, 2nd &3rd carbide, 4th carbide cleaned up, 5th cermet, and last both side by side. Carbide's on the right.
I think your right about the soft aluminum, I've machined aluminum on a bridgeport that was harder and just got small tooling lines, I actually like those. The front forks on my Ducati are like that, if you run your fingernail down them you get a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I like that!
I've always wanted to go to Australia, tell you what, I'll grab an 8K for you and hop a freighter, kill two birds with one stone.
Here's some aluminum I machined on the Bridgeport about 12 years ago, You can see I'm no machinist but the aluminum was harder and I think easier to machine. That Bridgeport was an amazing machine, wish I had one. I can still use it but I'd have to drive to Connecticut.
The dovetails on the bar came out ok but the slots are a mess.
Swifty
Well-Known Member
At the moment there are other priorities on new purchases, I would eventually like to have a small CNC mill. My current mill is a "King Rich", I think that it's made in Taiwan, it's an excellent machine based on the Bridgeport, but a little bit larger.
We had several Bridgeports at work, some US built and some UK built, the build quality of my mill is equal to the genuine Bridgeports. A lot of people will not touch Taiwanese machines, but the dearer machines are very good quality.
Paul.
We had several Bridgeports at work, some US built and some UK built, the build quality of my mill is equal to the genuine Bridgeports. A lot of people will not touch Taiwanese machines, but the dearer machines are very good quality.
Paul.
I've heard there pretty Sharp! Sorry, couldn't help myself and I'm no mill expert so take no offense.:hDe:
Swifty
Well-Known Member
I assume that Bridgeport came up with the original design, someone may be able to confirm this, but what a good design. It's been copied by so many manufactures over the years. I gave up buying Bridgeports at work when I was able to buy just as good for 2/3 of the price as a new Bridgeport.
Paul.
Paul.
I'm just lucky to have a good friend who lives at the Yale Observatory and there's a full machine shop in the basement for when it used to be an active part of their Astronomy dept. He also teaches machining at Yale,(he actually does much more, that's a simplification) you'd be surprised at how many depts. have their own machine shop.
Besides the Bridgeport there's a SB 10K or heavy 10, can't remember which, and loads of other nice old tools.
He gave me a tour of the main machine shop at Yale once and it's loaded with old and new machines in a huge old bldg.
