I made the following modifications to my minilathe:-
1. Carriage clamp to stop the carriage moving when facing off.
2. Compound slide clamp to improve rigidity when parting off.
3. Plastic shield for the carriage gears to stop swarf jamming up the carriage movement.
5. Removed all the screws...
Having seen Andrew Whales video I made one of these and found it difficlt to use because you are trying to locate the round part of the tool onto a round mandrel. I managed to overcome this by replacing the round wedge item with a flat plate with a bee machined into it. The problem with this...
Jerry, that’s a good idea. The winder works well and because the mandrel is not limited to length longer springs can be made and then cut to length as you suggest.
Thank you I have purchased issue 19 and have produced a 3D model and a set of detail drawings. Instead of having to produce a square hole I am going to machine a slot and fit a retaining plate to secure the adjusting bar in place. All my designs are in metric.
Thank you for the link. I have purchased Issue 19 and now have the drawings. There does not seem to be a dimension for the overall length of the body. What overall length did you make yours? I’m looking forward to possibly redesigning it for ease of manufacture and making it.
A very sensible and balanced view on carbide tooling. Of course many of the replies on this thread are assuming that a first time lathe buyer has a grinding wheel available.
I wasn’t suggesting that HSS tools should never be used but for most of the time carbide tools work just fine especially when you are just starting out machining for the first time.
I use carbide insert on my mini lathe without any problems, just try them and gain some confidence. It’s a better use of your time rather than grinding tools for your lathe.
Stuart have excellent after sales service, send them your photograph and ask for a replacement. Their castings are generally very good as others have said and of course as with all castings it’s essential to get under the hard skin. I had a cover plate for an S50 which was very hard and I could...