Building from round stock

[Danuke]

I reciently snuck a Harley home, and now my wife hears me talking about getting a lathe. Some day, sooner than later, I'll try to seek one home. In the meantime, where/what can I use to learn about using round stock to make engines; seeing as how I was advised to start that way rather than using castings.

 

[Deanofid]

Hi Dan;
I think what might have been said was to use "bar stock", which is any stock metal shape, as in square,
rectangular, flat, as well as round. What I'm getting at is, you don't have to limit yourself to using just
round shapes of metal to carve out your engine. The engine you see in my avatar picture is made from
bar stock metals that include brass, steel and aluminum.

The main reason to make your first engine, or your first few engines out of bar stock instead of castings
is, if you mess a piece of bar stock, you just go cut another piece and start again at the loss of usually
only a buck or two, where if you make a mistake on a casting, you have to buy a whole new piece from
the company you got the kit from, and that can get expensive. Also, castings often have no flat places
on them to help you find a starting point for that first critical cut. Bar stock is generally known to be
fairly flat, straight, or round, so you have a beginning reference.

A while back there was a thread here dedicated to designing a "first engine" for folks starting out in the
machining game. Here's a link to the original article, which contains a lot of discussion and some pics:
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=6259.0

Hopefully, this link will take you to the download section where you can copy the files for that engine
so you can look over the prints:
http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item218

That engine is pretty simple, and meant to help a guy get a running engine under his belt while getting
him some experience with his machines at the same time. There are a number of other engine plans
in the downloads section. You can find a link to it in the upper left hand of the forum page in the box
that says "Menu". There are also lots of books available. Checking through the downloads section will
get you started on something that can be made from bar stock without putting money out for a book
until you find a specific engine you would like to build.

Good luck!

 

[Blogwitch]

Dan,

Very good advice by Dean, and I will just add a little more.

You are hoping to sneak a lathe past the better half, but you will most probably, a little later, be trying to get bigger things past her querying gaze.

Don't worry too much at this time, but really, you will be needing a milling machine as well if this game really takes off with you. At this time, a good hacksaw, files, bench vice and an engineers square will be the basic minimum to cut a few of the parts to shape, although with experience, some of it will be able to be done on the lathe. This is when the tooling for your machines can get rather expensive, so at this time, allow at least 50% more than the lathe cost, just to get you started on the road to a most enjoyable hobby.

Johnj

 

[lensman57]

Dan,

Very good advice by Dean, and I will just add a little more.

You are hoping to sneak a lathe past the better half, but you will most probably, a little later, be trying to get bigger things past her querying gaze.

Don't worry too much at this time, but really, you will be needing a milling machine as well if this game really takes off with you. At this time, a good hacksaw, files, bench vice and an engineers square will be the basic minimum to cut a few of the parts to shape, although with experience, some of it will be able to be done on the lathe. This is when the tooling for your machines can get rather expensive, so at this time, allow at least 50% more than the lathe cost, just to get you started on the road to a most enjoyable hobby.

Johnj

Hi,

I ditto above and would suggest that you put away a considerable amount of money for tooling and work holding stuff, you'd be surprised as how much these stuff cost these days.

You may also consider that if you really get in to this new found passion, sooner or later you will think about building bigger things so the capacity of the lathe and the mill will come into the equation of finance so if I were you I'd ask questions and do a bit a research at the start and it will save you money in the longer run. Take this from someone who did not, yours truly of course.

Regards,

A.G

 

[Danuke]

Howdy,
My oops, should have said bar stock, have round on my mind for some reason. I believe that I have narrowed things down to the Micro Mark or Little Machine Shop companies.
Years back, I had what I suppose was Norm fever and got a mess of Jet and Delta woodworking tools. I tried, but I just could really get into it, however, and hopefully I can sell them (we ended up using them mostly for Eagle Scout projects for the boys in our Troop) and use the bucks for metalworking.
One question, I have a nice Jet 14" woodworking band saw. Can I put metal cutting blades on it for metalworking, or do I need to sell it and find something else?
Thank you all for your help.

 

[gbritnell]

You won't be able to use the bandsaw for cutting metal unless it has some type of speed reducer. The sfpm for wood is too fast for metal and will burn up the blade.
gbritnell

 

[Sshire]

I usually (100% of the time) take what George says as gospel, but.....
I am using my (Delta) bandsaw with a bi-metal blade to cut aluminum and brass. Goes thru way easier than oak or walnut.
Most of my metal cutting is done with the Harbor Freight metal cutting bandsaw. Worth every penny of the $129.00. (coupons and a sale)
It's certainly possible that if I cut everything on my Delta, I'd be harming it. BTW, don't cut steel on the wood bandsaw, the speed is way too fast and will result in a toothless blade. Don't ask how I know this.
Best
Stan

 

[ProdEng]

My woodwork bandsaw could be set up with one drive belt for full speed or two belts on two pairs of pulleys to give a much reduced speed. Check to see how many pulleys are in the drive system, you might be lucky.

 

[pkastagehand]

On the bandsaw question, if room under it permits (or off to one side or something) one could rig a "jackshaft" (a second shaft on bearings with pulleys, etc.) so that you can make a double reduction. Small pulley on motor, Big one on one end of jackshaft, small one on other end of jackshaft and big one on the saw input shaft.

Using 1.5 inch pulleys for the small ones and 6 inch for the large ones and a 1725 motor you can get down to 110 (rounded up) RPM at the saw shaft. Still too fast probably but that's the idea anyway.

Alternatively, a gear reducer of some type. Variable speed motor on the saw? Several options but maybe not any cheaper than buying a dedicated metal cutoff saw. But don't get rid of the band saw, I'd love to have one even though I have a metal cutoff saw. As someone mentioned above still useful for a lot of the non-ferrous stuff.

Paul

 

[Danuke]

I appreciate the insights. I guess that I will sell it also.
Alas, I just ordered new wheel guards (tires) for it. Amazing, it has just been sitting there, no use, and the things come apart at the seam. What a whizzer.