Member postings for Ron Laden

It was you Jason that suggested GT inserts to me and that they are good for certain cuts on steel especially finishing and I now use them all the time. I have also found them good for the final two or three passes when boring to a finished size.

Ron

With my hobby mill SX2P (2500rpm) and Warco 918 lathe (2000rpm) I use carbide cutters 99% of the time I only tend to use hss for making form tools. I have not had any problems with cutters running at slower than recommended speeds I just keep the feed rate and depth of cut lower depending on the job.The only thing I would say is to buy half decent cutters and inserts, I know some say they use cheap as chips carbide tooling and they are fine but that has not been my experience.

My first lathe was a belt drive mini lathe where the belt drives a layshaft with plastic gears which Jason describes above. I stalled my lathe twice and the second time broke the plastic gears, I then replaced the gears for a metal set but they are noisy plus I modified the belt drive to one which would slip in a stall situation. It worked well but I doubt you would want to get into having to do that.

If your budget will run to a direct drive mini lathe like the Sieg SC2 and SC3 which have 500 watt output brushless motors then I would consider those, your choice of course but based on my experience with the belt drive its the way I would go if getting another mini lathe.

Ron

I think the starter set can be purchased from ARC for the SC3 and when added to the lathe price the overall cost is similar to the Amadeal lathe price.

My first lathe was an Amadeal CJ18 and I have to say it was a bit rough around the edges and no way set up or correctly adjusted. I spent a couple of days stripping it down cleaning and adjusting, it worked well enough as mini lathes do and it was reliable. Amadeals service was ok and they did me a good deal for just the bare bones lathe with no extras. I have no experience of the Sieg lathes but I have one of their small mills which has proved to be excellent.

Arc are known for their great service so you won't have problems there.

When I started a number of guys here steered me away from sets which proved to be good advice, I bought tooling and cutters as jobs dictated which kept the initial outlay down and spread the cost whilst I was learning.

I made a larger, heavier duty top slide for the mini lathe I had. It was to improve rigidity which it certainly did and I went with cast iron and brass gib stribs. I considerd aluminium but thought cast iron not only offers a much higher rigidity but also a lot more mass for the same given size.

£13.99 for 1 mtr of 5/8" silver steel, I would grab that with both hands. A supplier I have used wants £20 for 12 inches and £70 for 39 inches....

Edited By Ron Laden on 13/10/2022 06:04:12

I,ve never really tried to understand how they calculate your state pension. I believe the full pension is currently £185.15 per week paid every 4 weeks but I get quite a bit more than that I get £266.50 per week, how..? I dont know or at least I cant remember it was explained a few years back but I was probably not listening. I also have a private pension I paid into for a number of years but I pay tax on that as my state pension uses up my tax allowance.

On my Warco 918 which is a similar size and power to the 250 inverter type I use mainly insert tooling with 8 mm holders, my boring bars and parting tools (rear tool post) I also use insert tooling. I do use some HSS for making up form tooling etc but I would recommend carbide for most general work and 8mm holders are fine on this size of machine. Dont worry about the rigidity of the tooling itself thats not where the problem is, its the overall rigidity in the machine which obviously is nothing like larger industrial machines but for what we do its fine.

Mentioning a rear tool post for parting off that is something to consider further down the line but the 250 comes with a T slotted cross slide so you could buy or make your own rear post which from my experience with my mini lathe and now the 918 transforms parting off from a dread to a pleasure to do and the powered cross feed on the 250 is a bonus for this.

My two penneth anyway.

I know its CNC Jason but the parts you produce with it are seriously impressive and never cease to amaze me.

Ron

If you can afford the Warco 250 with the inverter drive then I would go with it rather than going for something smaller. The 250 looks to have a pretty decent spec and some nice features plus good capacity for its size 10 inch x 22 inch and 28mm through the spindlle. Re a qctp I wouldnt be without mine, I have a Dickson one on my old Warco 918 and it certainly doesnt lack rigidity. The Warco 250 also comes with 125mm 3 & 4 jaw chucks a pair of steadies and a face plate plus other extras so seems to be a decent deal but the final choice of machine is of course yours.

Edited By Ron Laden on 07/08/2022 05:29:15

I think pgk,s suggestion of using JB Weld (oriqinal) is a good one. You could open up the threaded holes to say 4mm fill with JB and when cured drill/tap M2 again. You could then use metal screws, I think JB great stuff I have turned, milled, filed, drilled and tapped it. If you did go with it leave it for a few days to fully cure before drilling/tapping.

Thats also impressive Jason, 3 hours per side I was thinking it would have been much longer. How do the cutters fare are they still good after 6 hours I was thinking thats quite a lot of work but for a quality tool maybe not. Do you tend to use carbide more than HSS or is it a mix depending on the job.

Out of interest Jason how long did the two halves take to machine. Obviously a lot of cutting but the time is of no consequence when you arrive at such a great result.

Wow Jason that is impressive, I did wonder that with it been CNC it may have all been cut and shaped on the machine. Interesting seeing the cut lines on the larger image and where the spokes meet the hub and outer wheel.

Great stuff.

Excellent Jason, how did you get the spokes from a square section to a round one. Was it part machining, part handwork..?

Ron

I have a slot in the cap which allows the cap to fit down over the sensor, having said that I more often than not forget to replace the cap but in 3 years I have not had any debris up there and swarf never gets up there.

Have you read the Howard Winwood review on the SX2P, you probably have but if not you can find it on the SX2P page on the ARC website by clicking the "More" tab which is next to the specification tab. He has some good mods on there one of which is adding a forward/reverse switch its cheap and so simple to do. I added it to mine as it allows tapping on the machine which is good if you have a number of holes to thread. I can tap up to M6 in alu and up to M5 in cast and M4 in steel.

Re spindle rpm, yes you can calibrate the speed control I did mine before I fitted the hall sensor. I have a handheld digital tacho from my R/C aircraft days and used that to find a number of speeds between zero and 2500 rpm. Though for the low cost of the Hall sensor and digital readout I think it more user friendly having the display.

Doc should you want a cheap spindle speed readout thats easy to fit and 100% reliable then have a look at the one I fitted to my SX2 in the photo below. Available from a well known auction site, I paid 6.50 for mine 3 years ago but I see they are now a tenner but still well worth it.

+1 for M Machine Metals they will cut and supply to whatever size you require

Doc, I,m quite surprised that you think your SX2P is horrible when cutting cast iron or steel, thats not been my experience with my SX2P. As Jason mentioned I also use the ARC premium range both HSS and carbide and have had no issues. It shouldnt be the machine if mine is anything to go by, for a small table top mill I,ve always thought it punches above its weight with decent rigidity and more than enough power for its size.

I,ve cut quite a lot of cast and steel and with something like the correct depth of cut, rpm and feed rate to suit the cutter size i dont have any issues. In fact the side cut Jason shows 10mm x 1mm using a 10mm cutter wouldnt be a problem I wouldnt have any worries taking that cut in cast iron, and quite recently I side cut a 15mm x 0.8mm cut along a 4 inch length of cast using a 10mm cutter and it was fine.

If your cutters are sharp ? and your set up is ok I cant quite see why you are having problems. The one thing I would say is that I dont tend to go by what the book says re rpm and feed rates etc I do tend to run my SX2 a bit faster then book values especially with rpm I dont know if that makes any difference or not but its just what I,ve found on my machine and where its happiest.