Dangerous Practices

You sir need to clean your lathe before taking photographs - it gives the impression that people actually do stuff instead of moaning

 In the age of the risk assessment and 'who can i sue' it is going to become increasingly common as the ex-industrialist (because let’s face it, children from school have no experience now) becomes the normal geographic within our hobby and demands 'best practice only' to be published without criticism. 

We have to face it, people in our hobby are limited by materials, equipment, space, and sometimes experience.  We are not taking massive cuts, swarf hitting the wall across the room etc. but can sometimes take hours boring a hole, taking minute cuts that would make a professional machinist blush because that’s what our machines can handle.  

 A good friend of mine started in this hobby with a single book by LBSC.  It contained phrases such as 'chuck it in the lathe' and other rather non-descript instructions.  Now, what do you do? Throw the job at the machine? probably not.  Common sense prevails and after placing the job in the chuck with plenty sticking out  you move onto the next sparse instruction only to find that you have too much sticking out and the job chatters or worse, you have a prang and bend the bar.  So, you move the work piece closer to the jaws and continue trial and error style.  How exactly did these people survive with so little precise, distinct instructions?  Maybe they didn't.  Maybe that’s why 90% of people at exhibitions have white hair?

 Photographs within articles say more than words ever could, but should not be taken as 'the way to do it' instead should be seen as the way the author has done then due to his circumstances and equipment.  

 A quick warning about double sided tape.  My windowsill is my graveyard of projects.  Where prangs, mistakes etc. go to reside for the rest of their lives.  On that sill are two disks which were held together and the diameter machined.  They are still stuck together after 6 years.  Tis good stuff. 

Edited By NJH on 15/09/2010 12:59:30

Edited By Stovepipe on 15/09/2010 13:37:08

Edited By WALLACE on 15/09/2010 20:45:43

Well that ME issue finally arrived here also today, and I did the same as Mr. Cave above. We have a saying here 'I laugh a hole in my belly!' 

I wonder that nobody mentioned that in this operation maybe half a mm or if you prefer a 1/32" of that butter-soft Stuart cast iron is removed, and this possibly in 2 or 3 passes. Even if a 3-year old would have tightened the chuck, it would be sufficient for that.

I often have to face both ends of some 60 x 60 x 150 mm steel lumps, sticking almost full length out of the (4-jaw) chuck, and up to now none of them went ballistic! (no tailstock support possible).

Greetings, Hansrudolf