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Posted by Donald on March 24, 2008, 11:41 am
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Things have changed since I bought my ML7 in the early 1960's for £120.
There are now enquiries about CNC machines and fancy insert tipped tools.
Maybe I don't know what I am talking about but I thought that CNC machines
were for repetition work and tipped tools were for use in high speed
production lathes.
In a fit of nostalgia I bought a Portass S lathe which was advertised
about ten years or so ago. £110 if my memory serves me right. This is a
somewhat primitive machine by any standard but it produces accurate
results. I use this lathe a lot and it has more than earned its price in
jobs I have done for local fishermen.
At some stage I built a Dore Westbury milling machine, another exercise
which was well worthwhile because it taught me a lot of things including
using the 4 jaw chuck for accurate work. Ian Laws instructions were an
education in themselves.
Coming back to tooling, I admit to buying tipped and insert tipped tools
and have not profited by this.
My advice, for what it is worth is to stick to HSS It is reasonably cheap
and does the job.
Donald, South Uist
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Posted by Austin Shackles on March 25, 2008, 5:25 am
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On or around Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:41:00 +0000 (GMT), Donald
>Things have changed since I bought my ML7 in the early 1960's for £120.
>There are now enquiries about CNC machines and fancy insert tipped tools.
>Maybe I don't know what I am talking about but I thought that CNC machines
>were for repetition work and tipped tools were for use in high speed
>production lathes.
>In a fit of nostalgia I bought a Portass S lathe which was advertised
>about ten years or so ago. £110 if my memory serves me right. This is a
>somewhat primitive machine by any standard but it produces accurate
>results. I use this lathe a lot and it has more than earned its price in
>jobs I have done for local fishermen.
>At some stage I built a Dore Westbury milling machine, another exercise
>which was well worthwhile because it taught me a lot of things including
>using the 4 jaw chuck for accurate work. Ian Laws instructions were an
>education in themselves.
>Coming back to tooling, I admit to buying tipped and insert tipped tools
>and have not profited by this.
>My advice, for what it is worth is to stick to HSS It is reasonably cheap
>and does the job.
HSS is fine until you want to do something a bit more demanding, like I did
the other day:
The throttle pot. on the LDV is held on by approx 7mm nuts which hide down
little holes and are impossible to get a spanner on. Even the deep
1/4"square drive socket wouldn't fit, so in the lathe it went and was turned
down to a very-thin-wall, which did the job. No HSS tool would have turned
that down, but the TCT one did.
OK, if I'd not had TCT I could have annealed the socket, turned it, then
re-hardened and tempered it, but that would have been a lot more hassle.
--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
Travel The Galaxy! Meet Fascinating Life Forms...
------------------------------------------------
>> http://www.schlockmercenary.com/ << ...and Kill them.
a webcartoon by Howard Tayler; I like it, maybe you will too!
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Posted by MikeH_QB on March 25, 2008, 6:50 am
Please log in for more thread options > Things have changed since I bought my ML7 in the early 1960's for =A3120.
> There are now enquiries about CNC machines and fancy insert tipped tools.
> Maybe I don't know what I am talking about but I thought that CNC machines=
> were for repetition work and tipped tools were for use in high speed
> production lathes.
> In a fit of nostalgia I bought a Portass S lathe which was advertised
> about ten years or so ago. =A3110 if my memory serves me right. This is a
> somewhat primitive machine by any standard but it produces accurate
> results. I use this lathe a lot and it has more than earned its price in
> jobs I have done for local fishermen.
> At some stage I built a Dore Westbury milling machine, another exercise
> which was well worthwhile because it taught me a lot of things including
> using the 4 jaw chuck for accurate work. Ian Laws instructions were an
> education in themselves.
> Coming back to tooling, I admit to buying tipped and insert tipped tools
> and have not profited by this.
> My advice, for what it is worth is to stick to HSS It is reasonably cheap
> and does the job.
>
> Donald, South Uist
Not being into CNC myself, it would appear that it is ideal for very
complex projects where accuracy in several planes iscritical. Also you
need to remeber that some types of projects now being tackled by
'amateurs' would have been difficult even for professional set-ups
only a few years back (e.g. machining jet turbine compressors and the
like).
As far as tooling is concerned, I still have my doubts with tipped
tooling for general work. When I last used lathes etc I was still a
relative 'youth', returning to it some years later as a hobby - I
thought that all the new 'gizmos' on the market would be the be-all &
end all! Whilst fine for very tough/difficult materials thes finish of
many of these tipped tools often leaves much to be desired. A really
sharp, correctly ground HSS bit is a pleasure to cut with (it looks
right and sounds right), and the finish is clean. The 'cost' of
periodically honing or re-grinding is pretty insignificant in a hobby
environment.
So I must admit that the tipped stuff tends to be used for roughing
work, and HSS for 'finishing'. In fact I have just finished building
Harold Hall's design of tool grinding table (as featured ion his book
& in MEW many issues back) - it's cetainly imroved my grinding
accuracy!
If it's a hobby - it should be just that, it should give you pleasure
in the performance. Industrial tooling is designed for rapid metal
removal, minimal tool wear, and an acceptable finish - each tool being
closely specified for the individual job in hand - but all invariably
used on high power, fast-feeding industrial machines.
Mike
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Posted by John Stevenson on March 25, 2008, 8:04 am
Please log in for more thread options wrote:
>Things have changed since I bought my ML7 in the early 1960's for £120.
>There are now enquiries about CNC machines and fancy insert tipped tools.
>Maybe I don't know what I am talking about but I thought that CNC machines
>were for repetition work and tipped tools were for use in high speed
>production lathes.
>
>Donald, South Uist
Just some observations on CNC.
The main one being that it is now completely affordable, a few years
ago it was still in the realms of industry, big money, long runs and
payback.
My big CNC cost £24,000 of which about £15,000 of that was the
controller and associated electronics.
This could now be replaced with a £80 program and £ 500 worth of
electronics.
On a smaller scale we are seeing people building router type machines
from MDF board, studding and drawer slides.
Don't laugh they work and they teach people a lot, good and bad.
They then use these machines to make an improved MKII.
It's now got to the point where for some CNC has become their hobby
Regards,
John Stevenson
L Stevenson [ Engineers ]
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Posted by Charles Ping on March 25, 2008, 1:29 pm
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>
> It's now got to the point where for some CNC has become their hobby
> Regards,
>
> John Stevenson
> L Stevenson [ Engineers ]
As opposed to just simply buying tools as a hobby?
Charles
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>There are now enquiries about CNC machines and fancy insert tipped tools.
>Maybe I don't know what I am talking about but I thought that CNC machines
>were for repetition work and tipped tools were for use in high speed
>production lathes.
>In a fit of nostalgia I bought a Portass S lathe which was advertised
>about ten years or so ago. £110 if my memory serves me right. This is a
>somewhat primitive machine by any standard but it produces accurate
>results. I use this lathe a lot and it has more than earned its price in
>jobs I have done for local fishermen.
>At some stage I built a Dore Westbury milling machine, another exercise
>which was well worthwhile because it taught me a lot of things including
>using the 4 jaw chuck for accurate work. Ian Laws instructions were an
>education in themselves.
>Coming back to tooling, I admit to buying tipped and insert tipped tools
>and have not profited by this.
>My advice, for what it is worth is to stick to HSS It is reasonably cheap
>and does the job.