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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

New Lathe


montea6b

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Well, after months of flip-flopping and hawking Craigslist, I finally sprung for a lathe. It is a Jet 9x20, brand new with dinged paint that I got for half off new at a local surplus machinery dealer. Not big enough for serious gunsmithing, but good enough for the tinkering I have planned. Actually, the two barrels I had planned to doing a little work on slide through the headstock quite nicely.

 

Spent a couple hours Saturday cleaning off all the cosmoline and playing around with the settings. Now I need some tooling to cut stuff...

 

I have a couple catalogs, and my mind is swimming with what I need to start with. Here is what I have come up with so far as a basic starter set:

1. Dial indicator with magnetic base

2. Boring bar(s)

3. Tailstock drill chuck

4. Live center

5. Parting tool(s) and holder

6. Cutting/threading tools.

 

As far as the last one, I see that there are the "traditional" tool bits that I remember grinding in high school machine shop almost 30 years ago, but they also have lots of holders with replacable triangular carbide inserts. Is this the way to go? What are some thoughts from the machinists out there. Any essentials I missed on my list above?

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congrats on the lathe. i've been looking for a while too but everything i find is to big, to small, wore out, over priced or i'm short on money at the time.

about 15 years ago i used some of the threading tools with replaceable inserts & they worked great but they were new at that time & there were a few times we had to change out tooling back to the traditional hand ground bits in the middle of a job because the suppliers were out of the threading bits. we mostly used them on a cnc just incase we snapped an insert we wouldn't have to spend but a couple minutes getting it back going again

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Indexable tooling is defiately the way to go in the long run but I would sugest you start out with some brased carbide tooling until you are sure what you want.

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The ability to grind tool bits is a skill that every lathe owner should aquire. A cheap piece of HSS can become just about any tool bit you might need. While in the middle of a project, one often finds they need a special shaped tool bit. You can either have the ability to grind it on the spot, or spend your time searching catalogs and waiting for the brown truck. Your money would be better spent on a quick change tool post and grinder. HSS has many properties especially suited to the home shop.

 

Learn to grind your bits while you learn to run the lathe. I wonder how many of us have 55* indexable threading bits in the tool box. I do. I was given them by a Czech friend, but I rarely use them. Most US surplus actions have square threads, and I have yet to see indexable square bits. HSS speed cuts nicely at the speeds I thread to a shoulder, is cheap, plentiful, and adapts well to various situations. LL

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Handiest tool I ever bought was my 6" Atlas Clausing (Craftsman) lathe.

 

I've ground my own, but the carbide ones sure are nice. HF has some set available, and that's a good way to go. Also, these people:

http://www.rex-supply.com/cgi/CGPTHOME

have really good prices on top quality stuff. They ship, have a huge catalog and are in Houston. When I need something really oddball, or need something really high quality that I don't want to spend a fortune on, they have it. Like left hand thread 1/2x20 taps for making suspension arms out of stainless steel, for example.

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Thanks guys. I can see the wisdom in having a few of both types. Regarding the QCTP, this is spoken of often as a prefered upgrade, but it seems to me that with a 4 way turret you could change tools even quicker. (as long as you use 4 most of the time...) Will I quickly see the light once I discover that I use a lot more tools than 4? It's not that much extra work to loosen up the allen bolts and put a new holder in unless it needs a lot of shimming.

 

On another note, what is a good source of stock material to use to make a spider? I picked up a short piece of 1" steel pipe yesterday, but the fit is a little sloppy and the walls are kind of thin. The protrusion of the spindle bore is quite short and I would like a snug fit. They had some bronze bushings that were pretty thick walled, but they weren't large enough. Will I have to make this from solid bar stock, or can anybody think of a source for heavy walled tube that I can use as a starting point? (ID of spindle bore approx .8", OD approx 1.02")

 

Addendum: just picked up a piece of 1.25" aluminum bar stock from a shop up the street. I think I will bore that out for my spider unless somebody has a better idea.

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Check out www.littlemachineshop.com They have a lot of stuff for smaller lathes and a lot of good info in general.

 

Another site that has been very helpful to me is www.shopfloortalk.com A great bunch of guys there.

http://www.shopfloortalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22305

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For myself, I only notice two real advantages to the QCTP. One is safety, it is pretty easy to gow your hand or arm on the extra bits in the 4 way, the same is true for the QCTP if you load both ends, one for turning and the other for facing. The other advantage is the speed at which one can get back on the center line after changing bits. You do not have to shim the QCTP. Also, it is not uncommonn for me to sharpen a bit in the tool holder. After doing so, it only takes moments to get back to the center line of the piece of work. LL

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Montea6b according to the book by Raymond Benwood you can build one of his receivers using the size of lathe you just bought

 

A guide to the drilling reaming and broaching a bolt action receiver at home by Raymond Benwood

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3615602/BA

 

http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/boltaction.htm

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14066913/Selfmade-Mauser-bolt-action-receiver

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Good stuff, thanks for all the inputs. I'd love to have the time to tackle making a receiver from scratch like that!

 

One more thing, center drills. I don't quite get the purpose of these stubby little things... should I spring for a few assorted sizes anyhow?

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Center drills flex less than regular drill bits allowing more precise placement of holes. You use them to start a hole for the other drill bit to be run into. Also, they cut a 60* hole for a point to run in. It is unlikely that you will need more than a couple of the smaller sizes. Good ones are not much more than cheap ones, last longer and are likely to be ground closer to 60*. LL

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Montea6b according to the book by Raymond Benwood you can build one of his receivers using the size of lathe you just bought

 

A guide to the drilling reaming and broaching a bolt action receiver at home by Raymond Benwood

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3615602/BA

 

http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/boltaction.htm

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14066913/Selfmade-Mauser-bolt-action-receiver

 

Actually, I would love to make something like this: real "mini" Mauser

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