Results 1 to 13 of 13
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    South Coast of New South Wales Australia
    Posts
    296

    Default What do use your lathe for?

    What's the main thing you use your lathe for?

    Mine is for my model and toy steam engine hobby/addiction.
    Cheers Jim
    My Youtube Channel -
    Blue Heeler's Model & Toy Steam Engine Room

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    sydney ( st marys )
    Age
    64
    Posts
    4,887

    Default

    Buying beer

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    melbourne australia
    Posts
    3,228

    Default

    I use my lathe to make accessories for my lathe.

    I've also made two model diesel engines, titanium pens as gifts for friends, repaired lots and lots of "stuff", made various fittings for a router table, repaired the blade rise/fall on my table saw, made parts for a drill press mod, turned wood a few times, go kart parts, motorcycle parts. Mostly small stuff.
    Chris

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,439

    Default

    Hi Guys,

    Oddly enough as part of making tools to make more tools ! You can never have too many tools
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Age
    56
    Posts
    1,416

    Default

    One day I may do an engine, you don't know how many times people ask if I'm into trains/model engines etc.

    Anything really, last week I made a extension handle for the neighbours Bunnings log splitter as the handle was to short and made operation hard.

    A month or so before that a shaft to couple a 18hp Chinese motor to a onga 1.5hp pump for a bore.
    I also made the resessed flanges welded to a tube to couple the housing but didn't grab pictures. This was before I heated and shrank fit it, so took the pictures to show the guy the inside keyway.


    In between I make tools and fix anything around that's needed or thought up to modify.
    Using Tapatalk

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Mackay North Qld
    Posts
    6,446

    Default

    I use my lathe to make the bits and pieces needed in the reloading chain for my blackpowder muzzleloader rifle.

    This includes a stainless steel loading rod and the various brass jags needed for ramming the ball and patch and for cleaning the residue fouling from the rifling between shots.

    Quite a few muzzleloaders especially on the firing range these days forgo the traditional wooden ramrod for something more substantial. hence stainless rods.

    To explain further, the cleaning jag needs to be fairly well matched to the diameter of the ball its cleaning patch to effectively clean out the rifling grooves.

    Hence an accurately firing muzzleloader rifle.

    Like BaronJ my lathe is also utilised to make tools to fix or adjust other tools.

    Grahame

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Newcastle
    Posts
    124

    Default

    Making custom motorcycle parts, making more tools, jigs etc and just repairing stuff for myself and others.
    Hafco AL320G Lathe
    Toolex RF31 Mill/Drill
    Saber Bandsaw

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Notting Hiĺl (Melb) or Echuca
    Age
    64
    Posts
    179

    Default

    Fixing things - a knurled headed bolt today, a bearing spacer, bushes and stepped bolts for the old farm trailer, jigs to repair the old ute
    Tools - a bearing press for my sons school
    Teaching my son - he then made parts for his past entries in the Victorian model solar vehicle challenge
    I started an oscillating steam engine -- but the fixing has taken over
    Learning new things -- tried screw cutting a metric thread today and learnt to cut it a bit deeper before running the die over it. sigh, it is not quite as true as I would have liked but the vice grips have a new lease on life.
    cheers
    David

    ------------------------------------------------
    A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they’ll never sit in. (Greek proverb)

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Rosebery/Eastlakes
    Posts
    115

    Default

    Odds and ends.. Probably the most fun thing I made was a scuba diving torch.. I machined the battery canister out of acetal and the light head was machined from aluminium.. I learned a bit from that process.. turning, boring, internal threading and external threading, grooving.

    I also practiced by making little projects for the lathe.. a ball turner, a bumping tool to help true parts quickly without a dial indicator and a few other little bits and pieces..

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Ipswich QLD
    Age
    68
    Posts
    1,996

    Default

    Nothing atm has sat idle far to long, oiled and covered.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia
    Age
    67
    Posts
    362

    Default

    What do use your lathe for?

    Turning round into square. Though I am getting better.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Age
    56
    Posts
    1,416

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by wheelinround View Post
    Nothing atm has sat idle far to long, oiled and covered.
    Would you like me to send a few jobs over, I have a good list in my head of aroundtruits to finish, lol
    Using Tapatalk

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Mallacoota,VIC,Australia
    Age
    53
    Posts
    1,010

    Default

    I don't really have a main thing that I use my lathe for. Repaired machinery, bored pulleys so as I can key them, made shafts, bushes, cut threads etc.
    All The Best steran50 Stewart

    The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

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