Mini-Lathe?
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Sorry fella. I thought you were referring to me taking a crack at building a car.
I guess I am sensitive because I really wanted to race this month but ran out of time.
The only ideas I can think of to make a hand lathe would cost about the same as a regular lathe.
Thanks for the compliments. Good luck this weekend.
I guess I am sensitive because I really wanted to race this month but ran out of time.
The only ideas I can think of to make a hand lathe would cost about the same as a regular lathe.
Thanks for the compliments. Good luck this weekend.
OK Laserman- you have brought back some terrifying memories with that spider flick.
I had just watched it or something like it and then turned off the light and hopped into bed. Sometime about two in the morning, something I rolled over on woke me up. I was all groggy and put my hand down and searched for what had caused me to wake up. I grabbed a giant tarantula I thought based on the feel of a bunch of floppy legs and a large body . I screamed like a sorority girl.
My wife jumped up and turned on the light, I got my Louisville slugger ready and she pulled back the covers to reveal- A giant ant the boys had put there for April fools.
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TX, that is some funny stuff! Always somewhere on this forum you can always find a good laugh and Today here it is. The funny of the day!
txchemist said:OK Laserman- you have brought back some terrifying memories with that spider flick.
I had just watched it or something like it and then turned off the light and hopped into bed. Sometime about two in the morning, something I rolled over on woke me up. I was all groggy and put my hand down and searched for what had caused me to wake up. I grabbed a giant tarantula I thought based on the feel of a bunch of floppy legs and a large body . I screamed like a sorority girl.
My wife jumped up and turned on the light, I got my Louisville slugger ready and she pulled back the covers to reveal- A giant ant the boys had put there for April fools.
I know its learning the hard way, but for whatever reason, I want to break 3 seconds on 40' Freedom Track (36 1/2' pin to finish) using the parts out of the BSA kit. For every wheel that is half-way worth anything, I ruin 15 with the shaver. Yeah, it was a good waste of money.
I know I can just buy the wheels from John, but I need to get to the point where I can say "been there, done that" and so, I look for new creative ways to financially support small internet companies. I came across this mini lathe on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HIGH-TURNING-SPEED-CNC-METAL-MINI-LATHE-DIY-TOOLS-PROFIT-SMALL-v-/251391260349?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a881636bd
It would be used to do nothing more than true the wheels and remove the step. What do you think? (and - I have been lurking around for maybe a year, following one from member from DT to here. Hello all; I was never much for introductions)
My latest car (stock class):
5oz with 5/8" COM Rail Runner, fenderless
BSA supplied block cut to .6oz body
BSA supplied axles, polished w/12000 micromesh + Brasso
Head beveled, rears straight, FDW w/ 2degree bend
BSA supplied wheels, shaved/polished to 1.160
Red rocket polished bores (outer step remaining)
Graphite; Burnished rear hubs and axle holes
Rear axle holes drilled at 3 degrees cant (not with a drill press, but that ProBody Tool thing)
Stock wheelbase with rear axle a 5/8" from rear (rules prohibiting extended WB)
1/4" tungsten cube weights
4" drift over 4' (to take out very slight rear wobble)
Runs 3.04~3.05 (Districts) on 40' Freedom Trk (36 1/2' pin to finish)
I know I can just buy the wheels from John, but I need to get to the point where I can say "been there, done that" and so, I look for new creative ways to financially support small internet companies. I came across this mini lathe on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HIGH-TURNING-SPEED-CNC-METAL-MINI-LATHE-DIY-TOOLS-PROFIT-SMALL-v-/251391260349?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a881636bd
It would be used to do nothing more than true the wheels and remove the step. What do you think? (and - I have been lurking around for maybe a year, following one from member from DT to here. Hello all; I was never much for introductions)
My latest car (stock class):
5oz with 5/8" COM Rail Runner, fenderless
BSA supplied block cut to .6oz body
BSA supplied axles, polished w/12000 micromesh + Brasso
Head beveled, rears straight, FDW w/ 2degree bend
BSA supplied wheels, shaved/polished to 1.160
Red rocket polished bores (outer step remaining)
Graphite; Burnished rear hubs and axle holes
Rear axle holes drilled at 3 degrees cant (not with a drill press, but that ProBody Tool thing)
Stock wheelbase with rear axle a 5/8" from rear (rules prohibiting extended WB)
1/4" tungsten cube weights
4" drift over 4' (to take out very slight rear wobble)
Runs 3.04~3.05 (Districts) on 40' Freedom Trk (36 1/2' pin to finish)
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Hey B Regal,
I saw this mini when I was looking around for a lathe. It is so inexpensive that I had serious reservations about it. I think I saw it for even less a few months ago. Made in China, and it is a CNC! Very suspect.
I saw this mini when I was looking around for a lathe. It is so inexpensive that I had serious reservations about it. I think I saw it for even less a few months ago. Made in China, and it is a CNC! Very suspect.
B Regal,
Unless I am misreading the specs, it says it's capacity is 20mm stock. Unless you're planning on running some .866" diameter wheels, I think she's going to be a little too small. It also says the spindle speed is 20k. You would melt some wheels at that speed. I would pass if I were you.
EDIT: The manual says the spindle speed is 2k, not 20k like the auction shows.
Unless I am misreading the specs, it says it's capacity is 20mm stock. Unless you're planning on running some .866" diameter wheels, I think she's going to be a little too small. It also says the spindle speed is 20k. You would melt some wheels at that speed. I would pass if I were you.
EDIT: The manual says the spindle speed is 2k, not 20k like the auction shows.
Good catch of the diameter. I saw lathe and "cheap" in the same advertisement. Too good to be true...
B_Regal Racing said:
I am no machinist by trade (I deal in binary and hex for a living), but that lathe is too small for wheels given the specs, and the quality from the few reviews I've found have been less than encouraging. You'd do better with something like a mini-lathe, of which there are really only 3 choices:
1) The SIEG manufactured mini-lathes (aka Harbor Freight/Grizzly/etc). I have the HF 7 x 10, but it was crap out of the box. I had to replace the spindle bearings to with taper roller bearings to get better accuracy out of it, and there was a full handle revolution of backlash in the cross slide that had to be adjusted.
2) TAIG lathes (smaller, usually less powerful, but far more precise out of the box) mini-lathe. Much more accurate than the SIEG lathes out of the box. The upside is it's slightly cheaper than the SIEG derived lathes and easily customizable for your needs, but the downside is that it's more of a DIY solution.
3) Sherline lathes (smaller, but powerful and precise). These are not cheap. I believe they start around $700+ for their intro packages for manual machines, and have CNC ready or full CNC packages available that get very expensive.
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bracketracer said:
I like the fact that BR saw what the seller said, couldn't believe his eyes, and actually bothered to look up the manual. LOL!
BR, I am such a lucky person to know you!
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BTW TXderbydad,
Nice breakdown. Those are the conclusions I came to as well.
It seems worth it to go big and get a Sherline in my estimation.
The tooling and such will dwarf the cost of any machine at any rate.
Nice breakdown. Those are the conclusions I came to as well.
It seems worth it to go big and get a Sherline in my estimation.
The tooling and such will dwarf the cost of any machine at any rate.
laserman said:
Thank you. BTW, I love your crazy builds. Great stuff!
If you want it to work out of the box and have an easy path to CNC in the future, Sherline is absolutely the way to go. It's all plug and play, and their DC motor setup is a thing of beauty. That's not to say the TAIG isn't, but it's just more work. I've seen some elegant, but seriously involved CNC conversions for the TAIG lathe, while the Sherline conversion is much simpler. I am getting ready to add a Sherline CNC to the bench right now.
AINT THAT THE TRUTH! I just bought a mill to go with the lathes, and the cost of add-ons (rotary table, end mills, machinist vice, etc) is easily going to eclipse the mill's cost several times over. You get off a lot cheaper with a lathe than a mill, but not by much!
- Nov 24, 2011
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1reason said:
I would say, if you're going to go about it that way, just leave them as is out of the box. Sometimes, you can go the wrong way without the proper tools. JMO /images/boards/smilies/smile.gif
1reason said:
Some wheels out of the box check at .0005-.0007" of runout untouched. The vast majority are around .003-.005", but I have seen as much as .012". If you true the OD of a wheel that had that much runout without cleaning up the inside also it will make a heavy spot on the opposite side. If you don't have a way to check what you started with and what your finished product is, you may very well be hurting yourself with a tool like that. The $30 you probably spent on that tool could have bought you a nice set or two of wheels at derbydad4hire.com and you'd be set for scout racing. I totally understand a man's need to DIY, and I would never fault a man for buying a tool of any sort, but I wanted you to be aware of that tool's limitations.
bracketracer said:
Thanks very much for your reply
I'm also shaving a lot of weight off the inside of the tires. I think (it's past my bedtime) that the wheels start around 2.6ish and I bring them down to about 1.8ish (gram maybe?) and I have a wheel balancer.
I bought a bunch of stuff including a silver bullet from DD4H and I'm ok with buying parts, but I don't mind working the wheels (although most of the work is done by my son) because it gives me a chance to spend time with my son in something we are both interested in.
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