Hi, sorry no pics yet but there will be some soon. I`m happy to report that I found a local place that sells tooling, real quality stuff tho so it's not cheap. Anyhow, I was amazed how pretty useless the lathe alone was, everyone was right, the lathe is just part of the adventure.
Well, so far had a real sttep learning curve and, as I said before, you deff learn quicker by doing rather than reading, true in my case anyway. The new 10mm idexed tools are a huge leap compared to the foc stuff that came with the lathe, they slice through aluminium with ease, quiet, smooth, no chatter and a mirror finish is no effort with them.
This lathe is so precise I am genuinely shocked. At first I found it hard to chuck things so they ran parralel to the bed, mainly as I am using short pieces for my project, but I have learned to set them up against the line of the cutter as a guide and that seems to work well, lasers would be a cool aid for this as it's still a bit of a pain, but getting easier/quicker each time. I completed my first prototype today and it's turned out way in excess of my expectations. One other thing I found is my arm is still sore from all the handle spinnig I've been doing, so, dolt wanna run before I can walk, but I feels a cnc conversion on my horizon. I think I heard that therels a mini lathe conversion kit, so I'll research that soon.
Turning lumps of ali into beautiful shiny functional items should not be this much fun surely?
I know I'm not really in a position to comment on the blessings of the c4, but I can say it has bags of power, the powered ways are also really cool. One dissapointment is that the internal bolt that holds on thecog that drives the lead screw sheared off today, no reason for it, nothing jammed or anything, it just appears to have given up, weird, first I knew was when I heard the cog fall off into the gear housing, luckily thlathe is still running ok, albeit the leadscrew is now static, I'll ring Chsteruk on monday, hopefully they can provide a replacement. Is it a common failling for this bolt to shear or have I just been unlucky?
Ok, I'm calling it a day for now and thanks for your replies, I appreciate the help.
Dave  |