lathe setup and alinement

[Leigh]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by J Tiers:
The effect is not very important until you get to a goodly fraction of a kM, or you are extremely fussy....</font>

Very true. But you're the one who brought it up in the first place

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Leigh W3NLB

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by mochinist:
Did you make a mess? I only use the flood coolant rarely and more often than not I just use it to cool down a part when the lathe is not running. It is nice if you use mostly HSS cutting tools though.

P.S. Get an aquarium air pump and an air stone and set it up on a timer to aerate your tank a few times a day, it will help keep the bacteria down, otherwise hat coolant is gonna end smelling up your garage bad. An oil skimmer to get rid of the tramp oil helps out a ton too, and if you wanna get real fancy, use distilled water to mix with your coolant oil.

</font>

The coolant got all over my lathe, and ran down my ways, but it all ended up dropping down to the chip pan which has a drain that goes right back into the 3 gal tank. My lathe is old and it was very cheap so I'll continue to use flood coolant all the time unless it starts to smell.. It kind of smells nice right now but I'm sure that's not going to last.

-Adrian

[Norman Atkinson]

I am so glad to find that i am sort of right.

I am now in a state of complete exhaustion.
It would appear that my little watchmakers lathe- the 6mm has lost three of its legs.
Again, coming from an area that built ship for the world, that the lathes fitted to effect running repairs had to be taken to the nearest quayside, screwed down firmly and repairs commenced.
Again, looking at the pillars in Durham Cathedral, I keep wondering where the bed was kept. the Cathedral is is situated on the River Wear and immediately above an ox-bow.As I said in another posting, it all happened some 900 years ago.
That, if my historical references are correct was before the time that Edward Connolly never scraped a lathe.

Verb Sap.

Norman

[Evan]

As Norman has said, the lathe need not be level but it must be true. The level can be used to true it even if not level.

One question, how does one level a slant bed lathe?

http://www.lathes.co.uk/willson/

[Leigh]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Evan:
...One question, how does one level a slant bed lathe?</font>

With a slanted level, of course.

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Leigh W3NLB

[Leigh]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by NORMAN ATKINSON:
...That, if my historical references are correct was before the time that Edward Connolly never scraped a lathe.</font>

Hi Norman,

As a student of archaeology, I can provide innumerable examples of ancient technologies which achieved astonishingly good results. That does not in any way invalidate the modern techniques under discussion here.

Modern optics can image features a few millionths of an inch in size. That does not in any way reduce the significance of Galileo's contributions. But modern techniques can achieve results which were unthinkable a century or ten ago.

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Leigh W3NLB

[Leigh]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Evan:
As Norman has said, the lathe need not be level but it must be true. The level can be used to true it even if not level.</font>

Hi Evan,

Perhaps we're confusing different concepts here.

The purpose of a level is to return the lathe to the conditions which existed when it was trued initially at the factory. If circumstances dictate a different datum, then that should be used in preference to the "assumed" level condition.

As I noted in my earlier response, a 1" error in the height of the legs at the head and tail will not necessarily introduce an error if all four feet are coplanar.

And this whole discussion masks the fact that the legs may be of different lengths. By leveling the bed, you adjust the height of each leg as needed to compensate for errors in its length as well as errors in the mounting surface.

A lathe bed must be flat, i.e. the four corners must be coplanar, and the surface must be flat, if it's to produce accurate work. Leveling is a simple method of achieving this condition in the general case.

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Leigh W3NLB

[Evan]

I fully understand the concepts in truing a lathe. Leveling is commonly used to describe the process but it needn't be level. If that were the case it would be a bugger to install a lathe and use it on a ship.

[Leigh]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Evan:
...If that were the case it would be a bugger to install a lathe and use it on a ship.</font>

No. You just have to hold the ship still until you're done setting up the lathe. I'm sure the Captain would cooperate

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Leigh W3NLB

[Leigh]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Evan:
I fully understand the concepts in truing a lathe. Leveling is commonly used to describe the process but it needn't be level.</font>

I believe I said the same thing. The goal is to have the bed flat and true, regardless of the surface on which it's mounted.

But setting the bed level, based on the use of that tool, is a concept which is easily explained to the inexperienced practitioner, and it avoids discussion of complexities which don't arise in the general case. And it achieves the desired result.

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Leigh W3NLB