Welcome to my channel! I'm Richard Moore and I enjoy creating and repairing things using a variety of techniques and disciplines. What's more I enjoy sharing what I do with you here on RU-vid so you can join me on the journey.
A trained engineer by profession, I have been lucky enough to work in all kinds of engineering disciplines over the past 40 years from machine shop to electrical shop to electronics and software engineering.
My channel is about Engineering at Home. Using readily available and affordable tools and materials to make interesting things and to generally have some fun in the workshop.
No need to use dti. Simply measure height at 180deg. Divide by two and that's the number you aiming for. Personally I made a centre height setting block. It's knurled and had decent base. I an instantly check centre height especially when the lathe is used by others.
I got mine from Impractical Machinist off eBay www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334369762367 he also has a RU-vid channel which is well worth checking out. Alternately you can try to find a Sandvik Coromant 620-20H10
how would u go about if the poor man is really poor and doesn't even have a surface plate? What is he gonna reference this of of? Creating a surface plate via the 3-plate-method from the late 18th century?
The cost of 3 iron plates to flatten would be more than a cheap surface plate. The really poor man would be better off scrounging a piece of float glass for a surface plate.
'Every day was like scrap heap challenge' certainly sounds like living the dream! I grew up watching it back in the 90s, by far the best thing on tv, that or robot wars!
What an awesome build log on your website! I'll definitely be referencing it for my build. The end result of your model is absolutely beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing.
Instead of doubling the nuts you might want to look into a locking washer called Nord Lock. It’s a two part locking washer with serrated faces and works quite well in an application like yours. They only come in packages of three or four but that’s all you need anyway. They are cheap and come in lots of different sizes from 6-32 all the way to something like an inch and a half.
What a shame. With a little more care and attention these mini lathes would be providing thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of people countless hours of fun, productivity and enjoyment. But the word is out that they’re trouble. Even armed with knowledge, skill and the right tools it’s a time consuming job that is frustrating at the very least. Imagine how many people simply don’t get into machinery work because they can’t start small and build their skills. These mini lathe machines should come in a complete kit form except that they should be machined to closer tolerances. It would probably cost the company the same amount to machine it correctly and just not assemble it. They win and we would certainly win. Most people who buy machines like this don’t mind fine tuning them but almost nobody wants to have to machine their own parts and rebuild them just to see if the hobby will lead to more. My hats off to you for your patience and persistence in going through this process.
Thanks David, I totally agree. I was lucky enough to be trained in a machine shop during my apprenticeship so I'm happy to fix any problems that I find, but as you say for the newcomers looking to pick up the skills on their own these lathes are a setback for them. I don't think all of the lathes are terrible, and it probably pays to buy one from a brand such as Clarke or Warco here in the UK. At least that way there will be a warranty and I'd like to think that if they are putting their names to the machines they would do more QA than the unknown brands.
Now that was funny when you transitioned from tapping to Morse Code to SOS “my lathes in trouble, please send help”. I actually burst out laughing. I’ve been there with stuff that’s just so screwed up all you can do is make a joke and laugh.
I bought a MP3-TF-16P from DFRobot. It has a method .playTrackNumber() which appearently blocks the other instructions Since in any Arduino sketch, instructions are executed sequentially, I wonder if I cannot "fool" this by switching through tasks rapidly. I saw one video about millis() function, but didn't understand well. Do you have any video like that on your channel?
The problem is that if a function blocks, it blocks the entire CPU. Millis() is a function that gets the current time elapsed in milliseconds and can be used to make code run every n milliseconds, it doesn't stop anything from blocking though. I see the DFRobot device has the possibility to be controlled via serial? If so you might be able to trigger it to play using a serial command which would be non blocking. Alternatively you could consider a pseudo multi-threading library like this one github.com/AhmedYousryM/NonBlockingSequence this allows you to put a blocking call in its own loop so the rest of your code can continue to run. This was the first one I found, there are probably others out there.
You can often pick up old cast iron jointers (planers, you might call them in the uk?) which consist of 3 cast iron plates. The indeed and outfeed tables make good surface plates, and the fence a decent rigid straight edge. Takes a bit of work to scrape in, but are much beefier than a hand plane
These mini lathes are a big pet peeve of mine because so many people buy these, want these or try to use these but there’s not one single manufacturer that will make them right. They all have problems galore and while it’s actually fun to tune things up or adapt them for different things, these are practically torture to get working even half way decently. Can’t somebody charge $500 more and make one where EVERYTHING isn’t wrong with them? Now that would be fun to fine tune, debut and adjust. This is torture and you are a brave man or just a masochist with extra time on your hands.
I totally agree. The frustrating thing is there is a good little lathe in there somewhere, and I feel sorry for the folks that aren't able to fix the problems themselves.
I could really do with a bevel edge straight edge to scrape in my dovetail surfaces on my mini mill and the cross slide on my lathe but as you say they are impossible to find. I’m thinking of making one if I can source the right size of suitable cast iron. In fact the right size makes 2.
Yes, same here. I want to make some phosphor bronze gibs at some point and a bevel straight edge would come in handy for that. Old car brake disks are a good source of quality cast iron if you can find some.
When grinding HSS tool bits, there's no need to worry about overheating them. They'll be far too hot for you to hold, long before you affect the hardness.
Great video. i never actually thought to rotate the grub screw on the tool like you did to make it more precise then turning the knobs. Though the downside of doing it that way is that the thread could move over time. I always thought those screws were supposed to be loctited in and you use the knobs to adjust then locking with the nut.
I think one of my favorite aspects of this project has been how honest and relatable it is: you're a regular guy trying to have some fun in the shop and a problem landed in your lap that you didn't know how to solve ... and you let everyone come along while you stepped through it. It's easy to imagine myself in your shoes; I don't know if I would have had the confidence, perseverance, or ideas to tackle everything you did. I like that you mention your concerns that you had ruined something; who hasn't felt like that when they got into something much more involved than they first realized? Thanks for sharing your experiences, this was a great series. For what it's worth, the cuts were night and day different, and I am certainly looking forward to more of your projects! Cheers!
