DIY Epoxy Granite Metal Lathe #5: Cross Slide! 

Thanks!

Thank you!

Oh that’s really cool! Do you have any photos or videos or anything? Id be really interested to see the project

Thanks!! The plate is surface ground, but unfortunately I did it myself and pretty badly. Its flat within about +-.002 though which for the moment is good enough I think the ripples came from my feeding speed being wrong on the surface grinder but Im not sure.

Thanks!! The plate is surface ground, but unfortunately I did it myself and pretty badly. Its flat within about +-.002 though which for the moment is good enough I think the ripples came from my feeding speed being wrong on the surface grinder but Im not sure.

@@robertsteinwandel6658 thanks for the reply, ah that makes sense. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the project!

What the purpose of having the bed on a 30 degree incline?

@@bobweiram6321 30 degree incline helps evacuation of the chip faster and coolant evacuation also. As CNC machine uses linear guides and ball screw, it will also helps with the temp as chips flowing directly into the chip conveyor and not worrying about the cleanup afterwards in conventional lathe beds. I hope it's answers your question.

Definitely recommend making test batches to find one that cures fully dense but is easily workable. Start at 16% epoxy and work down to the lowest % that still works. Use whatever aggregate is available, but definitely use a well graded mixture.

Also definitely use a steel substructure within the polymer concrete for the most of the rigidity of the machine. Your homebrew epoxy granite mixture will likely be not as mechanically or thermally stable (polymers creep like hell) as the real stuff.

@@kkuhn Thanks really appreciate man 👍

Im a big fan of that channel haha, she makes awesome content! Honestly thats a good idea, I just didn’t quite feel like spending the time to keep swapping the center drill and the drill bit in the chuck lol

Thanks! I mean most metal lathes have a hollow spindle and a chuck where you can pass material backwards through the chuck for working with long pieces. Are you possibly thinking of this compared to a wood lathe where you generally wouldn’t have a hollow spindle/ chuck?

@@robertsteinwandel6658 yes thanks! that's exactly it.. I lack the inference to find these lathe types, models etc.. and I've tried every term I could think of .. it's so weird I've seen these lathes used but they never say the name and model almost like it's a secret and they never respond when asked. It dawned on me that this type would probably be used to make gun barrels so I'm gonna look there. I love billiards and have always wanted to make my own cue. There is a seemingly cornered market for special lathes that make and repair cues.. but they seem shady and cheaply designed and they certainly don't share knowledge of the alt lathe brands and models for obvious reasons. So I'm trying to find a lathe that will turn a cue shaft but can also do other things if desired. I've learned about taig, collet etc but nothing I've come across addresses the type of lathe I've seen. I've only just begun my search so I'll stick with it... thanks again for your kind reply!

@@hobonickel840 absolutely, yeah sometimes it’s oddly hard to find information like that haha. If you’re turning wood I wood (hahaha) bet that you could use a wood lathe with a long bed and turn it with success. Do proper cues screw together in 2 halves or have I just only ever used peasant grade pool cues before? Hahaha If they do screw together a wood lathe with about a 3 foot bed would work just fine I bet, this gets more difficult and more reason to need a pass-through spindle assembly if you need the whole cue in a single 6ish foot length.

@@robertsteinwandel6658 oh man you're awesome... they are two pieces with a joint. Ive looked hard today and still come up short and gun lathes are overkill. I've seen people using the wood lathes again today and even the milling set up with CNC software but still no lathe info lmbo

@@hobonickel840 hahaha glad I could help a little bit. I think you really would only need a metal lathe if it was just what you had on hand, a wood lathe would work and be much much cheaper (like 1/10th the cost potentially) Let me know how it goes!

Some from a local steel depot, but most is scrap that was going to be thrown away- much cheaper but the time to clean it up and make it precise is pretty significant