Hi all, my name is Bill Holland.
I am new to machining, and I bought the 7x14 lathe not too long ago.
I have since been making parts on it, and have started a 1" scale live
steam locomotive on it. I have been making axles out of .5" crs rods.
I keep finding that I need to adjust the gibs quite often, and the
half nut on the cross slide also seams to wear out quickly. I have
found the machine not able to turn to .001 all the time. I can see
physically where the tool just does not cut certain parts of the steel
at the same depth.
I use the 99$ Quick change tool post that little machine shop sells,
and some phase 2 indexable carbide tool holders.
Question, do I need to do anything to those carbide inserts like stone
them before use? I just used them as is.
Should I stone the gibbs? or atleast make some brass gibs instead?
Also, I had to adjust my tailstock to get it more or less on center,
but I dont think I'd trust it for turning between centers. Im willing
to bet the tail stock is off in 3 different axises.
I have been reading other posts, with people saying their machine cuts
better than .001, so I figure my problems lay in my technique or
improper lathe setup.
I have read mini-lathe.com and all of its articles short of their pay
to see ones.
