Pattern making, and general foundry work, is the biggest reason I got mine. Anyone else get shavings onto them?
I occasionally use my Myford ML7 for woodturning. It’s a bit of a ball ache because the metal turning lathe is obviously well oiled, so it takes forever to clean the sawdust afterwards.
I dabbled when I had access to a lathe , now I do insane work-abouts with a sander, because I dont have one, back on the USS Prairie the Patternmakers used a wood lathe quite often, I even saw them go down to the Machine shop and get on a metal lathe to turn the pattern for a 24 inch light port, the pattern shops lathe did not have enough swing overbed , half the story we cast it and sent the piece down to the Machine shop, I was standing next to the Machinist , when the light port ( the piece with the glass) came out of the chuck, thank god it went away from us, hit a bandsaw, came back hit the bed of the lathe, then shot up to the overhead, then roughly repeated that adventure a few times, we had to cast another as that one was so out of round it was beyond all repair , for the second machining the piece was clamped to a faceplate rather then just chucked up , took forever to get centered, but was not coming out V/r HT1
When I was in machine shop we decided to cut a wooden baseball bat out of some seasoned wood on a metal lathe. Worked beautifully until the guy who was sitting on the lathe chatting with me while I was turning it slid off the lathe and accidentally engaged the threading lever. Bat went flying and we went running...I did manage to hit the stop button as I ran past it though. Our shop teacher just happened to be standing nearby and nearly shit himself. We had a long meeting about safety after that and he threatened us repeatedly until we all stopped laughing and took him seriously. I finished the bat but was little thinner than it was supposed to be due to the chunks that were missing that had to be smoothed out.
Uh, that looks vaguely like aluminum, but it probably isn't, given it is (probably?) something for a ship...
the two piece on the right, the port hole or air port, and the light port (part with glass) are brass, the battle port( metal cover) could be brass or aluminum, modern aluminum ships are often all aluminum, but often are brass plated, for looks V/r HT1
I've used my metal lathe to make a lot of sprue patterns. I set the compound to the deired angle and use a motorized drive for the compound screw that I made. Works very nicely. I have turned them from wood, aluminum and Delrin (acetal). Acetal is the nicest as it is naturally slick and trurns beautifully. The lathe also gets pressed into service to make all sorts of pins, shims, and spacers and sleeves for hoist equipment, burner tubes etc. In fact right now I am making a new tailstock locking lever as I broke the grey cast iron lever. It broke because it whacked into the tailstock after it did not quite cinch up when I tried to lock the tailstock into position. I'm going to make molds and likely will have a foundry fill the molds with ductile. Might just go ahead and make the ductile if I can come up with NiMg3 to inocculate the iron, though. Anybody have any they could put into a priority box and mail me for a fair price or know where I can buy it? Denis
Delrin, he says... I've got some 3/4 inch in black coming (for an altogether unrelated matter, though the metal parts of the thing could be cast...)
No doubt the manganese bronze would make a very fine strong and durable handle. Tempting. But this is for a classic lathe---a 1943 Monarch EE. So, I want to keep it as "stock" as reasonable. Otherwise just using a large hex nut pinned to the locking shaft and putting a ratcheting wrench on that might be a very practical solution. Plus, I want to learn how to make ductile. I'll make a thread about it if I can get some NiMg3. I've got a scheme for safe addition of mag to the molten iron...
I would not think it takes a scheme, we (USN) degassed Monel with Magnesium, we drilled a 1/4 inch hole in a 1 inch Mg rod, hammered it onto the end of a 3/8 steel rod, and plunged it to the bottom of the heat , unless it popped off and floated, it was a non-issue, if it floated, it was a light show, but still no big deal, other then having to degass again, How much are you trying to add Percentage wise??? V/r HT1
Perhaps a steel rod with Magnesium ribbon wound around it, with the whole coated with a mix of graphite, silicon carbide, and "tar?" Stuff that in and stir?
Too bad the forum doesn't have any members that work at a large iron foundry in Tennessee ........he might be a good candidate got too. Best, Kelly
While I recognize your desire to learn to cast ductile iron, I would think replacing the antique part with a gray iron casting would not be a travesty. The first one had a good run...
No, not a travesty. But I would think Monarch would have made it from Ductile had it been available to them as it is clearly a better alloy for the purpose. But, this is also a very good chance for me to try my hand at ductile which I have been interested in doing for a while. Until now I really have not had a need for ductile. This is the perfect application for ductile. It would be trivial to cast it in grey again. But, it is almost certain to break again. And the lathe's next owner will likely not be an iron caster. My son is likely to inherit this lathe. I'd like to not leave him with a part that has already broken twice that I know of. Perhaps the current lever was a replacement of a broken lever at some point that has subsequently broken twice. Not far-fetched as this part is notorious for breaking. Denis
