First Cuts… New Lathe

So a couple weeks ago, I finally bit the bullet and got a small 7×12 mini lathe. Walt in Hawaii has been a great help and has been answering my hundreds of questions….

I finally made my first cuts with it the other day…. I started out practicing some facing, turning, and cutting operations… for as long as my adult ADD mind could take it….about 2 hours….

and then started in on a small project.

Now…. go easy on me as I’ve literally been working with this lathe all of just a couple days.

I figured I’d do some LDC baffles and made about half a dozen. Some turned out really nice, some turned out… well… not… Here is an example of both.

Was nice to get the first chips on the lathe…

….and from a newbie perspective… the quick change tool post from littlemachineshop.com is a must have….. since I dont know what I’m doing and am learning, I have to change tools constantly and this saves tons of time… and no shimming!

I then moved on to some Crosman bolt handles… the one on the left still needs some o-rings in the grooves, the one in the middle is ‘textured’… which is to say I fouled up a knurling operation… and the one on the right is a bit long, but works fine. I also didnt step it after the threads and so goofed it a bit, but it works.

I also come across a mini mill…. ! I’ve got a milling vice en route for it and have some bits… right now, I have a cheapie drill press vice rigged to it…. but just as with the lathe, I dont know a thing about it so will be learning…

I figure the learning curve will be steep enough to where it will take me at least a week before I’ll be turning out WOK Butts and a month or so after that, I’ll be making big bores to sell….

🙄 😆