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Handy excuse to buy a mini lathe...

TerryH

I've wanted a mini lathe forever. I was debating buying a Giraud powered trimmer even though I had the Tri Way and the Trim It II already. Spinning those with a cordless drill works but thinking about prepping 400 new cases for my F T/R gun was a handy excuse for me to forgo the powered trimmer and buy a mini lathe instead. lol...

I ended up with the Grizzly G8688 7x12 along with a ton of tooling etc... from littlemachineshop.com. I have lots of Grizzly machines in my wood working shop and have been well pleased with them so getting the Grizzly mini was a no brainer for me.

I purchased a Harbor Freight 4 drawer roll cart and modded it to hold the lathe and associated tooling etc... I've been reading and watching vids. Spent nearly as much on lathe accessories as I did on the lathe. So I've discovered a whole new rabbit hole with the lathe. :)





Took let another gun room rearranging of course but it fit right in.



 
I stumbled onto one on ebay, and justified it with the need to prep 700 new cases for last season. It sure makes turning necks easy.
 
Very nice.Watch for this..... 6 months,a year,sometime in the not too distant future, you're gonna do a dope slap and wonder how you got along without a lathe(hint,to those on the fence about this).As a data point,10 or so years ago picked up a Wade 8A lathe for a serious weekend of beer monies.

Have fun,put your thinking cap on WRT process engineering, gotta pare the ops down to the lowest number.Take safety VERY serious,like heavy equipment..... they can bite.
 
Nature Boy said:
That's sick, you're sick and it's making me sick.

(I want one)
Click to expand...

Nature,it's kinda like someone setting you up with a tuned BR rig.... Alex Wheeler comes to mind? duh.If you spent an hr in our shop you'd be hooked as hard as a 15# bass needs to be,haha.Takes longer to googlefoo some dumbarse part than to process it given the tools.Our Tig welder and a cpl lathes are gonna have to be pryed from cold dead fingers,just sayin.
 
Bamban said:
Not the OP, but here is a video neck turning with a 21st Century neck turner using a mini lathe.

Watch "Driving the neck turner" on YouTube
Click to expand...

Dude! That is great. This I gotta try. Are you using the 21st Century case holder from their lathe or some other holder? What rpm are you spinning it?
 
Tangent alert, forum nazis's can stop reading NOW.

Terry,you're only some O1 away from making D reamers.Thinking pointing dies,now to the tangent.

Yesterday helped a bud setup a '40's Denbigh (UK,we're #2 and trying,Norton ... no affiliation to the U.S. grinding co,is the poop) 6 tonne fly press.Talk about bullet forming tool.Oh my goodness.... the amt of feel and touch that's designed into these presses simply can't be put into words!It leaves our custom hydraulic "H" frame press for dead in speed and touch.

Oh,I ain't gonna get rid of my hydraulics. But dang,a manual fly press concerning certain bullet forming process work is like somebody switching on the lights.... doh.
 
TerryH said:
Dude! That is great. This I gotta try. Are you using the 21st Century case holder from their lathe or some other holder? What rpm are you spinning it?
Click to expand...

I am using the 21st Century case holders as well, running at around 300. I had the turning mandrels Melonited, the process turned these steel mandrels shiny black and real hard, a much cheaper alternative to carbide mandrels. The coated mandrels don't even come close to these treated pieces in terms of sleekness and hardness.
 
Bamban said:
I am using the 21st Century case holders as well, running at around 300. I had the turning mandrels Melonited, the process turned these steel mandrels shiny black and real hard, a much cheaper alternative to carbide mandrels. The coated mandrels don't even come close to these treated pieces in terms of sleekness and hardness.
Click to expand...

Very cool. Thanks.
 
TerryH said:
I've wanted a mini lathe forever. I was debating buying a Giraud powered trimmer even though I had the Tri Way and the Trim It II already. Spinning those with a cordless drill works but thinking about prepping 400 new cases for my F T/R gun was a handy excuse for me to forgo the powered trimmer and buy a mini lathe instead. lol...

I ended up with the Grizzly G8688 7x12 along with a ton of tooling etc... from littlemachineshop.com. I have lots of Grizzly machines in my wood working shop and have been well pleased with them so getting the Grizzly mini was a no brainer for me.

I purchased a Harbor Freight 4 drawer roll cart and modded it to hold the lathe and associated tooling etc... I've been reading and watching vids. Spent nearly as much on lathe accessories as I did on the lathe. So I've discovered a whole new rabbit hole with the lathe. :)





Took let another gun room rearranging of course but it fit right in.



Click to expand...
Now I really really really want a mini lathe... don’t NEED one.. your a bad man!!
If you do a vid turning cases on it that might just tip the balance!
 
Rushty said:
Now I really really really want a mini lathe... don’t NEED one.. your a bad man!!
If you do a vid turning cases on it that might just tip the balance!
Click to expand...

Not sorry. :D

I am going to give neck turning a try on the lathe. It'll be a bit. Concentrating on the changeover to the new .308 cases with different powder, primer and bullet lots right now. Assuming I don't totally crash and burn when I start prepping cases for my 6.5, I'll post a vid. :confused:
 
I hate to rain on your parade, but watch out for chips on the tri way. When mounted sideways, they can land where the shoulder hits, and cause your cases to cut short. It's better to put it facing up. It took me a bit to recognize that, and it was driving me crazy.

Fortunately, this justifies the purchase of a mini mill, as the lathe is not sufficient to build the motor mount you absolutely *need* and that cannot be purchased *anywhere* at any price.

If you can't tell, I feel like I'm about 6 months ahead of you on the same road.
 
TerryH said:
I've wanted a mini lathe forever. I was debating buying a Giraud powered trimmer even though I had the Tri Way and the Trim It II already. Spinning those with a cordless drill works but thinking about prepping 400 new cases for my F T/R gun was a handy excuse for me to forgo the powered trimmer and buy a mini lathe instead. lol...

I ended up with the Grizzly G8688 7x12 along with a ton of tooling etc... from littlemachineshop.com. I have lots of Grizzly machines in my wood working shop and have been well pleased with them so getting the Grizzly mini was a no brainer for me.

I purchased a Harbor Freight 4 drawer roll cart and modded it to hold the lathe and associated tooling etc... I've been reading and watching vids. Spent nearly as much on lathe accessories as I did on the lathe. So I've discovered a whole new rabbit hole with the lathe. :)





Took let another gun room rearranging of course but it fit right in.



Click to expand...
I just want any part of my shop to be that clean and organized.
 
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