Lathe question from someone who has no clue...lol

[Kurz]

Haven't heard about a manual machining course in many years...

Yavapai College Gunsmith Department has a complete curriculum based on the manual shop. 12 manual lathes and 10 manual mills. The 2-year curriculum is based on manual training with hand tools and machines.

There is a separate curriculum which is designed around CNC programming and operation.

 

[tobnpr]

We don't fix things any longer. We throw them away and buy new. So there aren't many manual job needs out there. However... I bumped into a friend of a friend who runs a speed shop / mechanic and his eyes lit up when I said I can run a lathe/mill. Guys like him are desperate for job shop stuff.

And marine/boatyard, as evidenced by some of the cool chit Jackie handles...

 

[243Lapua]

If possible, find a community college with a machinist course. You’ll get to learn on someone else’s equipment, and might very well have a great time doing it.
I did this at 46, and it was incredibly rewarding.

Hire the professor, a friend did that. Teaching him on weekends.

 

[RussellJ]

Think and learn as you go. I have made as many one off parts and dies as I have chambered barrels. A mill and a lathe will get a lot of work done with no wait time. Start with delrin and move up to aluminum. Both are relatively cheap to learn on and both machine pretty darn well.

I would never talk you out of a lathe or a mill. Its quite an entertainment package and keeps the mind working. Go for it!

Community college possibly or just find someone with some experience to get the basics. Be careful as machines that size are very unforgiving on body parts but otherwise play and go slow and learn.

linebaugh: GREAT advice!!!
As stated above: Start with delrin and move up to aluminum. Both are relatively cheap to learn on and both machine pretty darn well.

 

[SKWERLZ]

I will add, there are no intentions of contouring a barrel. Only threads and chambering.
So maybe not need a lathe with long bed. Do have some space constraints plus definitely want a 220 volt machine. No sense in fighting with a machine lacking the power to turn the material properly.

It’s a pain in the ass to profile, I’ve done a few.

 

[jackieschmidt]

We don't fix things any longer. We throw them away and buy new. So there aren't many manual job needs out there. However... I bumped into a friend of a friend who runs a speed shop / mechanic and his eyes lit up when I said I can run a lathe/mill. Guys like him are desperate for job shop stuff.

One reason my business is successful is we fill a need in a particular industry where CNC machining of parts in the realm of repair is just not feasible.
We also do quite a bit of new construction, which would benefit from the advantages of CNC machining if there was enough of it.
It’s a trade off. We can always use the various manual machines, in conjunction with a skilled craftsman, to do any job that comes into the shop.

 

[LVLAaron]

+ Construction and manufacturing needs a lot of manual work... There's still some of that left here.


Jackie, enjoyed seeing you on cortinas video on the tack driver. You should go on his podcast!

 

[kd4avp]

One reason my business is successful is we fill a need in a particular industry where manual machining of parts in the realm of repair is just not feasible.
We also do quite a bit of new construction, which would benefit from the advantages of CNC machining if there was enough of it.
It’s a trade off. We can always use the various manual machines, in conjunction with a skilled craftsman, to do any job that comes into the shop.

Jackie

In my area we have a number of companies still running machines built in the 40s & 50s dealing with handling textile fibers. You just dont buy parts for this stuff new off the shelf. Most is either salvage parts or machined by a skilled craftsman. Newer more efficient equipment is available, but these family owned businesses keep the old stuff running as long as they can.
Lets not even get into the safety aspect of some of this stuff. LOL

 

[ELR LVR]

Haven't heard about a manual machining course in many years...
As said, it's all CNC nowadays.
Being a manual machine dinosaur, I gotta wonder whether this makes sense.
Doesn't it take longer to write the code for some one-off jobs than to chuck up some stock and do it manually? Or, is AI writing code now as I've read?

I worked at a CNC shop for awhile
I didn't write the main programs, the boss did since the company was his liability/reputation and he did not want employees to possibly make any sort of slight mistake ,
we made a lot of Military Contract Communication parts so his 100% perfect recrod meant a lot to secure further new contracts as well.
So if an employee wrote a program and was just a decimal point off in a number
it could crash the tooling into the head. (boss said he did that a few times when learning some of his newer machines) Meaning if even the boss can make such a mistake, the likelihood of an employee doing so is even higher.
I did learn the G-code programs though, and made a slight change to them here and there to an existing program, especially during temp swings when our .0004" tolerances were off slightly.
but when I asked how long it took him to write some of the more complex CNC Milling programs
he said about 8 hours. It's very cool stuff though
But boring if all you're doing is loading material and pushing the green start button over and over all day.
We would often rotate to a different job every few hours from lathe to milling jobs to cure the monotony.
---
So yes many of the parts he would tell the customer, it dont matter if you buy 1 or 100 of these, you're really paying for the all day long programming time.
(such as when they got a quote for 10 ea, and the quote seemed outrageous for 10 parts. you still have to pay for the time to program and setup etc.)
But if they were repeat customers as most were, that was a 1 time thing, since once the program is written, they dont have to pay for that any longer, and they just pay for the parts afterward.

 

[jackieschmidt]

Jackie

In my area we have a number of companies still running machines built in the 40s & 50s dealing with handling textile fibers. You just dont buy parts for this stuff new off the shelf. Most is either salvage parts or machined by a skilled craftsman. Newer more efficient equipment is available, but these family owned businesses keep the old stuff running as long as they can.
Lets not even get into the safety aspect of some of this stuff. LOL

I edited my post in my first sentence.
One thing we do not compromise on is tooling. The days of a skilled machinist standing by a grinder sharpening his tools is long gone. We have specific inserts and holders to cover any operation the Machinist will encounter.
We also do a lot of heavy lifting. In our four buildings, we have a total of 7 overhead cranes ranging from 5 tons to 20 tons. Starting 5 years ago, we replaced every crane in our buildings, some over 60 years old, new units.
Here are the two in our newest building we built 5 years ago.

 

[Tim Singleton]

In answer to the question of lathe choice
for what you describe as your desired use
IMO no better choice than a GOOD South Bend heavy 10
Mine has served me well