My New Mini Lathe

[rckendall]

When I first thought about sharing my excitement of having my first metal lathe (mini lathe), I thought the gunsmithing section would be the place to post. But, then I realized that some would think I have wasted my time and money to buy something like I did. So, I searched and found some threads where others were asking about the mini lathes, and sure enough some critism was offered.

So after careful consideration I thought the main message board would be a better place to post this. I recall a fellow making a comment years ago with the wisdom of having “reasonable expectations”. I think these words aptly apply to my venture into this lathe. I have only small, simple tasks that I would like to do and I have very little space to have a lathe. I even had to rearrange things in the garage to make room for it. Besides, I’m 73 years young and starting to slow down a little!

Ok, now that the background is covered, the new mini lathe is a Harbor Freight 7x12. I swore off using anything precision (?) from HF years ago, but I learned that all lathes in this class are built in either of two places (China) and most of the parts are interchangeable. There is loads of information regarding these lathes online and detailed information as to recommended cleaning, lubricating, and adjusting things to get the most out of them. Also mentioned frequently are the limitations that these lathes have.

I’ve now spent about a week getting mine prepared and tested and I must say that I am happy. I still have a cabinet coming to mount it to and I’ll use melamine shelving material underneath it and in back. I’ve made a few cuts so far on aluminum and faced off a piece of drill rod. This was done on a hss bit that I sharpened myself! I checked concentricity this morning and found the OD of the chuck was under .002 TIR and a piece of drill rod mounted in the chuck showed about .001 TIR.

I guess that about sums it up and I hope everyone can appreciate my venture and save the “My dog is bigger than your dog” for another time.

Richard

 

[dolek]

Congrats, I am in the market for a Mini...I look forward to hear your thoughts.

 

[Mulligan]

What kind of cool stuff are you planning on doing with it?
Building something? Just playing and learning? Turning brass?
I inherited a small lathe and you piqued my interest in it.
CW

 

[JSH]

I wanted a small, but not a mini lathe. Folks pushed me to bigger than I planned. It came with a lot of tooling is what pushed me over the edge.
There are times I wish I had a smaller one to be honest.

I now want a mill. Have one picked out and that is what I am getting. I do have to pay attention to what size tooling it will take.

Play with it and have fun.
Jeff

 

[ballisticdaddy]

Well congratulations on your new venture and although you are 73 years young you have more irons in the fire that I do =) I have seen a few YouTube videos done by Eric Cortina where he does some case prep, neck turning and modified cases using his mini lathe

 

[rckendall]

I have wanted a lathe three or four times in the last year and have had to work around not having one, and not doing a very good job of it. At the moment, I am trying to get to the place where I can bed my own rifles and although I can buy pillars, they will need to be trimmed. I also want to improve a couple of the bore guides that I have. So Delrin and aluminum are the materials that I will be working with first.

Other than that, I will practice, practice, practice, just like with my shooting!

Richard

 

[jonbearman]

I own an oollllld southbend 13 inch and had to spend a lot to make it right. You are starting out new so who ever made it doesn't matter as long as it works . You wont get any bad talk from me because I know a few people with similar lathes and turn out great work.

 

[Riesel]

I started about 10 years ago doing old mauser actions in a mini lathe. I used a mandrel and made some of my own action holders using this mini lathe. Action facing and truing up the bolt face made a big improvement on shootability. Later I made a jig to hold the action so I could clean up the barrel seating lugs inside the receiver. It was a real hoot doing that and I learned a lot. Then I bought a bigger lathe and it got even more "funner". The mini lathe is now regulated to trimming and neck sizing brass and making stock pillars from aluminum stock. I also made a fair number of bolt knobs. Your gonna really like it.

 

[muleman69]

I guess that about sums it up and I hope everyone can appreciate my venture and save the “My dog is bigger than your dog” for another time.

Richard[/QUOTE] I was looking at these two days ago, told the wife it would make a great xmas present. She gave me the old deer in the head light look and grumbled something

 

[pacificman]

I have been thinking of one myself...heck it would be nothing but fun to mess around with
and heck ya might just learn something having some fun.

 

[JLT]

Great decision, Richard. You'll find all sorts of tasks and projects where your mini lathe will save time, save effort and generally add a whole bunch of value.

 

[flatlander]

Dad brought home a used Atlas lathe when I was a young boy, 60yrs or more ago. He was a builder, and had plenty of experience building stuff here on the farm. Back then, there were no 'hobby' lathes like we see today, but the Atlas was as close to that as anything else available. This one came with a whole bunch of extra tooling, including a milling attachment. I was allowed to play with turning aluminum on it when I got into high school, and reading the owners manual's description of cutting tools for different purposes allowed me to grind some better cutters than what had come with the lathe. Fast forward to the late '80s - I wanted to duplicate the ejection port of my Colt Gold Cup 1911 on a Govt model, so attached the milling fixture to the tool post & begged a used end mill cutter from a local machine shop. Dad's old Atlas was just barely capable of this job, taking pretty light cuts on that hard Colt slide. It turned out OK, but really whetted my appetite for some 'real' machine tools.

Today, there are a couple of heavy (2000+lbs) import lathes - 13x40 & 14x40 - sitting out in the attached 3-car garage that Dad built, along with a vertical knee mill & a HAAS TM-1 cnc mill; Dad's old Atlas has its own dedicated spot in the shop as well. I've updated/replaced the old lantern tool post by milling the compound for a wedge-style quick change tool post, and have several extra tool holders for that post. I turn & trim bedding pillars on it when the other lathes are tied up, and have done tons of case prep work on it. Thanks Dad - for facilitating my education & getting me started down the trail to being a gunsmith.