Machining metal on a woodworking lathe

Interesting. Good luck with that.

-- - Ray

A great post. A lathe is a lathe. The speed would be what I consider as a constraint.

And of course the holding of the lathe chisels.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Karson’s Right(a lathe is a lathe) My Lathe started out life as a Metal Lathe Sold as a wood Lathe Also(1941/1942 Craftsman) I don’t have any of the Metal Lathe Attachments Maybe Someday

-- Pat - Worker of Wood, Collector of Tools, Father of one

Thanks, ray and Karson!
no, I would never attempt to hold a cutting tool by hand when machining metal. That’s why the firmly anchored toolholder with the X-Y travel is a definite must-do. But I have cleaned up nicked shafts with a hand-held mill file, but that would be it.
I’d estimate the rotating speed at approximately 550 on my lathe’s lowest setting. burning did not seem to be a problem, though I did take light cuts.

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

Thanks, DaddyZ!
A good scroll chuck isn’t hard to find, I got mine on eBay and I’m really happy with it. The seller had 22 hub choices, which made it easy to adapt. My X-Y Fixture is Harbor-Freight quality, but works fine. For a couple hundred dollars, you can upfit just about any WW lathe so you can create metal parts for machines you’re building or restoring. but… get that spur back on, and keep the wood spinning too!
Stay tuned….my helical fixture is about 33% finished…just trying to resolve some linear-motion issues now. This metal-working thing has enabled me to solve quite a few problems with resurrecting salvaged parts, including an ancient “Hobby Craft” orphan lathe which is donating the bed and tailstock to the project.
My project will somewhat resemble the “Legacy” mill, but with a far different fixturing/locating design.

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

PK….wowowow. That is incredible. The engineering and design alone is really cool, let alone figuring out how to make it all work and then do the machining. Great job.

-- Chip -----------http://www.penmanchip.com-----------------Micah 6:8

seams weird to me

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

True enough, Jim!
I know of others who have hybrid-ized their shop equipment to perform operations that are out of the norm for their intended use. I’m sure that you would have had the same reaction if you were living in the days when the first lathe was built. you might say, ’ a machine that runs on a springy tree-branch? Hah, never get off the ground’... But, suffice to say, there is a lot of gratification to be had in connecting together a lot of myriad components and making it do something that you otherwise would not be able to do. what I’m making really isn’t sophisticated, I’m just adapting linear motion to an existing lathe, something that screw-cutting metal lathes have done for 150 years or more. Since I’m not willing to part with a quarter-million dollars for a CNC-programmable unit, I’m happy to achieve similar results with my upfitted device.

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

Interesting.

-- Ohh mann...pancakes and boobies...I'll bet that's what Heaven is like! ♣ ♣ ♣ ♣