This is our larger, more capable metal turning lathe.
== KEEP DUST COVER ON WHEN NOT IN USE!!! ==
This machine shares the room with the CNC Router, which creates a lot of dust. The lathe will not work very well if the works get gummed up with sawdust, so please keep the dust cover on when not in use, and try not to use it at the same time as the router is running.
It is a Chinese import and many almost identical machines are sold under a variety of brand names including Grizzly, Enco, and Harbor Freight.
== Safety ==
It takes a bit of knowledge to safely use a lathe. It is pretty easy to screw up and damage the lathe, yourself, or other people in the room. If you don’t know what you are doing, please ask someone who does.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5693/21338575446_6e87b3cce6.jpg
== Tooling ==
We have some amount of cutting tools for the lathe.
=== HSS cutters and blanks ===
There are a large number of these in various sizes. Some are already ground as cutting tools. Some are just blanks. With a bit of practice you can learn to grind these freehand on the bench grinder and make your own cutters. These tend to work better than any of the carbide cutters we have.
=== Brazed carbide cutters ===
A HSS shank with a carbide cutter tip brazed onto it. These are pretty good when you first get them, but difficult to resharpen when they get dull.
=== Carbide Insert Tooling ===
There are tools with little triagular carbide cutting inserts. The insert is held on with a tiny allen head screw. The wrench of removing the insert is in the red toolbox in the lathe stand. When you break one of the points of the triangle, you unscrew it and turn it to use a different point. When all the points are dull or chipped, you get a new insert.
If you do break an insert or 2, please help us buy some new ones. They cost about $7 each. Contact [mailto:[email protected] treasurer] for info on how to actually do that.
The tool shanks for these are 3/8″ square. The insert size we need is TCMT21.51. That last digit (1) is the radius of the point in 64th’s of an inch. If you want a bigger radius (nicer surface finish, and harder to break off the points) you could try a TCMT21.52 or TCMT21.53. If you need a sharper inside corner on a shoulder, try TCMT21.50.5, but those points are fragile (1/128″ tip radius).
== Online Resources ==
Instruction Manual [http://www.micro-machine-shop.com/Jet_BD-920N_lathe_manual.pdf www.micro-machine-shop.com/Jet_BD-920N_lathe_manual.pdf]
But a much better manual is at [http://cdn0.grizzly.com/manuals/g4000_m.pdf cdn0.grizzly.com/manuals/g4000_m.pdf]
There is a ton of info available on the web about these machines. Some useful and informative web sites
[http://bedair.org/9×20.html bedair.org/9×20.html]
The forums at [https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/9x20Lathe/info groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/9x20Lathe/info] are also incredibly helpful.
[[Category:Equipment]]