Lathe Hack and old school tool use.

[Worth1]

This is why the wire feed welders are so popular they are the easiest to use.
But even then most of the people I see using them dont have the settings right.
The wire feed it too fast for the voltage setting.

I never look at videos on welding, what I do have and have read from one end to the other many times is a school book called welding skills and practices fifth edition.
Two books I cant find but will are my Machinery's Hand Book and Pipe Fitters and Welders handbook.
I found my trig and algebra books looking for the other two.

These books are a wealth of information and well worth buying for any hobbyist or even the home owner.
The charts include boiling points of water at altitude and even in a vacuum and so much more.

Worth

[Fusion_power]

My dad ran a garage and had a decent 235 amp Marquette arc welder. I grew up using it and by the time I was 10 years old could select an appropriate rod and lay a tight bead. When I got into shop at school, the instructor had all of us start with laying a flat bead on a steel plate. Mine was the only one in class that could be called a weld. The instructor made a comment along the lines that it "just comes natural" for some people and I laughed and said that I had been welding since I was 10 years old. I also learned to use an oxy/acetylene rig and I learned to take motors apart and put them back together before I was 12. The only things I didn't do were the parts that required more strength than a 12 year old can muster.

This is not the same as using a mig/tig rig, but my experience is that anything I want to do I can set down and figure out. I keep hearing kids today talk about having to "go to school" to learn to do these things. There are things you need to go to school to learn, but having an attitude of I'm going to do whatever I set my mind to do can't be taught. I also taught myself computer programming and am fluent in C++, basic, Perl, and java, and can muddle along in 2 or 3 more.

I'm making slow progress with the tablesaw. Today was reserved for working on honeybees. I'm moving 8 colonies tomorrow evening. I would have moved them today, but we are having a serious thunderstorm. The stands are ready, just have to get the bees to them.

[Worth1]

Darrel I dont know what to say about school.
Just what is school but a place of learning.
This can be anywhere, at home, in the shop, by yourself, with other people or working under a master.
I was an idiot when I graduated from high school and have had to teach myself almost if not everything.
The object of this thread is to show that anything can be done if you set your mind to it with a minimum of tools or with the tools at hand.
I have read on line and watched videos about countless people that have a lathe and have never cut threads with it because they are scared to.
The main reason I got a lathe is so I could cut threads.
Spent the day making small parts for the wood lathe.

As for welding everyone should learn how to stick weld before they MIG weld.
All TIG welding is, is electric gas welding, if you can gas weld you are well on you way to TIG welding.
You can TIG weld and gas weld in the house I have.

Worth

[Worth1]

Stopped working phone battery low, cant take pictures.
How stupid is that?
Worth

[loulac]

Originally Posted by Worth1

This is why the wire feed welders are so popular they are the easiest to use.Worth

And the most dangerous too. Lack of penetration is a common mistake and a most dangerous one

[loulac]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

… by the time I was 10 years old could select an appropriate rod and lay a tight bead

I had already noticed you knew what you were talking about !

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Today was reserved for working on honeybees

I hope Worth won’t mind too much if I shortly pollute his post but I’m quite interested in your beekeeping. No diseases ? no harmful pesticides ? do they stay in the same place or do you move them about ? What flowers can they visit ? I promise I won’t go off line again after reading your answer !

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by loulac

And the most dangerous too. Lack of penetration is a common mistake and a most dangerous one

A young friend of mine complained about the wide flat welds I was making with a MIG and TIG welder and cutting bevels in the steel.
It was for his race car crash cage, what we call a roll cage.
He complained about the welds on some factory motorcycles at the dealership too.
All he had seen was the welds that looked like a skinny rod sitting on top of the metal with no penetration and never any welds in an industrial plant.

What I try to do with MIG when I can is called spray arc welding he had never heard a MIG welder sound like that before.
https://youtu.be/xb1gvHf0H6w

Originally Posted by loulac

I had already noticed you knew what you were talking about !



I hope Worth won’t mind too much if I shortly pollute his post but I’m quite interested in your beekeeping. No diseases ? no harmful pesticides ? do they stay in the same place or do you move them about ? What flowers can they visit ? I promise I won’t go off line again after reading your answer !

I dont mind at all talk about bees all you want.
Worth

[Worth1]

Here is the progression of the project.
In the pictures you will see how I used the files to first cut a line and then progressive round and half round file to cut the radius to fit the other parts.
In one picture I am using the drill press as a holding fixture so I cant weld it up.
These parts was made from a Mauser gun barrel and a hardened rod.
Until I find the right sized steel to make a bushing to go inside the post the one I have in there will have to do.
The threads are 3/8 24 they tighten down nicely without much force at all.
I chose this thread pitch because it will have less tendency to vibrate loose.
Not for sure if I want to capture the handle on it by bulging out the other end or making something I can unscrew to take it off.

There is a hole drilled in the bushing and I can take it out.

Worth
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[Worth1]

Coming down to making my first tool rest for the lathe cant make my mind up if I want to make a S curved one for bowls or not.

Worth

[Worth1]

Here it is just no curves yet.
But it is very solid.
Looks like a lathe now.

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[loulac]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Coming down to making my first tool rest for the lathe cant make my mind up if I want to make a S curved one for bowls or not.

Worth

I've never seen a curved toolrest but I suggest you make a much shorter straight one. You will set it at the right angle to reach the bottom of a bowl and suppress any lever effect that could create vibrations.
Thanks for all the pictures, following your work is a pleasure.

By the way your tool rest will be quite uncomfortable to use. you shoud add a horizontal (rounded) part at the top

[Worth1]

A curved tool rest has a radius to fit on the inside and outside of a bowl.
Some of these I see for sale look flimsy and would vibrate or what we would call chatter or flexing.
The same as hanging the tool out too far on a metal lathe.
I test3ed this one out and it works great it has a radius filed smooth on top so there is no need to weld a round bar on top.
You can turn below and above the center line by adjusting the post up and down.
The face has bee polished up and the hand slides up and down the rest with ease.
There is no moving flexing or vibrating in it at all and it is tilted to about a 60 degree angle towards the work.
I put a lot of thought into it before I built it.
My next project will be a small gouge.
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[Worth1]

A funny thing happened on the way to the gouge.
The electricity went off in the middle of boring the rifle barrel out.
Here are the steps.
I measured the outside diameter, it was 5/8 - 15.8 so I bored it out to 29/64 or 11.5 mm.
Then it was ground down on one side and a bevel ground onto the outside and honed.
Took all of about 15 minutes.
It works great and the old Mauser barrel steel holds a great edge just like I knew it would.
Homemade wood turning gouge out of scraps.
Some of these scraps I am using date back to the late 30's and 40's.
If it was one barrel I had it was made in 1938 I dont know because they are all from WWII and 8mm.
The other barrel it could be from was from Austria and made by Steyr in the 40's.
I never throw away good steel.

Worth
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[Worth1]

Here are the gouge results and what I made with it.
I cant be happier with the gouge it is everything I wanted and much more.
I started out on the hardest thing possible to learn how the use, the skew and the gouge is a breeze to use.
It is a small rolling pin but the piece of hard maple has a long story behind it.
The story will be told in the River Of Time Thread.
Worth

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[loulac]

First class work as usual.
I first thought using top quality steel for a gouge was not justified, but you seem to have a nice stock of that steel, so it's not a problem. Besides you'll always be able to shorten the gouge and weld the cutting part on a handle made of common steel. Glad to know your hand can slide smoothly on tne toolrest.