Thread: 2 questions on new lathes

HI,yes a Bruce Roberts 38ft Spray, I built the hull upside down to make laying the skin plating easier also easier for me to weld,at the time of turning it over it weighed about 3.5 ton, I built a frame over it and used 4 2 ton chain blocks, lowered one side as raised the other, it rolled over smooth as you like without touching the ground.By the way I caved on the TL250V and bought a Hafco AL 320G from HARE and FORBES in Brisbane today

Amazing!
I continue to be amazed by the things people build! Anything seems to have become possible!
All the best withe the lathe.

Originally Posted by leroy

HI,yes a Bruce Roberts 38ft Spray, I built the hull upside down to make laying the skin plating easier also easier for me to weld,at the time of turning it over it weighed about 3.5 ton, I built a frame over it and used 4 2 ton chain blocks, lowered one side as raised the other, it rolled over smooth as you like without touching the ground.By the way I caved on the TL250V and bought a Hafco AL 320G from HARE and FORBES in Brisbane today

I built mine right-side up on the advice of the designer. It worked out fine and I'd do it again. There's no one right way to do stuff like this, whatever works for you.

Best way I ever saw was the way the META yard in France did them - 2 giant rings on rollers and build the hull inside. Rotate as required to ease welding.

Couple pix.

Have fun with the lathe, now you can start getting all the tooling you want. My suggestion for the first upgrade is to get a quick change toolpost, but not from H&F unless you like to pay 2X the price for the same thing you can buy elsewhere.

I like the multifix type myself and one day I'm going to get one for my big lathe. Meanwhile the Dickson I have on my little Colchester is very nice to use.

PDW

Hi PDL, Thats a nice looking boat,a bit more traditional deck layout than mine, reminds me of the original,how did you rig it, one or two masts? I remember reading about those rings in France, a bit beyond me.I've been setting the lathe up on its stand tonight, had to strip most of the bits off it to get a sling on that would balance the heavy thing, managed in the end.
I bought a few tools from H &F to get me going, will start looking on line now for the rest,
my wife says its all starting again just like the boat its like throwing money into a bottomless
hole in the water

Congrats on your purchase Leroy
Some of us throw a saying about sometimes, "it didn't happen unless there are photo's". So you had better put some in so we can all ogle your new toy machine.....
Its not really a bottomless hole, you will run out of space eventually......
Just don't tell her that next will be a mill.....and a shaper.....surface grinder.....a bigger lathe......a bigger shed

OK here it is, it was fun getting it out of the box and up on its stand, so now the journey begins.it feels a bit stiff to start with, I cleaned all the preservative off and reoiled exposed parts with chainsaw bar oil ran the carriage back and fourth a few times and its starting to move a bit more freely,the crossfeed feels very tight and jerky so I'll work on that next.
a couple of photos.

Congrads on your new lathe.
Now you just need to get it level

Stuart

Originally Posted by leroy

Hi PDL, Thats a nice looking boat,a bit more traditional deck layout than mine, reminds me of the original,how did you rig it, one or two masts? I remember reading about those rings in France, a bit beyond me.I've been setting the lathe up on its stand tonight, had to strip most of the bits off it to get a sling on that would balance the heavy thing, managed in the end.
I bought a few tools from H &F to get me going, will start looking on line now for the rest,
my wife says its all starting again just like the boat its like throwing money into a bottomless
hole in the water

She's absolutely correct. So what? Reminds me of the time mine asked me why I needed a 5th 22LR rifle. My answer was that I didn't need it, I wanted it and I could pay for it so I was having it. No further justification required.

The hull is a Colvin Witch design junk schooner rig. 11.995m (hey, I wanted to stay under 12m and I did - just) LOA not counting bowsprit in a tabernacle. Big toy to occupy my time and give me an excuse for buying more tools and playing with the ones I have. The only other useful purpose it serves is the same one all pleasure craft serve - keeps the money flowing in the economy. Not finished yet so there's plenty of time to enrich the likes of Whitworth's and the local stainless steel merchant.

Do take a look at the multifix type tool posts when you decide you need a QCTP. They really are very good.

PDW

Originally Posted by leroy

OK here it is, it was fun getting it out of the box and up on its stand, so now the journey begins.it feels a bit stiff to start with, I cleaned all the preservative off and reoiled exposed parts with chainsaw bar oil ran the carriage back and fourth a few times and its starting to move a bit more freely,the crossfeed feels very tight and jerky so I'll work on that next.
a couple of photos.

Congtats on your purchase

As with most Chinese lathes it will most likely require a bit of tweeking and tuning to get right, but once you get there I'm sure you will be very happy with it.

I have the exact some lathe and my only real complaint is the circlips that hold the change gears on the shafts, they are too fiddly and a bit of a pain if changing the gears a lot. I'll go for months and not change them, but just lately I've been cutting quite few different threads and the circlips are starting to iritate me. Will have to put my thinking cap on and dream up an alternative.

Leroy,

Congrats on the new lathe......I notice you purchased the H&F stand package as well....most users including myself find it way too low for continued use so you may have that problem also if you're more than 4' tall........there are lots of posts on setting up and mods to your lathe on this forum which will help you...just a comment on your photo of slinging it in position.....if it came with the 3 jaw chuck mounted, I was told that you can hang a sling under the chuck and another at the tail stock end and it will balance...it does actually but I found it easier to slide off the tail stock before slinging - makes it easier to set up and level especially when using the hoist.

I fabricated a swivel hook that fits under the ways and use that as the second lift point rather than roping around the ways - you can position it anywhere under the bed to get your balance...it is easy to knock up and greatly assists in manoeuvring the lathe - if your interested, will post a piccie.......hope that helps.............Lee

Do those lathes have a hardened bed ? The tail stock looks nice and chunky . Did you get all the bits .. steadies and so on ? I guess it will do both imperial and metric threads ?

Mike

Hi Mike, I have to say yes to all those questions, bear in mind this is the first time I've laid hands on a lathe so its a steep learning curve, I did a little trick I read about online, I lined up the spindle dead centre with the tailstock dead centre holding a razer blade lightly between the two and then rotated the spindle by hand, the blade stayed in place so I believe that means its lined up well, straight out of the box,