I have some old ones my grandad nicked from work back in the late 80s which eat hardox for breakfast. The ones I bought recently are shite.


Another question while I'm here. I'm currently looking at lathes. Budget of about £1500 and I was leaning towards this http://www.warco.co.uk/metal-lathes-metalworking-lathe-machine/303007-wm-250v-lathe.html

Any thoughts from you guys? Want to make pulleys and standoffs and whatever meaty chunks of alu I need next.

Also, is the diamond/tangential tool holder from eccentric engineering worth the money? It looks good and people seem to be able to hog out a decent amount of material with it.
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That lathe looks good, I'd buy it. It looks like a mash-up of the Sieg C4 and C6 models. The power cross-feed is a very useful feature and I notice it has a thread chasing dial, which you often don't get on smaller lathes. My C4 has a 1Kw motor similar to the one on this lathe and it can almost tear the toolpost off. You might want to check what sort of belt is used to get the two speed ranges; Glen has belt slipping issues with his C6. The first thing I would do with that lathe is upgrade the chuck size.

The diamond tool holders are very useful. My lathe is too small to really get all the benefits but I still use them frequently and the Crobalt cutters that come with them are great on hardened steel.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
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Ok thanks for the input. Is 5" really too small? (inb4 anything)
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For my stuff
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seeing as you guys just answered some lathe questions, Looks like within the next 2-3wks i will be buying my first lathe budget is 4k with 1 or 2 tools and landed at my door.

anyone got something better then this?

http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/L183

cheers in advance

That is a solid lathe - I doubt you will get better for the money. Have a look at a quick-change tool post, they really speed things up, even if you only have a few cutters at first.
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Australian 2015 Featherweight champion
UK 2016 Gladiator champion

yes quick change is first item on the list!

Looks freaking awesome….but you will need a forklift to move it….it almost killed me and jules moving a 180kg lathe…that is almost half a ton.

the other option is get a an al250 lathe and hm46 mill together for $4k…that what i would do.
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I would second that. I had to pull my AL250 into about 5 pieces to store it for 6 months. I wouldn't be going any bigger while I am in a rental.

I know bigger is better and you will have a much better lathe but practicality also plays a part. I don't know your situation but I think anyone who has had to move a C6 will back miles and I up.

Steve
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Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com

I believe Harley has bought his own house, so big will be best
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Like Aaron just said I have bought my own house so it will not be moving anytime soon, and since the house has a basement where I do all my tinkering I am just going to chain block it off the ute straight onto the stand (theoretically) but a mill sure sounds tempting!

if you can only have one, a lathe can do anything.

That said if you can have both a lathe and a mill are way better than either alone ;->
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Mechanical engineers build weapons, civil engineers build targets

Getting a bit weary of taking hours to creep up on bearing final dimensions these days. Looking at ways to more accurately get close to the final dimension to speed these tasks up.

Looking at inside micrometers mainly - This one only goes to 0.01mm as it hasn't got the vernier scale. Bleh.

http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Q134

Other option is to stick with the telescoping bore gauges but grab a decent outside micrometer set to go along with them. Although the telescope gauges are Mx brand so not that great surely.. Doubtfully more than the 0.01mm of the cheap inside mic.

http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/Q111

or just

http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/M060

Thoughts?
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I would personally go with the telescoping bore gauges and an outside mic, i have to use both all the time at work (inside mic double checked with outside mic and bore gauges checked with outside mic) and the accuracy is nearly the same (good enough for multimillion dollar equipment)

if you are spending that much coin I would go a foot brake maybe somethign like this

http://www.machineryhouse.com.au/L681

Telescopic Gauge set is pretty versatile and the only brand worth having is Mitutoyo most others feel very jerky and don't take reliable measurements.
you want to be able to take 3 measurements and get the same result +-.01 if the gear cant handle that its not worth having

MX outside mics aren't too bad for the price they just come a little sharp on the edges so when brand new its hard to get a good feel