Lathe

Jungle Jim

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To the OP

Keep an eye open for something like this on ebay

Conquest Super Lathe

I bought mine second hand 12 years ago and it was brilliant to learn on. Second hand you tend to get lots of extras with it, which helps as you won't know what bits you need and what you don't till you have a play.

You should expect to make stuff for fun, not anything precision (I invented a new tolerance with mine, wobble fit, and its converse, hammer fit). You get a great sense of achievement when you make your first successful part.

I use it for protyping at work but I have made some Delrin furler parts for a dinghy. Once I got used to its foibles I can get quite precise, but it took a while to get to that stage.

You can get some great hints and tips from the model engineers forum
Forum Topics - Model Engineer
 

dgadee

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How would cut a keyway in a shaft with a shaper.

You need a shaper (vertical shaper) to cut a keyway in the boss of the propeller or coupling.

The end of the shaft would be held in the vice and the other end would be supported. This is the kind of shaper I mean. Old technology but I had one and sold it to an engineer who wanted it to make cuts internally on gearings.

1610962228387.png
This will also cut keyways in propeller shafts if you use an extended tool.
 

rogerthebodger

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Wealth is not taxed in the same way that income is for one thing. I could also point to the rentier system we have with IP rights etc. etc. I don't usually call them freeloaders but you are correct to use that term.

Wealth can be inherited or from saving/investments.

Inherited is taxes through inheritance tax and savings / investments as income so what other way should wealth be taxes if it is taxed it would be double taxation.
 

dgadee

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Wealth can be inherited or from saving/investments.

Inherited is taxes through inheritance tax and savings / investments as income so what other way should wealth be taxes if it is taxed it would be double taxation.

Off topic but there's a saying that the only people who pay tax are those who pay PAYE. Eg Duke of Westminster avoided inheritance tax.
 

penberth3

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The end of the shaft would be held in the vice and the other end would be supported. This is the kind of shaper I mean. Old technology but I had one and sold it to an engineer who wanted it to make cuts internally on gearings.

View attachment 107316
This will also cut keyways in propeller shafts if you use an extended tool.

More thread drift, the OP only wanted a small lathe for a garage workshop!
 

Topcat47

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My only sailing "need" for a lathe is for reducing the diameter and parting off cutless bearings for my '66 imperial spec'ed prop shaft and bearing housing. I've been unable to get a cutless bearing to fit the housing as stock for nearly 20 years. I prefer parting off the bearing in a lathe to clamping it in a vice and using a hacksaw and file. They are fun though and I wish I had room for a decent one.
 

jim.howes

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Good advice, but 'night classes' in useful trade skills barely exist in the UK.
Not meaning to be rude but a cube is easy to produce on a lathe with a 4 jaw chuck what you really want to try is what my late step father was tasked to manufacture when he joined the navy as an apprentice it was a cube made from mild steel and a hammer and chisel mind you Nelson was a fellow apprentice at the time.
 

Topcat47

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My first fitting job as an apprentice was to take a cast iron block. Chisel and file it square and true so the end product was 5"square and 1.5" thick. Then drill and file a 1.25" square hole in the middle and finally take a piece of steel square bar, reduce it to a 1.25" cube and fit it through the hole all six ways. A pillar drill was the only machine tool we were allowed to use, everything else had to be done with hand tools. It took best part of two months (allowing for Day release to College). I still flinch when using a 2lb engineer's hammer anywhere near my hands.....
 

earlybird

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Then drill and file a 1.25" square hole in the middle and finally take a piece of steel square bar, reduce it to a 1.25" cube and fit it through the hole all six ways..
Where I worked, in Derby, an alternative method was, (so I was told ), to give a packet of fags to the surface grinder operator.
 

rotrax

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Good advice, but 'night classes' in useful trade skills barely exist in the UK.


A copy of LH Sparey's book " The Amateurs Lathe " is what I used to assist me.

Apart from watching lathes in use and knowing how to use a chuck key I was without any practical experience or, more importantly, previous instruction.

I am not, and will never be, a skilled machinist.

But I can knock up lots of bits, salvage busted stuff, modify parts, especially when I was racing, to make them lighter.

I would not like to be without my lathe, and can state that without Sparey's book I would not be so acomplished in the tasks I carry out.
 

doug748

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As a matter of interest the small, early Myford mentioned earlier in the piece, has just sold. In distinctly rustic condition, with no motor, it went for £170. Could be the covid bounce.


1610906795270.png

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Norman_E

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I've used lathes and milling machines in my work to make pump and machine parts, and I have both wood and metal lathes in my home shop, but...

... I have not heard in this thread any mention of common boat-related uses. I'm sure I have used a lathe for something over the years, but I can't place what it was or that it was in the last few years. It has to be the least used powertool in the shop. Yes, there are things I could use it for, but nearly always I can accomplish to sufficient precision with a drill press or some other combination. I can think of no up-coming project that calls for a lathe.

Please suggest uses that recommend such a tool to a sailor, short of overhauling propulsion machinery for which critical parts are no longer available. I'm sure there are followers that are curious.
I used both lathe and milling machine to make a new gooseneck fron an aluminium billet and fitted it with with bronze bearings turned and bored from bar stock when the original cast one broke. Of course my machines were bought for making steam engines, and are now mostly used for toolmaking projects, the most recent of which was a small swing head surface grinder.
 
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