Lathe or Mill for Home Use?

I have some wheel spacers that I need cut down. I have a guy that does them but he's hard to get in touch with because of our work schedules. I would love to be able to turn them or mill them myself, so I was wondering if there's anything that can be done at home with common tools?

I've heard a drill press with an end mill might work. Also have seen an angle grinder used but I'm not sure how I'd keep it square. I'd also be interested in a cheap machine if anybody knows of one.

Thanks!

endmills don't like to stay tight in drill type chucks .

a square and a file can achieve your desires to shorten spacers .

a lathe can be used for some simple mill work with the right attachments .

a mill can be mis-used as a lathe with some disregard for personal safety :whistle: .

littlemachineshop.com/

is a well respected dealer in mini mills and mini lathes.

leon

531blackbanshee wrote: endmills don't like to stay tight in drill type chucks .

a square and a file can achieve your desires to shorten spacers .

a lathe can be used for some simple mill work with the right attachments .

a mill can be mis-used as a lathe with some disregard for personal safety :whistle: .

littlemachineshop.com/

is a well respected dealer in mini mills and mini lathes.

leon

How would I use a square and a file? I have those! :lol:

Those mini mills and mini lathes are awesome, just a bit out of my price range right now. Have you ever tried any of them from harbor freight?

I have one of each. They're way sloppy but if you know their limits you can get some good results. you'll end up spending much more for the tooling than the machine itself.

www.littlemachineshop.com is the place for parts and tooling.

Depending on your location and space available, you may be able to pick up used full size American iron for less than the mini stuff. Look for 3 phase stuff then make a cheap phase converter.

There was a 16" x 60" Monarch lathe listed in the local Craigslist for a month for $1000. If I had room I'd been all over that one.

Those old Monarchs are wonderful lathes. I would have been on that deal as well.

I would get a lathe first if it were me.

What Leon means is dragging the file across the surface and checking your work with the square. It's tedious but effective work. Most beginning machine shop classes teach you to square up steel using this method. Of course, you have to hold the file correctly.

If the spacer is small enough to hold in a large drill chuck, or you have a way to make an arbor, you can spin the spacer with the drill motor and "machine" it with a rotary file in a dremmel or die grinder. Since you won't have a lot of tool pressure you can make a light press fit arbor with the drill motor and a file.

I had a Jet table top mill drill. Wasn't very useful as a mill or a drill so I gave it to my father. A guy I work with had a Jet lathe and he complained about fixing it more than he ever got to use it. I can only imagine the HF versions are even worse. My brother has a Smithy, which seems like the best of both worlds, but they're really weird to operate and a total compromise.

How do you make a cheap phase converter? VFD? Do they make a VFD that will run a 5hp lathe?

Alan

al is correct about the filing procedure.

there are lots of home brewed rotary phase converters

www.nojolt.com/how-to-build-a-rotary-phase-converter.shtml

i have heard that you can get 5hp vfd's that deliver full power on start up.

i use static phase converters on my lathe and mill. www.phase-a-matic.com/StaticDescription.htm

maybe not the best choice but they are effective and get the job done.

plus i could buy them and hook them up with little electrical knowledge.

steel is right watch your local craigslist for machine tools.in this economy good old american iron is going pretty cheap,scrap prices sometimes.

leon

Thanks for all of the tips.

I have really nice aluminum spacers that I picked up somewhere along the way. Do you guys think aluminum would hold up on a real axle or should I stick with steel?

You'll get more use out of a lathe for regular repairs, light fab work like spacers/bushings, center boring, etc.

If you get into major fabrication then you'd definitely want a milling machine.

Here's my lathe, like KZCSI said, you get to know the limits of the machine. I'm not making anything for the Space Shuttle on this thing, but it's fine more motorcycle stuff.

Overhead pulley conversion. lol Picked it up for $100 off Craigslist. Sold the change gears for $350 (nothing is American thread anyway), slowly buying more tooling.

I have less than $25 in my 5 hp rotary phase converter. My brother gave me a 5 hp 3 phase motor that his employer had thrown out as it was supposedly bad, and I used stuff I had laying around for the rest of it. I say less than $25 cause some of the stuff came from boxes I'd picked up at auction sales.

I know 5hp VFD's that accept single phase input are available, but I think anything bigger has to be de-rated when used on single phase.

If you just struck it big in the Lottery, go with Phase Perfect :woohoo:

all of the late model sportbikes that i have dealt with use aluminum spacers.

i use 6061-t6 for all the custom spacers i make.

hope this helps.

leon