My First Lathe!

[Holden202T]

oh dont get me started i almost bought one that had a mill and lathe in one, but i wanted a better lathe than both in one, one day maybe a mill

with the pic above of the dizzy base i ended up not being able to do what i wanted without going through the base into thin air, so i am probably going to make a new part that is solid to weld onto whats left of the base, then the sensor will bolt to that ... will explain that more when something more happens on that part (need to order alloy rod).

so i got stuck into a lump of steel to make a part to go on the dizzy shaft that will be the chopper wheel for cam sensor, so its currently way to long and also not cut in half yet (to make it 50/50 - on/off chopper) but that will be done once its finished.

the dizzy shaft is whats left when you remove all the top section which rotates with the advance mechanism, i then turned down the base to remove its advance mech mounts so its just a base to ride in the bottom of the dizzy case, and also gives me a spot to weld the chopper to, and the nob out the top had a circlip groove, i just machined it true and then made the chopper to nicely sit over it to help with alignment before welding.

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so i will weld the two pieces together then if its at all out of round i can run a light skim over it in the lathe, then i'll probably make the finish a bit more shiney, ie. emery paper etc.... once thats done then i can cut it in half, i also figure if it does warp at all and i machine it true and one side is thinner, then it will be the side i remove.

[Holden202T]

Somehow i managed to weld the top on the shaft without any of it warping! i did do a very light skim over the whole length of it and smoothed off the weld section then just turned the speed up and emeryed it to polish it up a bit.

I have ordered some alloy rod, which from that i will be able to turn down a section to put over the top of the housing, but in the mean time before that arrives i got an old piece of 10mm plate left over from a previous project and turned it down as a bit of a template, its a very light interference fit, and gives me an idea of the end result. The alloy version will be about 10mm higher (so the shaft sits down into it and the chopper is sticking out the top of it, then the sensor on top.

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The bottom will also be longer and have a taper to meet the bottom of the machined part then it will be welded on.

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And with the sensor on top.

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I also got a piece of 50mm alloy rod on the way, i may attempt a fully new one piece version but i need to see if i have the right drill to do the bore for the bushes.

[Holden202T]

So i finally got the right size alloy rod to make some more progress on this, so tonights effort saw the majority of it machined up.

This hole is pretty much right for a press fit, but i'm not doing that till it doesn't need to come off again!

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The outside lip for the sensor worked out really well, its a very light press fit to get the sensor on, but it works perfectly for lining it up on centre, i need to get a 15.5mm drill for the centre of it, or see if i can fit a lathe tool piece in there!

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This is pretty much the finished product de-con-struc-ted

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[delcowizzid]

Good to see you all ready putting it to work haha. You need a boring bar for inner holes you could probably make one if you have some round bar and a peice of tungsten and some silicon bronze welding wire to weld it on

[Holden202T]

yeah i do have boring bars but not quite small enough, i'll see how i go if i can make one of the attachments fit in there! it was getting close to 10pm and i was ready to sit down inside!

[festy]

You can make small boring bars out of broken drill bits or any other HSS rod - it takes a lot of grinding to neck down for clearance though.
Or, indexable carbide boring bars with a few inserts are about $30 on ebay - they're chinesium crap, but they cut so much better than any HSS tool I've ever ground myself

[Holden202T]

i had actually thought about getting a end mill bit but that assumes i can get the right size, but i might look on ebay ... being alloy its not super hard on them like steel ...

realistically i'll probably done something with what i have at home so i can get it finished instead of waiting hahaha

[festy]

Seeing as you don't need to bore too deep, you don't need to worry about clearancing the neck.
Just grind a profile like below on an old drill bit/broken tap/file etc - or you could probably even get away with mild steel for light aluminium boring...

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[Holden202T]

i just purchased these! $40 delivered and from australian seller so wont take 6 months to come from china.

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will do a minimum 8mm bore, so thats plenty for the 14mm i have already

[VK_3800]

I use the cheap indexable tools and they're fine, only issue I've had is the torx tool that comes with them is crummy and rounds off quickly so just use a proper bit and all good. Carbide tips are great and you can cut some pretty hard stuff as long as deflection is minimal. Boring bars you want to use the largest you can fit if you're pushing it far from the toolpost but I generally get away with the little one that only needs a 12mm hole to get started.