Drawn to the machine shop dark side

[owen]

I'm getting to the point where I want to turn/ mill small items (headshells, bearing supports for example), and considering acquiring a Peatol (Taig) lathe - as I could do both on a small scale in the confines of my (small) shed - thoughts comments, recommendations etc needed to further my analog obsession



Owen

[poobah]

Can you spend some more money?

[owen]

It's space thats the main problem - I dont have a garage, and will be squeezing this into a 8 *6 shed along with shelving (already present) and sneaking a drill press in... so things will be abit cramped...

I'd also like to avoid CNC, as I'll only be doing one offs, and any manufacturing will be done elsewhere..

Initially its to make CF and /or wooden arms ( the headshell and bearing mounts), but I'd like to play with weighted unipivots and such like too, so the overall part size wont be huge either... unless I get back into Scale modelling, but then I'd make the space for a nice big lathe ...

Who knows I may even have a go at a plain bearing (if I've enough scrap for try-outs and the patience of a saint ) and definitely fancy having a go at doing an idler conversion on a dc belt drive TT...

I also want to turn some nice knobs for the pre-amp that will (shortly) be underway again - its dual mono, and I want to use an O ring to act as the balance control - but that needs groovey knobs, and they're few and far between without a lathe

So you can see that the projects are simple, and not huge in scale, and I suspect that the Taig (or derivative) would be able to do it...

Shine a light on my reasoning...


Owen

[poobah]

Well I looked at the Peatol... it doesn't have a carriage feed. so you can't cut threads and all that good stuff.

It looks by the time you buy all the options your at about 300 pounds.

Kick this around. 'bout twice the money but 5 times the machine. Look at all the goodies that come standard.

Just a thought the lack of threading and carriage feed would be a big deal to me.

[poobah]

OR... this


???

[valveitude]

Kick this around. 'bout twice the money but 5 times the machine. Look at all the goodies that come standard.

I second that. This Chinese lathe is marketed by several outfits. Mine was purchased from Grizzly. It doesn't have the "fit 'n finish" of a Taig (like Chinese audio products, consider it a assembled kit), but it is stout, and comes with most the acc. you are likely to need.

I have been using mine well over ten years now.

-Casey

[bulgin]

Hi Owen, Poobah

How about a secondhand lathe like a Myford? See what I play with: http://www.blueangelaudio.com.

I also have a little Emco Unimat with all its accessories packed away somewhere. Don't know Taig - is that a later incarnation of the Unimat?

Regards all

bulgin

[EC8010]

Another possibility is to look for a second-hand Hobbymat MD65. http://www.lathes.co.uk/hobbymat/. I have one of these and it's been invaluable over the years. I've used it for exactly the same jobs you propose - making an arm and knobs etc for electronics. It's just about liftable by one person if you're feeling fairly strong. The advantage of buying a second-hand lathe over a new one is that it is likely to come with a full set of accessories (four-jaw chuck, collet chuck, better tool post, etc, etc)

[bulgin]

That's a very nice lathe EC8010!!

Being able to use lathes and milling machines of your own in a shed or garage at home is great for a terrific sense of achievement. There's always time for a few at your local but going to do a bit turning on your own lathe could be just as therapeutic.

Recently, there was a post here somewhere about a small tiltable vise. I had a look and a few days later, I came across the identical thing labeled 'Dremel' at Cash Converters, secondhand, full of epoxy spills, no sliding handle and damaged jaws. They wanted +-UKP20 for it and I pointed out all the blemishes and told them it was too much. The store manager came round and said: 'Make me an offer' and I offered UKP1,50.

Well, I got it, came home, cleaned the epoxy off, made a new handle and milled the marks off the jaws in about 1 or two hours.

That's what home machine tools can do for you.

bulgin

[EC8010]

Hello bulgin, yes, nice, but not as nice as a Myford! You're absolutely right about the therapeutic bit. The total concentration required when using a machine tool is excellent for washing away stress. When I was getting divorced, I found half an hour on the lathe would calm me down considerably. I don't know how people without a lathe survive. It's enabled me to fix all sorts of things around the house, and as you say, the sense of achievement and of beating the system when you fix something like a tumble dryer with "No user serviceable parts inside" is enormous.