Lathe stuff

Machining is pretty important, and lathes are awesome. Here’s a bit of a rundown area on how to use a lathe, illustrated with Chops’ Hercus 9″ lathe.

In lieu of enough time to write everything up, let’s start with a picture of the lathe and what each of the components do. It’s not even a picture of Chops’ lathe, but we promise to do better soon.

hercus_pic_annotated

Planned articles

 

Beginner’s guide to the Hercus 9″
The modern version of Textbook of Turning.

 

 

Setting work up in the 4-jaw chuck
Who really wants to cock about ages trying to centre work?

 

 

Thread cutting on the Hercus 9″
Mine’s a metric lathe, and metric is the right thread for many, many motorcycles. Here’s how you cut threads.

 

 

Using the Z-slide to mill things
Want to do a bit of milling like creating a hex head for a bolt? Here’s how.

 

 

Home machining of titanium
Cheap high-speed steel, an ability to sharpen tools, and some careful lubrication? You too can make fancy parts from aerospace Ti!