I really need my lights to come in. Yesterday we were blessed with rain, which h was really needed but I felt I was working in the dark and actually overshot a piece I was working on, pretty piece of scrap now. Next week before they arrive, so I'll do my best to get by till then.
Checked my material stock and found out I need some 6061 aluminum and 12L14 steel rod to complete the bottom brackets plus some 3/4" 6061 round rod. Material prices have gone up on these common materials which really machine well on small lathes. I've got some high speed steel which needs grinding. I use carbide inserts a lot but for 6061aluminum HSS tools are better suited on small lathes which can't reach the speeds and feeds that carbide really excels at cutting best. I can easily up the power of my motor drive, but using it would eventually beat my small machines to death. HSS is actually best to use when turning a lot of materials with small machines. Actually both my mill and lathe are 3/4 hp and that's about perfect, for the design of these small machines. I ran a Logan 22" with a worn out 1/2 hp motor for years before adding a 1 hp motor. It did fine with both and was heavy enough to have used even more power, but it wasn't used as a production lathe, like the big machines, but we used it a lot for times when the big uns were busy.
Tom you've got a good looking Bridgeport. Did you have to rebuild it?
