Scott Holmes Mini-Lathe Site
Last Updated
Sunday, 21-Apr-2002 16:29:08 EDT

The Story So Far...


I like to tinker... I'm also in a position at work to scavenge almost endless bits from industrial equipment we remove from service and always envision these sensors, motors, drives, cylinders and valve-banks being assembled into new and wonderful contraptions. Well needless to say I have a lot of what my girlfriend (and mother before her) calls "junk". Suddenly one day early this summer, I realized that it'd be far easier for me to make useful stuff (at least that's my excuse) if I could actually remove all the bits of metal from a block/bar of stock that don't resemble the thing I need. So I started planning.

In my job I'm also in frequent contact with machinists and toolmakers whom I can gleen knowledge from. After some chatting, I decided that a lathe is best for learning about cutting metals. My reasoning is that it's easier to observe the cutting action with a single stationary cutter than with something like a fly cutter. Once I'm more comfortable with the lathe, I'll graduate to a mill and probably fairly quickly convert it to CNC using EMC. Suddenly I have a whole set excuses to hole money away.

In my hometown of Brampton, Ontario (Canada), apparently the only local supplier of a mini-lathe is Busy Bee Machine Tools. While I'd prefer to support local businesses as would anyone, I was not happy with the models on the show-room floors, due to the smaller size (7x10 equivalent) and also the overall fit and finish seemed to leave much to be desired (even to my untrained eye). I'd heard as well, that the Busy Bee "7x8" is not quite compatible with most other versions out there.

After careful research (reading the extraordinary Yahoo! 7x10minilathe discussion group's postings), I'd more or less made up my mind to make a trip to either NJ (Micro Mark), PA (Grizzly) or IN (Homier) in order to purchase a mini-lathe for to be my very own (and perhaps to hug and to squeeze and to call it George). The biggest problem was the time and expense involved in making the trip (6-12 hours each way). Grizzly won't ship to Canada, while Micro Mark will, but at $200US for UPS, and well who knows for Homier, but at any rate, I like the idea of being able to open the box at the warehouse and inspect the contents then ship it myself.

On Friday November 9th, I happened to be on a business trip in Vancouver B.C., and realized that Grizzly had their corporate headquarters and showroom only 60 miles or so from where I was staying. Well that proved to be far too much of a temptation for me... I had a mission. I begged off work at the lab at 1315h and by 1345h was at the border lined up for customs. At 1450h I was through and on my way headed to Bellingham, WA. Having closed several auctions on eBay recently, one buyer sent me a USPS Money Order ("Negotiable only in U.S. and possessions") so I took the opportunity to stop off at the first Postal Outlet I could find and pick up a little extra ($72US) cash to help out. By 1530h I was walking through Grizzly's door and made straight for the metal lathes.
Crossing the Canada/U.S. Border

Unfortunately I was not approached by anyone on the floor for help, but the gentleman at the order counter was helpful enough in attempting to make sure I got only pieces that would all work together. I didn't bother with too much but picked up the bare minimum in the way of accessories for this lathe specifically. I still have to ship it all back home, so I couldn't really go nuts, but I would have been more impressed had he asked me if I needed this extra or that extra as I explained going in there that I was new to it all. I have to say though it's the nicest tool showroom I've ever seen.

I picked up the 7x12 Mini-Lathe (G8688), a 3" 4-Jaw Independent Chuck (G9864), 1/2" Drill Chuck with JT33 taper (G8225), Drill Chuck Arbor with MT2 and JT33 tapers (G1435) and 5 HHS 5/16" tool blanks (G1508). They brought all my packages out to me at the loading dock and were more than happy to allow me to inspect the machine for damage before loading it into the car for me, and I was back on the road by 1615h. I returned to Canada and to the lab with just a brief stop at customs to pay GST on my purchases (no duty on new metal lathes) by 1800h.

So there I was 2000 miles from home, living in a rented suite, with a mini-lathe and no place to make swarf... Hmmmm... problematic at best.... what to do??? Then it dawned on me.... do what every grown man with a new (expensive) toy would do. Open it up, unpack it and fondle it!!! So that sounds wrong, but there's not really any other way to describe it. Sitting on the carpet in the middle of the suite's living room with a goop-covered machine in front of me, playing with wheels, gears, dials, wrenches, etc. I was the 28 year old male equivalent of a 6 year old girl with a tea set. The next few weeks are going to be pretty frustrating as I have to ship this rig back home and can't do anything with it for some time (probably not until after Christmas) as I'm out west for another 3 weeks. Sigh... at least we had this time together.

Unpacked!!!
Tink...tink.tink.tink...

I'm exploring options for shipping, but hopefully our internal corporate courier will take it. Either way, I'm going to take the opportunity to improve the packing. My plan to protect my new machine will be to pack the lathe and accessories in a pair of garbage bags and use a vacuum cleaner to evacuate as much air as possible, and seal them. Then place the works into a third bag and then the packing foam. Great-Stuff or other expanding urethane foam will be squirted into the open garbage bag, and the top of the packing crate foam will be replaced and the box taped shut. Once the foaming is complete, I'd like to strap the box to a small piece of plywood about the same size as the base of the box. This is to protect the chip tray.

I'll try to post pictorial before and afters of my shipping experiment. Incidentally, if anyone out there is curious about anything with regards to the "out of the crate" condition and setup of the mini-lathe, then please submit questions or items to me and I'll be sure to get the answers back to you. In the tradition of the 7x10minilathe Yahoo! group, I'm going to try to document as much as possible about my experiences and setup of my home shop.

UPDATE 12/04/01: Well I finally shipped it on Thursday Nov. 29th via FedEX, and followed it home on the redeye flight that night. The following evening was the company Christmas party and I had several jealous admirers telling me that the lathe had arrived safely at the office and that I'd have to take a towel to wipe the drool from the now soggy box. And so on Saturday I went into the office and picked it up.

Once home, I opened the box and found to my delight the lathe had sustained virtually NO damage despite being dropped (by me) down a 6' flight of stairs while trying to negotiate a turn burdened with the extra 98lbs. All I ended up doing to protect the lathe was move all the accessories and tools to the inside of the styrofoam packing, and laid a piece of 1/4" plywood from Home Depot in the top and bottom of the box. The tumble happened to be with the plywood in place.

I'm almost finished my tear-down and rebuild now, and have found no suprises. I have to say that even though I haven't made a cut thus far, I'm impressed by the quality of the fit and finish. Seems that the manufacturers have been making steady improvements since the early models. There was no casting sand, but I did find iron filings inside the headstock. I even tried to lap the gibs (Sharpie on the surface, figure-eights on 600 grit wet-dry sandpaper) but the ink came off evenly, so I gave up. Next thing to do is add the chip guard to the rear of the carraige hand-crank, and perhaps something on the around the leadscrew in the electrical box. Then it's time to unpack the grinder, and start making cutting bits.

UPDATE 12/05/01: Inspection and rebuild is complete!!! I added the chipguard to behind the carraige handcrank gears cutting a piece of CD case plastic to fit, drilling and tapping 5 4-40 holes and bolting it in place. It really looks a mess when you dismantle things, but it was quick, cheap and it'll do the job for now.

I had a complete machine sitting there....staring... somehow it managed to give me the puppydog eyes... So what could I do? I went and dug out my 6" grinder, ground up a cutting tool, and made my first shavings. I grabbed a rod I'd held onto when my girlfriend tore apart a flatbed scanner and chucked it up. This thing just cut the steel like butter!!!

I'm starting work on a CNC engraver/PC board etcher and have the Z axis in a pre-made assembly. It has a NEMA 23 mount, but the NEMA 23 steppers I have have a 1/4" shaft while the axis has a 3/8" coupler. So I set out to make a small sleeve to adapt one to the other. This turned out not too badly, though the inner diameter is about 0.005" over size, it'll do the job. I might try to make another tonight to see if I can do better, or find the source of the extra 5 thou. This weekend will see me cleaning up a shop area in the basement so I can get the lathe out of my room, and give it some sense of emotional stability.

UPDATE 02/26/02: I've been playing around, made a number of pieces on the lathe for my CNC machine, including spindle mounts, leadscrew and couplers. I've also made plenty of swarf out of all kinds of materials, and practiced grinding tool bits. On the 24th, while the Canada/USA Olympic Hockey game was on in the background, I made up a set of pin pushers for connectors that I use commonly at work. These are the most intricate pieces I've made to date, though I've spent much longer on others.

Projects

Here's a partial list of projects and modifications I have ideas for, but don't know how many are practical and how far I'll get. Just thoughts out-loud. So far, this is all I have to offer along with the basic links that are an invaluable set of resources for anyone interested in the mini-lathe in particular, and all 'round hobbiest machining in general.

Scott P. Holmes
Webmaster

Links

Yahoo! 7x10 Mini-Lathe Owner's Discussion Group
Varmint Al's Mini-Lathe Page
www.mini-lathe.com Frank Hoose's Mini-Lathe Page

There are so many other's, but if you've found my page, then you've probably already found at least one of the above, in which case you've already got a tonne of links to pile through, so I won't waste your time with duplicates (for now).

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Scott Holmes