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clamping round bar

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bogstandard:
Ahah! the dreaded interrupted cut.

Just three things, you need to make sure the job is really secure, make sure you get your cutting tip as close in to the toolpost as possible, to keep things as rigid as you can, and I think you will find that tipped tooling doesn't really like to do it. It tends to chip the edges away.

You might find a problem holding size and shape on a small lathe due to tool flex. This is where the cutter starts its cut at full depth on the first edge of the material, then as it cuts, the edge is forced away slightly from the cutting face. Once the first face is cut, the tool springs back to it's original position of a full depth cut, then repeats the problem over again. It usually gives a slightly curved edge on the leading cut face. I hope you understood that.

The way around it is to rough cut first until very close to size, then super-superfine finishing cuts so that there is not as much loading on the cutting edge that is trying to deflect it.

With a small lathe, you will find that jobs like this do tend to take a bit longer, as you don't have the overall rigidity to take big cuts. Once you start to realise the machine limitations, and stick rigidly within it's capabilities, then you will start to make some real progress, and get nice work off it.

Many years ago, I owned one of these Peatol lathes, but didn't make much use of it. So I let a fellow model boater have it, and he produced some fantastic work with it, he even made a very nice double acting oscillator with it. When he started to use it as a hand graving machine as well, that was when he really produced his best work. But for you, that side of things will come a little later.

Bogs

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