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would this be an acceptable way to mount small work pieces in a lathe...?

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SPiN Racing:
My two cents from someone who has ZERO experience before the last 6 months or so.

Im not sure what you are making..... But I have spun several different types of metal with no experience beforehand other than a vague notion. And what I found out is this:

Stainless Steel, a bitch to Turn and get smooth when you are new. (like me) (But Im stubborn so I do everything I can in it.. and Im getting better)
Regular Steel, Easier to turn, will turn smoothish.
Iron.. like cast. Easy to turn smooth.. not shiny.
Aluminum.. easyish.. but its softer, so it can be easyish.
Brass... turns like hard balsawood, or something. And is REAL shiny if you are a little careful. Easy to turn.

In my small experience turning relatively thin metal.. that is hard.. Like a rod of 316 Stainless that is 1/4 inch diameter, 6 inches long, and trying to get fancy with it is difficult, as the metal deflects. So... keep things like that in mind.

Im in no way an expert. But its what I saw from a very new guy perspective. And I am certain I dont always turn the right speeds etc. I am becoming more and more aware of the how simple things are.. yet how many incredible variables there are to cut a piece of metal properly.

sbwhart:
John

The dead centre will be fine out of mild steel, it's doing nothing just sitting there supporting the stock, the dead centre at the other end has to contend with friction from the rotating stock and needs to be hard and lubricated with a bit of grease, or better still get yourselve a live centre, that rotates with the work. :thumbup:

You havn't said what sort of tools your going to use, for what your planning to do I'd suggest you just use High Speed Steel  HSS you can get hold of square and round blanks of this stuff quite easy from the suppliers, and its very cheep,  and grind your own tools up, some where on the Forum there should be some information how to do it, you'll learn a lot by grinding your own tools don't be afraid to experiment a bit angles and radiuses on the tools it'l show you what works and what doesn't.

One safety tip always wear safety glasses,

Have Fun

 :wave:
Stew

jonogt:
ah yes i should we have a few HSS ones that are more specialty shapes (i beleive some are for boring) but I havn't looked at them much.  All my access to this stuff is in my college's student shop, in case it seems weird that I have all this stuff with little clue what i'm doing.

SPiN racing it sounds like we are a bit similarly minded lol.  I've approached most tools for the first time with little more than youtube videos and internal monologue logic on my side, and after I'd done a few successful operations without maiming myself, I figure out the finess of it thru trial and error.  i havn't lost any limbs or extremities yet, so I guess it works allright.  Most past experience is woodworking though, and I'm being a lot more inquisitive with this machine stuff because i know it can mess you up bad (and they revoke student shop privelages if you mess somethin up  :wack: )


sbwhart, there is a very nice live center available that i'll use, so that won't be an issue. and yes I always have some safety glasses on when playin with this thing.


the only specific thing i'm planning on making right now is a model steam engine... other than that i'm just wanting to learn how to do this stuff properly.  i'm sure i'll have other project ideas stem off in the process (-:

sbwhart:
Hi John

Looks Like your getting some good guidance from your college, look forward to seeing the progress on your steam engine.

Cheers

and have fun

Stew

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