Our New Lathe Arrived This Morning.

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That toolpost may weigh more than one of my lathes.

Hey Jackie...what kind of tolerances can you expect to hold on a long cut, say 24', on the new lathe?

Justin
 
Justin, when machining long shafts, you do the cuts in sections around 5 or 6 feet in lengths, depending on the diameter.Since it always supported by a steady rest, you adjust it to where the Lathe is cutting dead straight in that length. Then you move the steady rest, readjust and star again. Often, depending on the length of the shaft, you will often have a steady feast on each side of the carriage.

It is up to the skill of the machinist to know how to not only adjust the rest to where the Lathe is cutting straight, but also how much upward pressure to exert with the steady rest.

As a note, we never use a top on a steady rest. Here is a picture of one of men machining a Rudder post. While shorter than a prop shaft, you can see how the steady rest is used.

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23191&stc=1&d=1576899619
 

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jackie schmidt said:
Justin, when machining long shafts, you do the cuts in sections around 5 or 6 feet in lengths, depending on the diameter.Since it always supported by a steady rest, you adjust it to where the Lathe is cutting dead straight in that length. Then you move the steady rest, readjust and star again. Often, depending on the length of the shaft, you will often have a steady feast on each side of the carriage.

It is up to the skill of the machinist to know how to not only adjust the rest to where the Lathe is cutting straight, but also how much upward pressure to exert with the steady rest.

As a note, we never use a top on a steady rest. Here is a picture of one of men machining a Rudder post. While shorter than a prop shaft, you can see how the steady rest is used.

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23191&stc=1&d=1576899619
Click to expand...

Do you profile your own barrels? If so, how does your technique differ when the shaft is scaled down that much?

Thanks,
GsT
 
We put the first job in our new Lathe today.

I had to do the final straightening of the shaft and install the coupling to check for any run out. These are two 35’ 8.5 inch diameter shafts that we double end machined in one 32’ Lehman Lathe earlier before we bought this machine.

If the coupling face runs out more than .002, we take a very light skin over the face to insure it runs dead true.

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23225&stc=1&d=1578785449

http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23226&stc=1&d=1578785533
 

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Thank you for sharing Jackie your explanations along with your pictures have always made your means and methods easy for myself to understand. I can now see and understand how much of a benefit this lathe really is to your shop and how it will end up paying for itself. Please keep on sharing I can't speak for the others but you have taught me more than you might ever come to realize over the years.
 
Lathe

Do I understand that you run the shaft on an unturned portion of the shaft, or is it pre-turned when you get it. I would be cocerned about runout
 
If you look closely you should be able to see the locations of the steady rests on the pre-turned areas and I hope this helps.

 
Jim Kobe said:
Do I understand that you run the shaft on an unturned portion of the shaft, or is it pre-turned when you get it. I would be cocerned about runout
Click to expand...

Every surface of the shaft is fully machined and truly straight. The dark brown areas between the stainless steel journals , which fit nothing, have simply developed a little surface tarnish.

We are putting the fiberglass coating on the shafts now. This coating is important because it keeps the shaft from extreme corrosion in the non critical areas. Every surface outside the hull seal is either overlayed with Stainless or coated with eight layers of fiberglass.

I will walk over and snap a picture.


http://benchrest.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=23231&stc=1&d=1578949073
 

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Louis.J said:
Thank you for sharing Jackie your explanations along with your pictures have always made your means and methods easy for myself to understand. I can now see and understand how much of a benefit this lathe really is to your shop and how it will end up paying for itself. Please keep on sharing I can't speak for the others but you have taught me more than you might ever come to realize over the years.
Click to expand...


Louis, he is a pretty good guy, if I say so myself.
 
Butch I am a competitor of a different breed, a Plainbase cast bullet benchrest shooter to be abit more exact. I also like to tinker abit and I do all of my own shooting related work. Everything Jackie and a few others here have shared over the years I have been able to put to good work. Some might tend think that is just a real long shaft sitting on a lathe. To me it's something extremely valuable that I can visualize using for some of my own competitive rifle and barrel work.
 
Louis.J said:
Butch I am a competitor of a different breed, a Plainbase cast bullet benchrest shooter to be abit more exact. I also like to tinker abit and I do all of my own shooting related work. Everything Jackie and a few others here have shared over the years I have been able to put to good work. Some might tend think that is just a real long shaft sitting on a lathe. To me it's something extremely valuable that I can visualize using for some of my own competitive rifle and barrel work.
Click to expand...

HO'leee!!

And I thought my 895-grainers were large!

Hope you make your own bullet casting blocks as even my guy in OZ can't make a mould that big!!
 
BTW Louis..... When I had this mold made I tried to get a larger surface at the rear. Specifically I wanted a thin driving band at the rear for better gas seal and the guy who built this one disagreed, to put it mildly...

You're accuracy-minded. How do you make your bases?
 
alinwa said:
Hokayyy..... but I'm opening myself up to (deserved) ridicule from Louis ;)

View attachment 23232

Here's one next to a 6BR round
Click to expand...

At first I thought that was a .458 Socom, but the rim wasn't rebated, then I recall you talking about using .338LM brass as a parent for something like this - is that the case? What sort of powder load are you putting behind that monster?

GsT
 
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