JerrySharrett
Senile Member
As to the tolerance of the reamed hole. if your setup is correct the reamer will determine how close, not the lathe. Now then, when you are turning or boring you are at the mercy of the lathes rigidity, tooling used, tool geometry, and your ability (yes your ability-to read the dial.). That said, you can experience some out-of-roundness depending on the spindle bearings accuracy and how they are adjusted.So like i have asked in the past if the reamer follows the bore anyway and i am using a floating reamer holder, how critical is it that my barrel is dialed in to .0001? To be quite honest i have been told my jet machine wont even hold this kind of tolerance? Lee
To get closer than about 0.002" on a lathe you generally turn to slightly larger then file and polish to the desired size.
Trust me, your little Jet will do close enough work to barrel benchrest rifles as long as you make the proper setup.
Trust me on this too, that expensive Kennametal insert tooling an that small lathe is over kill. Most carbide inserts, by the nature of the powdered metallurgy they are made, have a slight radius or k-land at the very cutting edge. Small lathes do not like that!!! They need SHARP. properly ground HSS or HSS-CO bits to get maximum accuracy and best finish.
This is not a good picture but it will give you the general idea.