Today's Sherline Lathe Challenges
Sherline Lathe:
Chucked up an 1-1/2" x 5" alu round in a 3 jaw chuck. Need to part off 1/2", live centre in previously drilled centre hole - because I know it's going to need some tail support.
Parting off is a horrible job and yes it jammed 3 times locking up the motor and pulling my stock half out of the chuck. It's OK until you get about 1/2" into the stock.
My guess is that the cut off tool must be flexing as it gets further into the stock. I get good chips until it binds. I have low speed and cutting fluid.
Not sure what I am doing wrong, maybe the Sherline is not built for this size stock.
Got the 1/2" disc off in the end.
Rechuck the smaller disc put a centre drill in the large chuck on the tail stock. The centre drill wobbles as it comes into contact with the end of the stock - is this normal? Should I be knocking the taper harder into the tail stock before I start drilling?
After the centre hole I chuck up a 5mm drill bit in the chuck on the tail stock and succesfully drill a hole through my 1/2" disc. Now because I want a larger hole I go up to an 8mm drill bit, well this is a drama, the bit keeps jamming and ends up spinning the chuck in the tail stock. 4 or 5 attempts at get past the smaller taper made by the smaller drill until I am drilling again. Up to a 12mm drill, and yes the same problem.
Are the flutes on my drills too sharp? I have noticed that in a hand drill in thin metal stock the drill just wants to turn into a screw and near pulls the drill out of my hand.
The 3 jaw chuck certainly mars up the surface of the stock - is this normal for aluminium? I tend to tighten the chuck enough to make it difficult to unchuck, bring in a fear of skinned knuckles when using the tommy bars to release the stock.
If I don't tighten the stock up so tight it just moves on me.
I find that getting a clean finish is difficult since the handwheels don't seem to be so freely moving, they seem to bind ever so slightly part way through a full rotation - both cross slide and feed seem to be not so smooth.
Anyway, after reading this maybe you guys have some comments. Feel free to point out my short comings :)