[Shabalala]

I've never done turning before. Was wondering what the normal way of doing off centre holes is as per attached image is?

This video seems to have a neat way of doing this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr9q0PTAnHo

The other alternative is to obviously take the turned part and mill it. But that doesn't sound like an ideal solution. Obviously ideally, it would be nice to do all operations in one go.

I've only just started researching lathes and don't really know much about them but this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RezlWsJnw9Q

Seems to be more or less "standard" (for entry level machines at least) from what I'm seeing but I'm not sure whether you can get it to do off centre holes? I don't really want to buy fancy CAM software that runs in the 4 axis and above range.

[kawazuki]

Lathes with 'gang tooling' or a manual / auto Turret would be usual for multi cutting operations even in production line operations - simple and repetitive machining. The rotary tooling in the video is usually restricted to higher end machines and to enable more complex operations as shown on a single machine. Real high end machining centres will have multiple powered work and tool holding capabilities so this operation would be v.simple for them. Without changing machines at the very least you would require a movable powered spindle for the off centre drilling!

[Jim Dawson]

What you are talking about is using ''live tooling'' as shown in the first video, and is required for drilling bolt patterns and milling in the lathe. You can get live tooling on a turret type tool changer, my lathe for instance has 10 turret positions, and 5 of them can be live tools. I build a couple of parts that require milling or a screw hole pattern and it's nice to be able to produce a completely finished part in the lathe.

You don't need to buy 4 or 5 axis CAM software at all, Fusion 360 is free to students, hobbyists, and startup companies making less than $100K/year. I do normally hand write the milling and drilling G code routines just because it's so simple. Just simple X, Z, C positioning moves.

[Shabalala]

Thanks guys, slowly starting to make sense!