Hey all,
In a previous thread I decided to buy a Taig mill and am currently saving for it and in the meantime would like to pick up a lathe for my apartment after the new years rush and would like to ask a few questions.
I have zero knowledge with a lathe and a night class is out of the question for many reasons so I am looking at the Virtual Machine Shop which is fine but not very well laid out to learn anything but free. While the dvd's at LMS like this or this while being geared for teaching are only 2 and 4hrs for $40?! My other search was youtube but while theirs alot of video theirs very little information. Any good tutorial sites that would setup a project and go step by step on setup, cutting, and finishing?
I have read all the fights between the Taig & 7x/8x/9x's and have played with each of them in showrooms and believe that the Taig's build quality and accuracy is light years ahead of the Chinese lathes. Its also a wonderful size for an apartment desk. I will be turning aluminum & brass mostly making steam/stirling engines as well as would like to make custom rings as my fiance's hands are so small no jewelry shop sells things. (luckily she hates gold and diamonds and loves brass, aluminum and titanium) I would also like to cut gears but hobbing will definatly be down the road.
The main reason people say not to buy the Taig seems to be because it lacks thread cutting capacity so I went looking for solutions and my word some of these gear assemblies are larger than the lathe is and it got me thinking...
Im an Electrician/Electronics Engineer and have a few years of experience with pic micros so here are my ideas: Index heads are large plates with 60-50-40 holes and charts to figure out amount of rotations to get the desired # of holes per 360deg. I would just put a optical rotary encoder with 360 positions and output to three 7segment displays with a reset button and I would have a more accurate system for about $26. Over the last week my idea has gone overboard with encoders on all axis displaying on a cheep LCD with mm/in, axis index's, and controls as well as a small stepper driving a skrew on the slide for threading. I would select the required thread type and it would calculate the pulse rate for the stepper to achieve the cut, the index would say the length of the cut and a zero point for repeatability.
If I get the Taig (which I think I will unless you talk me out of it) would anyone be interesting in such a product? I imagine it would cost about $175 but would be an invaluable addition to a manual lathe. Plus it gives me at least a few months of things to do while saving for the mill.
So any reasons I shouldn't buy the Taig Mill? Any good full tutorial sites for turing/milling operations? Would you guys be interested in my DRO/Threader setup or is it only grandiose in my head?
Thanks!