Just Getting Started

[Harold_V]

While there may be more than one way to "skin the cat", there's often one way that is superior to other methods, if for no other reason, safety, or likelihood of success. Some ways of working simply offer greater risks. A great deal depends on the particular situation at hand, as well as the nature of the equipment at one's disposal.

Also, consider that making multiples of any part is usually affected by the type of setup one chooses. In lathe work, most individuals prefer tool posts that allow for changing tools by replacing the tool holder (think KDK, as an example). For small work, where cuts are of short duration, they tend to be cumbersome, taking a lot more time to change than by simply indexing a square block type post. For one-off machining, that type of post tends to be cumbersome.

There is no right or wrong in many cases. One tends to migrate to what is comfortable for the individual in question, but it pays to listen to those with experience, often learning to change bad habits.

H

[Island Time]

Strictly relying on videos is the lazy man's way and there's a great amount of the details no amount of forum posts or videos has the time or room to get into.

It all depends on how a person learns. I am very visually oriented. I learn best by watching something being done. The written word is important, and when well written conveys information that would be hard to convey in any other way. But for some, watching another person, live or in video, can be critically important. That is, if you can get them to show more than 1 or 2 seconds at real time speed before they shift the video into warp drive.

[SteveM]

While there may be more than one way to "skin the cat" ...

Personally, I prefer a belt sander.

Steve

[pete]

You may have read what I wrote Jim but didn't understand what you quoted me on at all. It's got nothing to do with how a person learns best or not. Most of us are hard wired as being visually orientated at birth. That's why there's so many pictures in those lathe manuals. As I said, "There's a great amount of details no amount of forum posts or videos has the time or room to get into". The subject is far too complex for any series of videos to fully cover what your attempting to learn. Hundreds of books have been published about it over hundreds of years and they still don't cover it all. Learning woodworking is vastly easier to pick up most of the necessary information through videos than metal machining is. Yes you can pick up a lot of the basics of metal lathe operation through those videos, and some of them can help a lot. If and there isn't any, but if there was a series of videos that covered everything that one Hercus manual I linked to does. It would be at least a few thousand hrs of videos. That lathe manual will teach you the entry level information you need to know about proper lathe operation, safety, maintaining the machine, and maybe most important teach you the correct part names and terminology so you can understand what those videos are trying to demonstrate when they start getting a bit more technical. If you think it's a short cut to quickly learning lathe operation by watching a few YT videos that's not going to happen.

[Patio]

This is what I think.
I started on a SB 10L, about 8 years ago. It was a great lathe for a newbie, and your 9" will serve you well, to learn on. Because they are belt drive, and usually less than 1hp. they can save you a lot of money in broken parts and tooling, when you crash, just because the odds are high that you will. These lathes run best with HSS for cutting tools, not that one can't use Carbide.
I suggest you read Harold's V post on grinding HSS cutting tools, Get a grinder and fit an 8" gaurd so you can run 8" Aluminum Oxide wheels. Get yourself some different materials and go to making some cuts. Start out making some .020 passes, watch the chips, they tell the story, and go till you start to see some color in the chips and back off a little. If HSS gets hot, it will lose it's edge, and you are back to the grinder.
As you can tell by now, there are a lot of good people here, with a huge brains trust, that are willing to help. If you get stuck, just ask, someone will know something about it, and that is not just with regards to machine work.
Good luck, and welcome to the board.

[Harold_V]

A comment in regards to HSS and losing hardness. It doesn't, not from grinding, although it IS true of carbon steel, which was a common cutting tool material many years ago. In fact, HSS is difficult to anneal, and must be done with extremely slow cooling, once it has been soaked at the proper temperature.

That said, HSS is subject to micro-fracturing from thermal shock. When grinding, if you can't keep it quite cool by frequent quenching, then don't quench at all. Grind until you are happy with the results, disregarding the discoloration (which does no harm) or until you can't hold it any longer, then allow it to air cool until it can be further quenched in cool water. If the water sizzles when you quench, the tool is too hot to be quenched.

It is common practice to silver solder HSS cutting tools to steel shanks. They perform perfectly well after being heated (in excess of 1,100°F) so long as they are allowed to air cool.

H

[Island Time]

Pete, I guess I did misunderstand what you meant. My apologies. Agreed that a bunch of YT videos does not an expert make. They are maybe a great starting point, which is where I'm at, to get a visual on things. But you're right that the manuals and in depth guides fill in the meat, and that is ultimately what will be required if one is to develop any skill.

Jim

[Harold_V]

I realize that my comments in regards to HSS are confusing, which was discussed this evening with Patio. What I said is true, and what he said is also true. The point with HSS is that it will tolerate heat, but not necessarily when under cutting conditions. His comments reflected the reality that if you are taking a cut with HSS and the chips come off colored anything beyond a light straw yellow, it's only a matter of time until the edge will collapse. The darker the chip color, the sooner you can expect the edge to collapse.

Patio's point was that you should monitor chip color, using it as a measure of excessive surface speed. With that I agree 100%. If you find the generated chip doesn't change color, that's a sure sign that you are not taking a cut at beyond recommended surface speed. In such a case, you are afforded the luxury of increasing speed or feed, shooting for the most efficient cutting condition.

Note that this does not apply to non-ferrous materials, but does include stainless, although the colors will be different from those made with steel alloys.

H

[pete]

Fwiw and using a whole lot of past hind sight Jim I'm make a point of picking up a good used 1940's to 1960's edition of Machinery's Handbook. You should be able to find one for about $20. That one's not really designed to be read but used as a reference manual for accepted industry standards for a vast number of topics. You could hardly operate any machine tool without having access to one. The new versions are expensive and are of far less use because of how much information they dropped you'll still need in favor of cnc and carbide etc. Then a copy of that South Bend how to run a lathe. After that you'll know just enough to get a lot more out of that Hercus PDF I linked to. The videos and forums like this one are good additions to having some reference manuals and not a replacement for them.

All three books will give you basic tool geometry shapes for a variety of materials as well. Just remember the speeds and feeds recommended in that Machinery's Handbook would be for much larger and far more rigid industrial machines using flood coolant. The above advice about reading your chip color is something I wish I'd learned a lot earlier than I did.