Lathe / CNC routing

Precession metalwork machinery from 100 years ago still present, never fully replaced. A fun little machine that could rip your arm in which you can make anything you want with metal, wood or plastic, from a buttplug to a crankshaft, with less skill than it seems. Lathes are expensive and take a lot of space, so are routers, but if you have one and know how to use it you are set for life. Find an old, used, soviet one, clean it up a little and it's good to go, these machines were meant to last an eternity without any care being taken whatsoever, so maybe you can get a hold of one for less than too much. I've been taking lessons lately at a nearby workshop but I haven't found any good resources. Does any lainon have machining experience to share?

>these machines were meant to last an eternity without any care being taken whatsoever, so maybe you can get a hold of one for less than too much. until your ways are rusted and your last tools are broken anyway

>these machines were meant to last an eternity without any care being taken whatsoever Yeah, nah, unless all you want to make are soykafty parts without any tolerances. There's a reason most workshops do annual service on these machines. Source: I'm a moldmaker.

>>13142 >>13144 OK, maybe I exaggerated a little. Of course you need to grease up moving parts and sharpen cutting tools if needed be, but if the bed and carriage are undamaged and, if bought in parts, you reassembled it correctly even a soviet-era lathe or cheap-o chinese one will have a .02mm tolerance at worst

>>13141 After spending years trying to get into machining in DIY circles, Makerspaces and my own shed, and now taking two uni courses on the topic: There is no substitute for the highly theoretical background to achieving good results. The number of factors to consider: Material toughness, crystalinity, response to deformation, your milling cutter helix and relief angle, cooling and lubrication (which is almost always a pure improvement! Don't skip lubrication!), machine stiffness, and so much more. Without the theoretical background, you'll have to rely on endmill selection for best results: Use a table of feeds and speeds for your endmill-material combo. You can get general recommendations from the "Metal-Bible" (that's actually what all the machinists call them lol): "Mechanical and Metal Trades Handbook" from Europa Publications, or the Machinists handbook seems to be popular in english-speaking workshops. They contain many more very useful tables and diagrams, but little explanation. For theoretical background, I recommend "Metal Cutting Theory and Practice". I haven't read it but a similar book (Fertigungsverfahren 1, Springer), from skimming it seems to cover similar or the same subject matter. I can't stress enough how useful this theoretical background is. The last tip I have is to get yourself connected to a local scrapyard. I have never bought any raw stock for my practice and hobby projects, and worked just with what I got there. Whenever I bring a decent amount of copper scrap, they let me take aluminium and steel scrap for practice. Maybe you can establish something similar, or at least get your blanks for cheaper.