Just bought a metal lathe, what can i make?

Inanimate Carbon Rod!

20070629simpsonscarbonrod.jpg
 
Lichtbrunger, thanks for the links and comments, don't worry, I'm not a complete novice. I have been using a lathe for some time but thought I'd stump up and buy my own and yes, I also bought a load of extras.

Having worked on a real lathe makes it only harder. ;)

When i bought my mini lathe it was over 20 years after my last use of a lathe, a 2 ton thing. It´s cross slide was heavier than the whole mini lathe. So i had no idea that a lathe could be so rattly, oob. When moving the slides it was stuck and hard to move on some places of it´s way, on other places it was loose enough to feel that when moving it with the hand. Only capable of turning soft plastic.

I was confused. I learned before my buy of it, but i never thought it could be that bad. Then i decided, instead of sending it back, to take the risk of loosing the guarantee and to disassemble and fix it. Most needed was the lapping and the new adjusting of the gibs. But while doing this i noticed it is a good idea to control every bolt and nut, some of them seem to be only a little bit more than hand tigh. And many of them are very soft, poorest quality - replace them with better quality ones while working on it.

It´s a little bit as working with cheap tools from the dollar store - but with some tuning, and getting used to its limits ...... you will find your own "how to...". And depending on that ..... you will know the answer of "what can i make".

Have fun. :D
 
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something from fallout Like an MF cell/EC pack, or the body of a stimpack. idk if that is possible or not with a metal lathe though. Or could combine all the ideas and make a sonic lightsaber that fires a laser which turns people into aliens, or makes them forget stuff.
 
I am also a beginner machinest, one thing that has really helped me is to make a little chart that converts knob turns to measurements (until I have it memorized).

If your lathe hand wheels don't show measurements, use a travel indicator attached to a mag base or mighty mag. It helps even if you have a lot of slop in your cross slide.

MAG BASE AND INDICATOR SET 1" TRAVEL W/22PC IND POINTS - eBay (item 270362050620 end time Sep-12-10 10:18:29 PDT)

MIGHTY MAG TYPE INDICATOR HOLDER INDICATORS - eBay (item 390204176531 end time Sep-30-10 12:05:35 PDT)
 
if you are going to make parts like eyeballs or domes for bullets then you are going to want a radius cutter. or some sort of attachment that will allow you to do various radius cuts at least.
 
You could try to make some functional storage capsules for a Batman Utility Belt, or there are a few Fett suit greeblies you could make.
 
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