Lathe Safety

General Safety

Tail Stock

Signs something is wrong

When you feel resistance, pull the drill bit out, and for tap stop and reverse.
When the discharge doesn't come out curly/not at all, then stop the lathe, and clean it with a brush.
When the tap starts to rotate, then STOP the lathe and put it into reverse.
When 2 things arn't fitting together, DON'T FORCE IT.

Other Infomation

Carriage handwheel (small handle in the front) is the y-axis, and the cross feed handwheel, the large one, is the x-axis, and the compound slide (dual handle) changes the angle. This view is from a bird's eye view.
The most common drill bit sizes are 10-32 and 1/4-20.

Tap Drill Size Chart

Use the 3rd column for the needed drill bit.

How to Use Step by Step for cutting/trimming a shaft

Put the shaft you are operating on into the hole on the left side of the lathe. *When a shaft's side isn't perpendicular to the face, trim that side*
Use the chuck key with the square end to put it into the area with a square hole and tighten it by turning it clockwise/right.
DON'T LEAVE ANY OF THE CHUCK KEYS INSIDE OF THE CHUCK
Calculate how much you have to cut. Like if a shaft is 2.25 inches and you need it to be 2 the difference is .25 and that is how much you need to cut.
Using the big handle and the small handle on the front, make it so that it is barely touching the apothem's connection with a vertex (In a regular polygon apothem is the center to the vertex of a point). Once you did this press the zero button on the digital measurer.
Once all of this is done turn on the lathe to ~600 RPM.
To shortening, turn the large handle till the screen tells us that the x is -.05 and then move the single, small handle so that it goes through at least the middle. After that keep turning it by .05 on the x-axis till it is the correct length.

How to shorten the apothem

To Shortening the apothem, you start it the same way for cutting the shaft, but instead of doing it by the x-axis change the y-axis by around .05 every time.
Change the x-axis by rotating the cross feed handwheel clockwise while keeping the y the same and go back and forth at a medium pace.
Once you have done one side take out the shaft and flip the shaft so that the end that was exposed is now hidden.
Repeat the process you've done 3 steps ago for the other side.

How to drill a hole to tap a shaft

When you want to tap the shaft, you go to a box with the label tap set and look at what tap you need (most likely going to be 1/4-20 or 10-32).
Then you look in the blue area and look at tap size and grab a drill bit that corresponds.
Put the drill bit into the tail stock quill and use the yellow chuck key near the lathe to tighten it.
Push the tail stock's base so that the tip of the drill bit touches the face of the shaft.
Turn the lathe on at a slow speed (~150 rpm)
Put cutting fluid onto the tip of the drill bit.
HOLD the lever on the back that is connected to the tail stock (spindle handle locking).
Always make sure the extending part of the tail stock (tail stock quill) doesn't exceed 1 1/2 inches.
Rotate the handle on the back which inserts the drill bit into the shaft.
Every time there are resistance or no discharge is coming out, let go of the lever and pull it out.
Even when you don't feel the resistance, take it out to be safe. *It is better to be safe than sorry*
Clean the drill bit or tap with a brush.
Put more cutting fluid back onto the drill bit and repeat.
Repeat the previous step on the other side of the shaft when needed.

How to tap a shaft

Replace the drill bit with the tap.
Put cutting fluid onto the tap.
Hold the spindle handle locking.
Turn the lathe back on to ~150 rpm
Slowly do the rotate the crank on the back of the tail stock (handwheel) so that the tap goes in.
When you feel resistance or the tap starts to spin, stop imminently and put it into reverse. *Don't just try to pull it out*
Flip the shaft, if needed, to do the other side.

How ot cut

Video of the Lathe.

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