Mill/lathe

[Hitch]

Not my question, but for someone else... any thoughts from the machinests here...





"I know nothing about machine tools or their operation and I intend to teach myself but eventually I want to be able to cut a 14mm-ve thread internal and external with the lathe and to be able to cut an oval shape out of ally with the mill.

I would rather get a mill and lathe I can do this on and then teach myself rather than get a beginner's tool and then have to buy a more capable machine when I get more skills.


So can anyone reccomend a lathe that can cut a 14mm -ve thread and a mill with a (don't know if it is called this) dividing table so I can cut curves.


Thanks in advance.


*edit* I have a budget of around £1000, I can stretch it a bit if I have to."

 

[gavuk]

hi hitch ,just for clarification,,,,,,,14mm threads cannot be made using tap and die?must be screw threaded ?......any sizes for oval?and material thickness?,easiest method ,drill/bore two holes then slot between,no good?............oval which is required ?plate with oval hole or oval shape cut from plate?..........can hopefully give ..better advice

 

[MrFluffy]

M14? anything with a metric screwcutting gearbox mostly hitch. The trick for the internal stuff is in the tooling. I use a insert toolholder that takes preground inserts so the angles are all correct. It raises the question what sort of thread? a acme, regular screwthread or some odd variant? If I was going to do a lot of m14 stuff, I'd buy a m14 machine die and tap, and get a tailstock die holder.

A rotary table is what you want for the mill, they are usually a add on extra you purchase seperately which bolts to the tslots using tnut's and studs. They wont however give you oval cutting capability, they will just rotate around a pivot. Your getting the terms confused with dividing table , which is something that you can set up to rotate nth of a turn, move it another nth etc. You can get rotaries with division capability, or a plain old vanilla handcrank with degree markings on it. Unless you have a requirement for making things at exact intervals on round things, mostly the angle ones are fine.

£1000 will get a reasonable pair of heavy machines, perhaps even with a rotary table, but you have to add to that the cost of clamping and tooling stuff. For example you'll want a workholding clamp kit for the mill min, thats £50, then if it doesnt arrive with one, a decent milling machine vice. S/H they vary depending on robustness and condition.
Then toolholders for the mill, stuff for roughing out, fine fc3 mills for detail work. I have more in the tooling for my mill than the purchase price alone, but it is something that you expand over time.

For brands its a huge question, its like asking "I want to buy a car, what make should I get", there'll be 100 different answers each with their own ideas on whats best.
Oh, and of course having 3 phase to feed the machines with makes for easier bargain hunting