I was first introduced to the metal lathe in Industrial Processes and loved it so much that I drove out to Whitewater to purchase the lathe that you see above. It is a Craftsman 109 metal lathe that is a hobby level lathe.
That being said, it is the perfect size to make some knurled knobs for the faceting machine that I have been diligently working towards completing.
Looking through the scrap bin, I found a few small pieces of 0.5" brass. I love the look of knurled brass knobs and attempted to make a few for a few 4"x 5" cameras that my Dad and myself built a year ago.
The first thing that I did was secure the material in a 3 jaw self centering chuck (Thanks a lot Chad!) and faced the front of the material.
Once the front was done it was time to turn the material to the correct profile. I will be looking to use a die to correctly thread the brass 10-24 which I have already tapped into a chunk of aluminum, roughly 1" x 1" x 3" for the steady rest of the faceting machine.
I established a rough length to be cut on the saw. The length was not all that important because I will make sure that they are the same length on the lathe after facing both sides.
So all in all I now have three knobs that are tapped (2) 8-32 and (1)10-32. All unusable but its always good to get some practice. Honestly, it really bums me out that I was able to turn them to the correct profile, and messed up with the die rendering them useless for this application. It looks like I will be watching a few videos on YouTube tonight how to correctly use a die.
Well until next week when I can try again, stay tuned!
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