Last week I ordered some metal to practice turning on my new Southbend lathe. My order consisted of Six 6061 aluminum round stock and five thick walled aluminum pipe, just to name a few.
That same day when I was catching a ride to Brookfield my Dad handed me some broken steel that they used for testing in his materials class. I never thought that I would ever find a use for broken steel blanks, but then again I guess I never thought I would be able to manipulate metal.
I could hardly wait to chuck up some of the round stock and give knurling a shot. here is my first attempt to put some grip on the stock. You can notice that as I was beginning I pretty much just chewed up the aluminum but as I went along I felt as though I was getting the hang of things. Slow speeds, even pressure, and lots of lubrication.
I was getting the hang of things until this happened....
As I was going along I began to notice that the spindle was loosing its ability to spin freely, and I could simply put my hand on the chuck to stop the lathe (it was moving THAT slow). I panicked, ill be honest, I figured that just days into ownership that I RUINED my new machine!
I pulled the bearings and found that the bearing closest to the change gears looked like this. Little to no oil, which was rubbing causing the spindle to heat up. Needless to say I couldn't apply oil fast enough! I ran upstairs into the garage, grabbed some motor oil, and slathered it all over the surfaces.
Hopefully no damage was done, and I will PROMISE myself from now on to liberally apply oil to all moving parts before working on this machine.
Stay tuned!
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