Jimmy I've stopped this right at the beginning, I've noticed that you always seem to put your centre drill in the end of the work before you face it off. This is considered very bad practice because any deviation in the end of the part can cause non concentricity in the centre hole. ALWAYS face the end before centre drilling the part. I used to be a metalwork teacher 40 years ago and that was always standard practice.. if you watch other machinists on KZfaq you will see that happening always. Right I will watch the rest now!

Great modification from MT4 to a 3 Jimmy! You might consider making yourself a toolpost grinder with both stone and diamond bits. You could then regrind that live centre to a new undamaged point.

By the way that's a nice multi purpose machine!

5 months down the line, how have you found it Jimmy? I'm not sure I'd have used two standard ball race bearings without a thrust race between them. Normally there is a front shield threaded into the end to locate the bearing stack and to stop chips getting into the end bearing. Those rubber seals won't keep out oily chips and worse, oily rust particles from getting inside. Also I think the sliding fit of the removable point will allow too much radial play caused by the cutting tool pressure. I hope I am wrong !

I purchased a piece of 3/8" steel plate. It was much easier to work with... And in the end I got the same result with less headache.

Keep on going. You have made a good start, now you just need to keep plugging away at it when time allows you to get on with it. Please keep the videos coming!

You are a lucky man to have your own pond! It would be nice if you would do a walk round the pond and explain what species of fish you have in there. I always up for watching fishing videos and I'm very jealous of your pond!

A nice neat design! And it works very well. I've watched a few of your videos now and I have a comment to make about the finishes you lathe leaves on the work. I have noticed that at times you turn up to the chuck and stop the lathe WITHOUT removing the tool from the work and then proceed to move the carriage to the right to clear the work. I can guess that you wish to preserve the diameter setting as you do not have a DRO, but in doing it the way you do, it CAN and when using carbide insert tooling it WILL damage the cutting edge almost every time.mit is the next operation you will probably notice that the surface finish is less than perfect. You then absolutely need to have this tool you have made. If you don't do stop the machine with the carbide tool engaged you won't need your flattening or burnishing tool anywhere near as much. I've made a similar tool a few months ago but I've only had to use it once, because my lathe ( which is almost exactly like yours, with the exception that you have a different saddle with a larger table, and your milling head has a separate motor where mine is driven from the headstock by a selectable dog clutch that either drives the chuck spindle it the milling head) can produce a reasonably good surface finish using the tool and a small bit of emery cloth to get a good finish.

So often one sees assemblies which need a C spanner or a pin spanner being chiselled round with a steel drift, usually by Pakistani machinists. If you are too lazy to make the correct tool, it is but the work of a few minutes to make an aluminium drift to do the job. This will cause no damage whatever. You are but an amateur bodger rather than an engineer if you don't have soft jaws for your vice and aluminium drifts to use for jobs for which you don't have the correct tools.

Excellent job man, great video, keep'um coming..

Enjoyed the video. If you don't mind a recommendation, take the time to mount your material more concentric in the chuck to avoid interrupted cuts, this will make it easier on you machine and tooling. I like to place the material in and tap it in using a dial indicator then center drill and place a live center and face off as much as I can then flip the part and chuck it up and face off the second end then center drill for live center if needed this makes it easier to turn the outer to dimension.

The burnishing of the turned piece certainly makes it look sleek. I was wondering if amongst your tools you have a set of hardness files to measure what change you have made to the surface in terms of hardness. That would be handy to know. Cheers.

Is that a burnishing tool you have lots of neat stuff for your machines really enjoying your channel

I would have bought a cut off from a breight mild steel bar at a steel supplier. Then machine it to fit lathe and new chuck.

Needs a thrust bearing for the "push" force, every single live center has one that have seen made or made in a factory bearing in back isn't going to be up to task, will eventually eat itself

Way cool!!! 😃👍🏻

Very nice work sir. I can see it will be a good addition to lathe tools

This would be great for turning pipe or something similar to center off the cone. Good job.

I would suggest grinding off the outer hard skin which is often used to expose the soft iron underneath. others have already answered in greater detail but thats all you need to know. Great project keep going!

grind the outside first before trying to cut on lathe, but there is castiron white and grey the white is very hard, even harder as the insert or hardened toolsteel. runout of 4 jaw is less important, than the 3 jaw, you have to center your part anyway

NIce work, You could have placed the turning tool for the morse taper in the back of the tool holder. That would move the carriage forward allowing for a shorter tail centre to be used and may reduce deflection and vibrations.

We had to machine some cast iron weights to convert from metric to imperial weight.. It seems that when made, the weights were queched in ice, to make them resistant to damage.. The machinist ruined a lot of inserts working on them..

Я один не понял, нахрена нужны были издевательства над диском от гантелей?

Morse tapers are easy to make with electronic leadscrew and cross slide :)

Thanks for sharing, don't use gloves around rotating power. It is a recipe for getting sucked into a machine and seriously injured. just google gloves, shop tools, accident , injury.

Wow, you really do have an eagle eye for precision. I never tire of people making their own Chuck plate adapters, and yours was cool and entertaining. Can I ask a question of your 3-in-1 machine? I have the more inferior Smithy 1225 XL Midas, or what I call my POS SUX 3000. My milling head moves by a large threaded ring along the same threading on its column, and it’s BS because it’s on a cylindrical column. I’ve had the head move whilst flyi cutting steel ensue of this column. Can you share how your head moves up and down, to get a better idea of modifying my colum/mill head? Thank you.

nice work, nice machinery...thank you for sharing! 👍

I'm wondering about the process of making barbell weights out of, I suspect, Bainite. Curiouser and curiouser as Alice once said. The carbon and alloy content is resisting tempering. Simply put, Bainite can be almost as hard as Martensite but slightly ductile, highly resistant to being brittle. By the way, that lathe has an open frame motor, getting sprayed with and inhaling chips. You should put a shroud on it on stand offs so it can breath fresh cooling air. Concentricity suggestion when machining a chuck or backing plate. Cut the relief in the back of the chuck with a .01mm taper so it is a slight interference fit. Forever eliminates that union if you have concentricity issues. Now take your new chuck apart and wash all the grinding sludge out of it.

Interesting video but music is an irritation.

In the UK i find weights from flee markets very cheap, but i only buy the ones with YORK on the disc these are wider & better cast, i use a brazed on carbide with a good rad, its a good idea to have the tool upside down run in reverse & have a vacuum cleaner hose fix it to tool post real close to the tool & paper over the ways it makes for a much cleaner job, hope my advise helps. From Coventry in UK 🇬🇧.

The outside of cast iron is hard because it cools off quickly, that creates iron carbide. I don’t want to get into the chemistry, but that and often, tiny silicon particles from the mold embed themselves in it. You have to cut under that hard surface and lift it off. Also, if you’re using inserts, you need ones for that purpose or they will dull and chip quickly. You have to be aggressive, not timid about it. If you’re timid and cut too shallow, then the hard abrasive surface will wear the carbide away and a small silicon chip, often too small to see, will catch it and chip it. You did a great job with the chuck itself.

could be wrought Iron or made by forging, can be horrible to machine love your channel 👍

At 24:25, There is a hard surface on the cast iron weight/disc from the casting process, plus there may still be some sand in the surface as well. The core of the iron weight/disc, past the surface is reasonably normal soft iron.

At 22:00 A much better idea ++

Der Flansch müsste bei der ersten Spannung im Schraubstock Plangefräßt werden sonst gibt das nichts

To anneal cast iron, you must heat soak and then bury it immediately in wood chips, sand, salt, or anything to limit the exposure to air. Cast iron even left in the furnace will still be exposed to air. Cast iron will immediately oxidized and form scale

Great job, nice pants! 😃👍🏻👍🏻

Please don't ever let your dog into the workshop. And get rid of the gloves.

Olá amigo trabalho perfeito como sempre!!! O meu sonho de consumo é ter uma placa de quatro castanhas também!!! Abraço e boa sorte sempre!!!

Very well done, sir! I'm working on a 4 jaw with backplate now, but I only have my lathe. I still got some very good information to help me though!!

I did the same like you did here. Adapting the chuck to the existing back plate. Works perfectly fine.

I'd say you did very well. Looks like it is dialed in nearly perfect. Thumbs Up!

Nice work Jimmy. You overcame the challenges.💯👍👍 To anneal that hardend cast iron or cast steel you could try heating it up and bury it in lime powder. May work. Have a great week.👍

Wow! You lost me right out of the gate! Why didn't you bore that hole on the lathe! Wakodahatchee Chris

I have seen that when milling you take 0,05 mm by each pas. This is a lot. The pressure on the insert becomes to high and will not cut but rubbing the materiaal. You should take less each pas you make. Like 0,01 to 0.02 max. May one good advise.... if you turn cast iron the chips are so small and tiny that it looks like dust. Do not blow it away with compressed air. Use a vacuum cleaner in stead. Because that dust damage your lathe en milling machine. The rest i liked the video. Good job :)

All cast iron is not the same. Those weights are crude cast iron with a lot of carbon.

That cast iron isn’t hard, it’s abrasive. There is a lot of dirt in cheap cast iron which will ruin your tools if you run them too fast. Your surface speed on the outside of the flange was too high. Cast iron can be cut well with low surface speed and high feed rate. If your tool rubs instead of cutting a real chip it will be destroyed in a short time. Nice job on making the chuck fit anyways!

As we say in Yorkshire. Jobs a gud'un.

I think if you try hss cutting tool and very low speed you should be able to cut cast iron without any big problem.

One way to cut the hard casting is to mount it on the rotary table and put a grinding wheel in the mill. Be sure the cutter rotation opposes the feed rotation. It is said that leaving comments helps the channel. Use an effective method to avoid getting abrasive all over the machine. Afterward, assume there is abrasive to clean up.