Thread: Lathe & mill projects

Earlier this year @stumpy discovered that nappies and baby food apparently is a higher priority than a metalwork hobby...

So after some negotiations with the Mrs (profuse begging and groveling did the trick), I managed to convince the better half that this was too good a deal to pass on. Lathe & mill at the same time, with oodles of tooling (xmas in my world).

Stumpy was not lying when he said the mill was a large lass. Took myself, a mate and an engine hoist to move "big bertha" into her final resting place.

The mill is a Rong Fu 30 copy, round column. Nothing fancy, but nice large bed and that sold it for me as I wanted a mill for stock inletting etc. The lathe is an early Myford ML7, I think 1948 if the serial number registry is correct.

I cleaned the machines, re-built the lathe bench and set about discovering what all the bits and pieces were for...

Will be using this thread to post pics of my attempts at metalwork.

First up, some simple turning and threading.

Had to make a smaller mandrel for the slitting saw, so that I could maximize the depth I could saw to (see barrel clamp later)



The bottom washer has a slight "lip" to locate the blade.

Next was a barrel clamp and action wrench.

The barrel clamp was designed so that I could bolt it to the towbar of my van and use it on the range. Some interesting lessons learnt - off-centre work holding, boring and slit sawing. The black bolt is 3/4 inch diameter to give you an idea of the size.


The action wrench is for my Omark target rifle, 3 lug. Got a mate to help with welding the nut onto the bar, and then used the faces of the nut to use as an idex for machining the 3 flats.

Next one was to make a second base plate for my SKP buttplate. I wanted the same setup on both my fullbore and rimfire FTR rifles, and figured making a 2nd baseplate would be way cheaper than buying a whole second SKP ($250).

So I machined some square stock into a T, and turned down a piece of roundbar to the correct dimension. Then machined a slot into the roundbar. Bit of steel putty later and some grining, and I have a spare buttplate Total cost - $ 20 for the steel putty and some scrap alu.



Shoulder plate on right, new base in the middle, and original base on the left. I will see how the steel putty holds up with rimfire recoil, but should be good...

bloody ipad photos seem to be upside down ?"£$%^

current project is a spotting scope stand for FTR. lots of little bits and pieces that go together, taking a lot longer than I thought...

Projects rock! I think you and I would have a lot to talk about if ever we were in the same room. Keep em coming...

regretted selling em ......but , they have found a very nice home , with a very capable machinist !!! ... look forward to seeing more stuff/projects

Alternate trigger shoe for my smallbore FTR rifle - so that it matches the fullbore one.

Version 2 of a home-made spotting scope stand. Lots of interesting workholding and figuring out how to do equilateral triangle etc.

The barrel of the clamp is home-made as well, only part not fabricated myself is the swivel head off a monopod.

Nice. Good having a wider base for the spotting scope than the poxy "tip over when looking at it sideways" types.

Yep EBF, That's a dame good idea, every time I fire the beast I have to go down the range to get my scope!!, Homebrew.357.

I like the stand.
Looks nice and compact once put down.