Lathe Question

[mattypichu]

I have an older 6" Craftsman / Atlas lathe that is in the process of being revived. I was wondering what parts of the process a tool like this can help with. A couple that come to mind are head tube facing and relieving. What are some other creative frame building uses for this tool?

[adarn]

I had one of those for a bit. I originally got it to miter tubes on but it proved to not be rigid enough. I used it to bore some sleeves out and things like that. It could also do a good job at making binders or other small brazeons. I sold it because I think something just a bit bigger would have a lot more uses.

[Rody]

Matty,

A good lathe is indispensable in a frame shop, I honestly don't know how other builders operate without one...they must buy a lot more pre-made pieces.

Mine is used with every frame build, from creating seat tube inserts (turning, boring), facing bb shells, headtubes, creating fork crown race seats, cutting finished fork crowns, making EBB's, post weld reaming of frames, parting tubing, and making all the bits and bobs (binders, threaded Disc posts, dropout work)

If you are creating your own fixtures, a lathe is a must.

Now, all this is considering you have a lathe that is large and stable enough for this work. I'm afraid the little craftsman will be wanting in many aspects.

[Andrew R Stewart]

I've had an Atlas 6" for 30+ years. First i just made bits and tried to mill out simple slots. Then I advanced to trying to miter with hole saws. Now I've gone back to hand mitering and the lathe sits unassembled after my most recent move 4 years ago.

The lathe was too loose and small in capacity to be of real frame building help, beyond the small bits work. About 10 years ago i broke it down as far as I was comfy with and cleaned it up. Tried to tighten the gibbs and such on reassembly with no better results WRT the slop under cutting forces.

If I ever get another lathe it will be much more substantial. Andy.

[afwalker]

I have a small lathe and would love a real one with a 1.5" spindle bore. But, I use the heck out of it anyway. Facing, making jigs and tools.
I was able to make a main tube mitering jig for a Nichols horizontal mill because of my lathe.
9317648382_81011fe759_m.jpg9602161691_de2910f0f5_m.jpg
Made an Octalink 2 crank adapter for the frame jig to measure crankring and crank clearance
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cheers
andy walker
Flickr: afwalker's Photostream
Walker Bicycle Company | | Walker Bicycle Company

[bencooper]

I manage fine with a little Rollo Elf, it's fine for making most bike things. For headset and BB facing, I have the proper hand facing tools, ditto for seat tube reaming. It mostly gets used for roughing the crown race seat, then that's also finished off with the proper Park crown race tool. For mitring, I have my cheapish mitring system described elsewhere on this forum.

So lathes are lovely, but I don't think they're essential for framebuilding. Then again, all those reaming and facing tools cost quite a bit more than an old lathe would cost - though they are might lighter and easier to store.

[NBC]

sell it and get a bigger one ?

spindle bore is your best friend when it comes to facing tubes etc, and thread turning would be pretty useful for being creative :)

NBC

[mattypichu]

I manage fine with a little Rollo Elf, it's fine for making most bike things. For headset and BB facing, I have the proper hand facing tools, ditto for seat tube reaming. It mostly gets used for roughing the crown race seat, then that's also finished off with the proper Park crown race tool. For mitring, I have my cheapish mitring system described elsewhere on this forum.

So lathes are lovely, but I don't think they're essential for framebuilding. Then again, all those reaming and facing tools cost quite a bit more than an old lathe would cost - though they are might lighter and easier to store.

Ben,
I followed that link to the Elf. How cool that it utilizes the SA hub!

Andy,
I was thinking of the possibility to use it to cope tubes. What tooling did you use for this process? The part that is most curious for me is the holding of the tube. What went wrong?

Just for clarification, when turning the crown race seat, this is performed after the steerer is attached to the crown but before the fork blades? What benefit is there to doing it this way over using a hand tool, if any?

Thanks