Hello from Steven in Winnipeg- I’m a little slow…

[StevSmar]

…Free advice FWIW. I cant quite tell by the picture …
…Hope the move went well.

Sorry, I didn’t thank you appropriately for your advice. I was lucky that I benefited from my brother-in-law selling a lathe and the buyer didn’t protect the lead screws and bent them. So I was super careful… except for when I was a bonehead lifting the lathe off the ramps…

I’d actually designed the ramps so they could be split and lowered in the middle to get more headroom for lifting the lathe off. But I was really tired and thought I’d try to lift the lathe off without splitting the ramps. That was sure interesting in the worst way when the straps slipped. Luckily there was sufficient length of bottom support that the straps stayed away from the lead screws.

…I gotta confess that your sled making is amazing! Do you get a volume discount?

After all that work my ramps are in danger of being disassembled… My wife did ask me the other day when I was going to do that and I told her I‘m still deciding if to get another tool that needs them. Luckily for me it’s getting warmer so sleeping in the garage isn’t too much of a hardship.

Fusion 360 is free for hobbyists. There are a few restrictions but nothing to worry about. You do need a decent computer. 16gb of ram but that is not expensive these days.

Don’t forget a 3D mouse!!! I’d consider that essential for 3D drafting quality of life. Not essential but it makes zooming in and rotating the model feel so natural you forget how you’re doing it.

 

[jcdammeyer]

Don’t forget a 3D mouse!!! I’d consider that essential for 3D drafting quality of life. Not essential but it makes zooming in and rotating the model feel so natural you forget how you’re doing it.

3D Mouse?

 

[Susquatch]

3D Mouse?

They are all 3D. I tried a 2D one once and got a paper cut.

Sorry, Devil made me say it!

 

[Dan Dubeau]

I used to have a 3d spaceball way back in the day, but have got along fine without it. I'm a hotkey guy, so my left hand is dancing around the keyboard, my right is pushing the mouse around. With most software able to be configured and changed however you want them, I try and set them up all the same way for rotating and zoom. Hold middle mouse button for pan, hold right for rotate, and the scroll wheel for zoom. Whoever invented the scroll wheel is a genius. Actually thinking back about it, I think I ditched the spaceball when I got my first scroll mouse.

A nice luxery, but I'd spend that money on 100 other things before I bought one. Maybe one day I'll be out of things to buy for the shop, and have a few hundred burning a hole in my pocket....

 

[StevSmar]

3D Mouse?

A 3D mouse is a second mouse that enables you to zoom in/out and rotate around your model, I use mine with my left hand.

You can use the menu functions to switch between navigating your model and editing it, but I found the 3D mouse much more natural. For the type of modelling I was doing I found it extremely helpful. But it is a quality of life improvement.
(I use the cheapest version of the 3Dconnexion 3D mouse).

 

[Susquatch]

A 3D mouse is a second mouse that enables you to zoom in/out and rotate around your model, I use mine with my left hand.

You can use the menu functions to switch between navigating your model and editing it, but I found the 3D mouse much more natural. For the type of modelling I was doing I found it extremely helpful. But it is a quality of life improvement.
(I use the cheapest version of the 3Dconnexion 3D mouse).

Don't they sell a mode switching mouse? I used to use a ball mouse. It had a ball on it as well as a traditional wheel that allowed you to rotate and zoom without switching mice. You could also assign key combos on the keyboard to strap in certain functions to the mouse (slice, zoom, select, stretch, snip, etc)

 

[StevSmar]

Don't they sell a mode switching mouse? I used to use a ball mouse. It had a ball on it as well as a traditional wheel that allowed you to rotate and zoom without switching mice. You could also assign key combos on the keyboard to strap in certain functions to the mouse (slice, zoom, select, stretch, snip, etc)

I’m not sure about a mode switching mouse. When I was learning Fusion 360 it was so easy to navigate around my model using the 3D mouse in my left hand, it allowed my my right hand to concentrate on editing the model.

Here’s a video:

You can get a fancy one that has lots of buttons on it, mine is just the basic one with two buttons (that I rarely use, though I probably should re-map them and start using them)

 

[Marc Moreau]

Welcome from Gatineau Quebec

 

[StevSmar]

Thanks for the welcome @Marc Moreau !

As a final bit of silliness, I got great humour (inspiration?) out of this cartoon:

It was almost like a dare… So here’s the first time my lathe turned something:

(Hopefully this is the first and last time I ever turn wood on my lathe…)
(I also used oil to lubricate the chuck… I’m thinking I should have used grease because of the mess it made…)

 

[YYCHM]

I also used oil to lubricate the chuck… I’m thinking I should have used grease because of the mess it made…

LOL.... The first time I spun up a freshly oiled chuck it proceeded to lay a rooster tail of oil up my shirt, across my glasses, up the back wall and across the ceiling. The wall and ceiling still still show the evidence. Now I drape some news paper over a freshly oiled chuck and run it warp speed until it quits spitting. There is a great debate as to whether a chuck should be oiled, greased or run dry. Grease traps swarf.

 

[trlvn]

Grease traps swarf.

^^^ What he said

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Nice job on the sharpening. I usually do mine on the disc sander.

Don't get so hung up on not turning wood on the lathe. I turn wood on mine every once in a while, just take extra care to clean it before/after, and be sure to lubricate it well. I know internet folklore says it's verboten, but I bought my tools to use them for the projects I do in my shop. Those projects occasionally call for wood turning that's better accomplished on my Myford, than on my delta midi wood lathe. If it pisses off "Jim in Iowa", or "Bill up in the Bruce", then so be it

 

[Susquatch]

Thanks for the welcome @Marc Moreau !

As a final bit of silliness, I got great humour (inspiration?) out of this cartoon:
View attachment 22647

It was almost like a dare… So here’s the first time my lathe turned something:
View attachment 22648
(Hopefully this is the first and last time I ever turn wood on my lathe…)
(I also used oil to lubricate the chuck… I’m thinking I should have used grease because of the mess it made…)

I'm with others, no grease. So oil spatters a bit. Get over it. Your lathe will only look pretty for a very short time. Cutting oil is way worse than a little oil on your chuck. You need to use cutting oil for most jobs so it's gunna get dirty and so are you and so is the wall.

I'm also with @Dan Dubeau on the wood. I don't have a wood lathe. But I do turn a lot of wood for all kinds of things on my metal lathe. I usually clean up the metal swarf first, then put a cloth over the ways, do the work, and then vacuum it all up. I really don't give a rat's a** about any purists opinion of whether or not that's ok.

FWIW, good solid grain wood makes a very good prototype for many metal parts. And some machine parts look and feel great made out of wood. Eg handles.

So ya, don't stop turning wood. Your lathe doesn't care.

And FWIW, go ahead and turn plastic too!

 

[StevSmar]

I’ve been convinced! No grease in the chuck, just oil slicks up the wall.

I’ll probably end up turning wood every once in a while… just between us.

I do have some ABS, it looks like it will be perfect for turning practise!