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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Gunsmithing
Help with selecting bench top lathe and vertical mill
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<blockquote data-quote="tobnpr" data-source="post: 2025426" data-attributes="member: 68758"><p>A vertical mill isn't needed for barrel work. Nice to have in the shop- but you won't use it for barrels other than fluting or perhaps some breech extractor cuts on older rifles.</p><p></p><p>Not clear what you meant by "throating prefits"- but if you did indeed mean just that, you don't need a lathe at all.</p><p>Throating can be done by hand with a Uni-Throater. If you meant chambering barrel blanks that's a different agenda- and you would probably machine shouldered barrels and not nutted "prefits" if you have a lathe and the capability to use it.</p><p></p><p>A 12 x 36 is fine. The term "rigidity" gets used a lot, but IMHO a one-ton machine isn't necessary for turning hollow one-inch steel tubes. Lack of "rigidity" can be compensated for with light cuts, which is mostly the norm anyway for barrel work; esp when holding in spiders and not a chuck to avoid shifting the workpiece. Plenty of smaller machines that are very "tight" and capable of extremely precise work that would not be considered "rigid". That said, makes sense to buy as large as you can fit (with a short spindle if you work through the headstock). Longer bed gives you the ability to work between centers. </p><p></p><p>Really comes down to budget and what you plan to do with it. Depending where you are geographically, used machines can be found that offer great value as they often come with tooling- but you need to be able to evaluate the machine so you don't end up with something clapped-out that becomes a money-pit project.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tobnpr, post: 2025426, member: 68758"] A vertical mill isn't needed for barrel work. Nice to have in the shop- but you won't use it for barrels other than fluting or perhaps some breech extractor cuts on older rifles. Not clear what you meant by "throating prefits"- but if you did indeed mean just that, you don't need a lathe at all. Throating can be done by hand with a Uni-Throater. If you meant chambering barrel blanks that's a different agenda- and you would probably machine shouldered barrels and not nutted "prefits" if you have a lathe and the capability to use it. A 12 x 36 is fine. The term "rigidity" gets used a lot, but IMHO a one-ton machine isn't necessary for turning hollow one-inch steel tubes. Lack of "rigidity" can be compensated for with light cuts, which is mostly the norm anyway for barrel work; esp when holding in spiders and not a chuck to avoid shifting the workpiece. Plenty of smaller machines that are very "tight" and capable of extremely precise work that would not be considered "rigid". That said, makes sense to buy as large as you can fit (with a short spindle if you work through the headstock). Longer bed gives you the ability to work between centers. Really comes down to budget and what you plan to do with it. Depending where you are geographically, used machines can be found that offer great value as they often come with tooling- but you need to be able to evaluate the machine so you don't end up with something clapped-out that becomes a money-pit project. [/QUOTE]
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Help with selecting bench top lathe and vertical mill
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