I have free access to a Harbor Freight ...

Dedeye1209 said:

My friend has a harbor freight 7 x 12 mini lathe sitting in his garage, that he has never used. We took it out of the box about four years ago ran it to see if it works and set it on the shelf.

He told me I could use it, modify it, even take it with me anytime I wanted to do any cue work that I wanted. For many years I have done tips by hand, or with my Joe Porper big shaver, which is a fantastic tool BTW.

Any suggestions on modifications or accessories that would make things easier? A steady rest, tail or headstock mods, different chuck? I will probably start with a set of shaft collets from Atlas and a new set of cutting tools. Advice is appreciated. I wish I had the $$$ to buy a Cuesmith or Unique, but I'll settle for a "free" mini machine lathe...

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you can do some reading here and pick up some info.
http://www.mini-lathe.com/

Lathe

Dedeye1209 said:

My friend has a harbor freight 7 x 12 mini lathe sitting in his garage, that he has never used. We took it out of the box about four years ago ran it to see if it works and set it on the shelf.

He told me I could use it, modify it, even take it with me anytime I wanted to do any cue work that I wanted. For many years I have done tips by hand, or with my Joe Porper big shaver, which is a fantastic tool BTW.

Any suggestions on modifications or accessories that would make things easier? A steady rest, tail or headstock mods, different chuck? I will probably start with a set of shaft collets from Atlas and a new set of cutting tools. Advice is appreciated. I wish I had the $$$ to buy a Cuesmith or Unique, but I'll settle for a "free" mini machine lathe...

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Wasn't made to work on cues, you need a steady rest on the back side of the lathe.
I have never owned one but that's what it will take to do a tip or ferrule.


Might make a great pen lathe, or something that doesn't require a large bore spindle.

Wish I still had mine, I would be making jp sets

Lathes

Dedeye1209 said:

I just found that site, macguy, lots of good info.

Yes, I know it wasn't intended for such work, but it has claimed tolerance of 0.001 and a true spindle bore diameter of 0.805. This SHOULD be sufficient to do very precise tip and ferrule work at least, keeping my costs low, allowing me to invest in tip & ferrule inventory...

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A lathe is the only machine in the world that can actually reproduce itself if you are good enough and have that amount of time.

I never said it wouldn't work, I was suggesting that there are other lathes out there that are more designed to work on pool cue shafts that are allot more user friendly and should be able to do more then just tips and ferrules.


I have a shaft in one of my lathes at this moment, the steady rest it is adjusted to 23.5 inches back from the tip of the cue or about 21.5 inches behind the jaws of the chuck.

I use a steady rest like this on my small lathes .
http://www.midamericapool.com/index_files/Page311.htm
Part number 190 - S Small Bearing Steady Rest— with 25 mm ID bearing

On the one big lathe that is 80 inches between centers I drill and tap three holes so you can steady and center the joint end of the shaft ....

On your lathe you might want to weld a piece of pipe on the back side of the spindle and drill and tap 3 holes in it so you can support and center the shaft.

Dedeye1209 said:

My friend has a harbor freight 7 x 12 mini lathe sitting in his garage, that he has never used. We took it out of the box about four years ago ran it to see if it works and set it on the shelf.

He told me I could use it, modify it, even take it with me anytime I wanted to do any cue work that I wanted. For many years I have done tips by hand, or with my Joe Porper big shaver, which is a fantastic tool BTW.

Any suggestions on modifications or accessories that would make things easier? A steady rest, tail or headstock mods, different chuck? I will probably start with a set of shaft collets from Atlas and a new set of cutting tools. Advice is appreciated. I wish I had the $$$ to buy a Cuesmith or Unique, but I'll settle for a "free" mini machine lathe...

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I have one. I made a couple different steady rests. I don't do much other than tips a ferrules. PM me if you'd like. I used to have photos of my setup on the interweb, but who know where they all went.

Freddie <~~~ leaves the cue work to the professionals

I too have a Harbor Freight mini-lathe which I picked up in a moving sale for $100. I built several steady rests that work well. I use the indexable carbide tips from Harbor Freight (about $25) and they do a great job. I also purchased a collet set on e-bay. Good luck in your endeavor.

You should be able to just make a bushing to put in the back of the spindle so the shaft doesn't whip around. Delrin is a real nice material to make that sort of thing with. I usually keep 2" and 4" in stock for all sorts of different bushings I often need to make. Its kinda like plastic, self lubricating, and machines real easy, I can take off 1/2" real easy in a single cut.

Something like these: (I believe you'll find these and other images here on AZ. There are at least a couple of threads regarding this)

fastone371 said:

You should be able to just make a bushing to put in the back of the spindle so the shaft doesn't whip around. Delrin is a real nice material to make that sort of thing with. I usually keep 2" and 4" in stock for all sorts of different bushings I often need to make. Its kinda like plastic, self lubricating, and machines real easy, I can take off 1/2" real easy in a single cut.

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Good advise for a full sized metal lathe - but it won't work on a mini lathe - the spindle is WAAAAAYYYYY too short.
Something like the setups in the pics of Chuck and rhncue shops are what you need.

Dale

fastone371 said:

You should be able to just make a bushing to put in the back of the spindle so the shaft doesn't whip around. Delrin is a real nice material to make that sort of thing with. I usually keep 2" and 4" in stock for all sorts of different bushings I often need to make. Its kinda like plastic, self lubricating, and machines real easy, I can take off 1/2" real easy in a single cut.

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It's kinda like plastic? excuse me?..... it is plastic.

Self lubricating? sorry, no it isn't?

If you're trying to help the guy, help the guy, he is taking this stuff seriously.

Dedeye1209 said:

My friend has a harbor freight 7 x 12 mini lathe sitting in his garage, that he has never used. We took it out of the box about four years ago ran it to see if it works and set it on the shelf.

He told me I could use it, modify it, even take it with me anytime I wanted to do any cue work that I wanted. For many years I have done tips by hand, or with my Joe Porper big shaver, which is a fantastic tool BTW.

Any suggestions on modifications or accessories that would make things easier? A steady rest, tail or headstock mods, different chuck? I will probably start with a set of shaft collets from Atlas and a new set of cutting tools. Advice is appreciated. I wish I had the $$$ to buy a Cuesmith or Unique, but I'll settle for a "free" mini machine lathe...

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Not to throw a wet blanket on good fortune but that machine is......
I don't want to make you feel bad, but,.... the up side is any lathe is better than no lathe.

I suggest that you use that little machine and knock out some little jobs for local guys like hot rod guys, motorcycle guys, the local bakery.
Make some bushings, fix a shaft or two, turn down a little this that or the other. Save up some money, dig around in the garage and sell a few things on ebay, save up that money. Do a couple of odd jobs, save up that money,..... and buy something decent.

By the time you put a ton of work in that small chinese machine, and still not even come close to something decent......

I'm just trying to put you on the right path.
It only has 12" between centers. These guys that a trying to mod that little machine,... first off, they are modding the wrong end.
A real goal would be to extend the "bed" so that you could get a full length butt or a full length shaft in the machine and get some work done.

But, you have to remember, that is a "metal" lathe, not a wood lathe.
So you really would have to invest a ton of time, and have access to a full machine shop, and be a pretty damn good machinist to mod that machine to the point where it would be sort of an ok compromise kinda sorta put together,......
I am not being mean, I'm just trying to save you a ton of time, a lot of frustration, and a whole lot of disappointment.

Even these so called "cue machines",... honest truth, they look awful.
As I said any lathe is better than no lathe. But honestly, you would be 1000 times happier with a proper machine.
That little machine can help you earn some extra money to get yourself something nice. Something worth putting a lot of work into, something worth making nice accessories for, something worth buying and building tooling for.

Never try to make a Volkswagen into a Camaro.
In the end all that would left of the Volkswagen would be the carpet and the shift knob.
But, you can always use a Volkswagen to get to and from, hustle up some work, hell even sign up for Uber and Lift.

Then take the money and just buy the Camaro.

You might be disappointed reading this post, but I am trying to save you a lot of pain, hard work, expense, frustration, and yes,... even bigger disappointments in the end.

BTW: Back in the day Jerry McWorter came to me for advise when it came to set ups and tooling for the small operation in his garage,
back when he was living in La Cresenta, CA.

And I would say he did pretty darn well for himself, wouldn't you?

If my advise was good enough for him 20 years ago, it should be considered "gold" to you now a days.


Just giving you something to think about.

While RMS is correct for the most part, I would say it really depends on what work you actually want to do. The little red lathe will work just fine if you're only doing tips and ferrules. I have read here in some thread that a bed extension is available for such a lathe though Grizzly or Grainger (or something like that), but even with a bed extension I would have to wonder just how effective it would be as a cue lathe. Of course the best advice would be for you to look into getting an actual cue lathe, but I know that lots of cue repair guys keep just such a lathe in their shop for tips and ferrules and other small jobs. One thing I disagree with RMS about is that any lathe is better than no lathe. There are some real pieces of shit that folks try to pass off as cue lathes that will do far more damage than anything else. Where those are concerned you'd be better off with a razor blade, a sheet of sandpaper, and a tube of super glue.

Celophanewrap said:

While RMS is correct for the most part, I would say it really depends on what work you actually want to do.

One thing I disagree with RMS about is that any lathe is better than no lathe. There are some real pieces of shit that folks try to pass off as cue lathes that will do far more damage than anything else. Where those are concerned you'd be better off with a razor blade, a sheet of sandpaper, and a tube of super glue.

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CW, when I said that I didn't mean for cues.
I meant in life in general.
Like,....for example, when you're broke down on the side of the road, a cheap set of wrenches is better than no wrenches at all.
You know what I mean.

I can't stand all this Harbor Freight, bottom of the barrel, very low quality, junk. There should be some kind of law against it.
On the other hand, a guy with four kids, working part time, barely getting by,..... at least he can get a tool there to repair his car.
Even if the tool works just the one time, he got his car back on the road.
Now he can stop taking the bus and use his beater car to get back and forth to work.

What gets me,.... we now have a whole generation of people that have "Never" seen anything of high quality.
The country is Flooded with chinese junk.

We used to make some of the best machinery in the world here.
It just makes me sick how things have turned out.

Dedeye1209 said:

Yes, I do know what Derlin is, and I plan to get some 1 inch stock and make collets and bushings with. I figure doing such work will be a good learning experience. I have done some minor work on another small lathe at different friend's garage, so I'm not a complete noob.

Brad

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Ok, so you say you're not completely new to light manufacturing.

Well, you need to learn about materials.

Collets, bushings, adapters, spacers...........

"Good old Nylon, (Zytel), is the better choice"

Cost less, more durable, more available, and it's the industry standard for those applications.

You need to study more, and take advise only from top professionals.
Now a days there are a whole bunch of guys that watched a few youtube videos and now "they are experts", and start giving out advise.
There are also guys that have been doing something wrong from the very start because they themselves were never shown how to do it correctly in the first place.
And they are giving advise as if they are an expert on the subject.

Some of those youtube videos,... brother,... I laughed so hard my nose started bleeding.
LOL

Take advise from top professionals.
And don't be afraid to call a manufacturer and ask to speak to one of their engineers.

It doesn't cost a cent.

RMS said:

It's kinda like plastic? excuse me?..... it is plastic.

Self lubricating? sorry, no it isn't?

If you're trying to help the guy, help the guy, he is taking this stuff seriously.

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Gee whiz, I apologize for not recognizing its qualities as plastic. What I can tell you about the Delrin vs most "conventional" plastic is that it will take much higher loads than plastic without wearing nearly as fast and it has a higher melting temp than my plastic soda bottles and other similar "plastics". It also machines very, very nicely. Regardless of your thoughts I believe the recommendation to use Delrin was a good one and I stand behind it. It also turns a weld bead black if you weld near it and you drag the contaminants into the weld puddle, ironically its same thing that oils also do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyoxymethylene
There is a link for you that speaks to the low coefficient of friction, I sincerely apologize for calling it "self lubricating"., a poor choice of words on my part but I think it conveys my point,