cueman said:
Yes I do believe my lathe is faster to go from one operation to another in many cases. Many metal lathe users also tell me this. For instance putting on the steady rest is much faster on my machine. As far as limitations, it will not drill large holes as easy as a metal lathe. But that is what we use boring bars for on my lathe. Drill 1/2" and bore the rest. It is not as vibration free you are right again. I seriously doubt you ever personally had a metal lathe set up to do all I mentioned on my first paragraph. You said you could, not that you did.
As far as your portability remarks that who needs to be portable to build cues? You are pretty much correct there, but I think they are talking about setting up to do repairs. As far as cue making goes it will do pretty much everything a metal lathe will do that most cuemakers actually use their metal lathe to do. Very few cue makers use their metal lathe to make their own steel parts and yes my lathe is limited in that aspect. When using a 125 pound lathe you have to work with it like it is 125 pounds instead of a 1000 pounds. You just have to do some things differently. My lathe has the quick change tool post as an option. When you say an luminum chuck will not hold something accurate... I respond my chuck is not aluminum. It is steel. It has aluminum soft jaws that are machined out on the headstock to hold tolerances under .002". Usually .001". If it gets out rebore it.
If Dave had said 1000 pounds instead of two tons, would you have had reason for calling him a fool? Just as you don't know what comes with my lathe, maybe he does not know the exact weight of lathes. Just as you are guessing maybe he was guessing. And yes many metal lathes being used for cues today do weigh a couple of tons. Does someone need one that heavy since he can buy a chinese 1000 pound lathe. No, but he probably bought it for near nothing and it is a better american made machine anyway. Does someone have to buy a 1000 pound metal lathe to do all the things I mentioned? No. What more do you do on a metal lathe besides make metal parts that is not in the list?
As far as you saying you don't need to make any friends I would say you are going about that in a good way.
Well, you are mistaken as I did have an Enco 13X36 lathe set up that did all of your parameters other than doing inlays and that could have been accomplished, if desired with a simple box mounted onto the lathe bed to hold the templates.
You say that your lathe is faster in many operations than a full size lathe and you give one example. Thing is, unlike yours, if a full size lathe is set up for cue work a steady rest is seldom needed. However, when I do use a steady rest, if I was to spend longer than 1 minute setting it up then I must have gone to get a sandwich. As far as chucks go, accuracy and scroll chucks can not be used in the same sentence. In chucks, you get what you pay for. None are truly accurate, just some are better than others and the act of honing one to make one accurate is a fallacy. If done correctly it can be made to run true at that particular opening but not at others. I've got a few of those chucks laying around here that I use for things that don't need great accuracy ( chuck on 4th axis of CNC for inlays and on a small Atlas lathe that is used for slicing off trim rings are two that come to mind).
I don't make my own pins or steel joints either but I do make odd pins for cue repair when the need arises. I've also made odd taps so as to make threaded inserts for shafts on said cues. I believe this capability is paramount for any cue mechanic. The greatest benefit from a large lathe is the ability to build other equipment needed in cue building for pennies on the dollar. I've built 6 or 7 self contained saw shaft machines for less than 350.00 each and that included a 100.00 saw blade. Now I can make a pass on about a 100 shafts a day with out tying up my lathe. I built a full length taper bar for my lathe for cutting the taper on shafts for less than 20.00. I built a 36"X36" gantry 4-axis CNC with top of the line .875" Thomson ball screws and NSK linear bearings and 1000 inch ounce motors for less than 2500.00 plus the software. Of coarse you don't need to make your own jigs and such but it sure is nice to have the capability. Now all of this stuff can be put onto one lathe, as yours, but like Dave said, time is money. By having separate machines the all can be running at once. Often my CNC is cutting pockets while my shaft machine is tapering shafts and I'm busy on the lathe. I would have to say that that is a little faster than your outfit.
As far as Dave is concerned, you state that because he made a mistake in estimating the weight of a lathe is no reason to be called a fool. You conveniently left out the rest of the reasons such as your lathe is a fraction of the cost of a full size lathe when in actuality it usually is much more expensive. I asked a number of other questions to which he responded yes, but never bothered to respond to each question. Later he said that time is money and he couldn't take the time. I agree, time is money and with that said perhaps you would like to agree with him on the questions asked.
1. can you set up a coring bit and start coring in less than a minute?
2. can you go from using a router to taper the butt to using a boring bar to install a pin in less than a minute?
3. I can make my own pins, metal joints and inserts, can you?
4. I can chuck up what ever I want and know it will run true with out the need for shims to make it run true, can you?
Now, what one person calls accurate, another would call slop. I have a J-2 collet system on one lathe for accuracy. It runs out less than .0001. I have a 800.00 6 jaw set-tru chuck on another lathe for accuracy. Since the set-tru is still a scroll chuck it is not as accurate as a collet system nor a 4-jaw independent chuck but it was still built with a lot more care and precision, so as to hold better tolerances over a greater range than a 50.00 4" 3-jaw. It runs out at less than .0006. Your lathe would run more true with a set-tru also, problem is, one cannot be installed.
Never the less, any time I put a butt or shaft into the chuck I check to insure it is running true. Often there may be some dirt or debris or the finish is thicker on one side. Who knows? If you just take for granted it is true then you are a fool.
There are other things I could respond to but I've wasted enough time. Like I have said before, you have created a system for building cues that is easy for some one with little knowledge or equipment, can step right into fairly easily, and start building cues. That is good but as far as I'm concerned and apparently most other full time cue makers in the country as they all seem to use full size lathes, is that your system is not a very efficient use of time.
Dick
