A few weeks ago I did finish all of the prints required for the entire lathe, and I also ordered the smooth and threaded rod and bearings that I think I need to complete the rest of the assembly. I decided to go with all metric hardware, including 8mm smooth rod and 8mm diameter, 1mm pitch threaded rod--to give a nice even 1mm of movement per rotation.
I knew most of my work designing parts will be in metric, and I have used mills and lathes set up for inches with graduation on the dials for metric in the past. The problem is, that leads to an amount of movement per rotation that is some odd number of metric units, and trying to keep track of positions over several rotations of the dial gets to be very difficult. 1mm pitch means 1 rotation = 1mm of movement (or 2mm off the diameter of the turned piece if the tool advances 1mm towards the center of the piece).
Here's what I ordered from McMaster-Carr as far as smooth and threaded rod, in case anyone is interested (Note: this is not a full list of all components needed for the lathe, and I have not completed the assembly, so some of these items may have to be changed):
- 98861A320 Metric Class 4.6 Plain Steel Threaded Rod, M8 Size, 1 Meter Length, 1.0 mm Pitch, Fine Thread -- $13.52
- 91415A105 Metric Zinc-Plated Steel Fine Thread Hex Nut, Class 8, M8 Screw Size, 1MM Pitch, 13MM W, 6.5MM H, packs of 100 -- $9.27
- 88625K67O1 Tool Steel Tight-Tolerance Rod, 8 mm Diameter, 3' Length -- $5.59 (2 pcs. ordered, $11.18 total)
I went on a tangent this morning and printed a small part for a friend, just to feel cool about having a 3D printer:
Duplo to Brio Converter Brick
It's a piece to convert from Duplo blocks to Brio toy train track pieces. The design is from Thingiverse here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:14175 Turned out pretty well, but I have to get my hands on some blocks and train track pieces to see if it works.
Now back to very serious things like assembling my own printed lathe.
D
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