[Jewelry making - Article 00298] - Re: [Orchid] Learning how to use a lathe

[Trevor F]

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>         If not any suggestions on how to learn on your own? 

    With extreme caution and it depends a lot on the size of lathe or
    mill you are using. A small table-top rig, like a Sherline or Taig
    for instance, can be a great way to learn if you start small and take
    it s-l-o-w. A good book or two (I'd suggest "The Home Machinist's
    Handbook" by Doug Briney) goes a long way to getting you started. And
    use a face shield because your face is where your accidents are
    likely to end up. 

    One way to learn what's going on is to start with soft wood, pine for
    instance, and learn to turn that. Sure, you're using a whole
    different set of tools but you are also learning about cutting angles,
    speeds of feed, depth of cut, etc. And if something goes wrong
    --which it will-- you're not going to take your arm off in the
    process.  Then shift over to hard plastics or soft metals and have a
    go with the metal cutting tools. Once you're comfortable there you
    can graduate to the real stuff like brass and steel. 

    On the other hand trying to teach yourself on a big, machine shop rig
    is a good way to seriously hurt or even kill yourself (no, I'm not
    kidding). Learning on one of those things is like sitting on an engine
    in order to learn how to drive: scary at best. They have an immense
    amount of power under the hood and if you make a mistake you and the
    tools are going to suffer for it. My father used to say: you are the
    softest part of this operation and will "yield" long before the
    machine will. 

    If you can take lessons do so.  It's far and away the best way to get
    properly oriented while minimizing the scars that the self-taught
    route has to offer. 

Cheers, 
Trevor F.

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