Subject: Re: . .lathe or mill...which would I get the most use out of?

From: [email-masked] (Jim Waggener)
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 1996 22:47:36 GMT

[email-masked] (Kevin  AstirCS "1U"   KO0B) wrote:

<snip..for bandwith sake>
>Whichever you buy, get the biggest one possible without incurring a
>divorce. Even if you only work on small stuff, the extra rigidity
>makes for less chatter, better finishes, and more fun.  Toward this
>end, used industrial grade equipment is the better buy.

>-KF-

People,

I work silver by the old
method...hammers/stakes/anvils/heat/sweat/cursing..
I would like to "discover" the modern method of  carving finials and
other parts I deem will work with my design.

I only wish to have a simple machine which will allow me to carve some
finials out of sterling.  I have absolutely NO idea how lathes/mills
work, let alone the tools/attachments that go with them.

I really appreciate YOU machinists that have done so much to bring
innovative designs to the market. And have made all our lives easier
thru products that you have produced.

But, keep in mind...what goes around comes around.  There is a new
found appreciation for objects made entirely by hand.

Thats who I am.

Regards,

Jim Waggener

---

From: [email-masked] (Fitch R. Williams)
Date: Sun, 08 Dec 1996 20:31:41 GMT

>Jim Waggener

More people should "know who they are".

I wish I knew more about what you are doing and snall cnc
mills to be able to help.  I am infereing from the post
above that you are interested in using a machine to
supplement your work, not to buiild train engines for
example.  I don't know how hard it is to machine silver
(though I can guess you treat the swarf differently than you
do for hot rolled steel from the drop shelf).  

Do you want to be able to make a design, possibly finely
detailed, maybe needing a special shape of cutter, and then
have the machine repeat it several times?  

With a lot of "ifs" and caveats born of ignorance thrown in,
I'd offer an "intuitional" (is that a real word?)  guess
that you would do better with a small cnc mill and a really
good graphics package of some sort that can communicate the
design accurately to the mill, than with big machines.  My
intuition also suggests  that the second challenge will come
in the graphics SW and the interface between it and the cnc
stuff.
The first challange may be between you and the graphics SW
unless you are routinely using SW for design purposes now.
The art work seems to me to be harder to do in a computer
than conventional mechanical drawings of parts with
geometric regularity to their shapes.  I know the other can
be done, and it is done everyday, but I don't think it is
easy to transition from doing it by hand to developing it in
a computer,  

KF's advice normally applies - it certainly applied to me -
but in your case, I'm not so sure you wouldn't be better off
with a small but very accurate cnc mill.  PnP has done a lot
of research on them, so have others on the NG.  

Fitch
Wishing the news server at the ISP wasn't down so he could
send this  ....

---

From: [email-masked] (Paradox)
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 21:23:21 GMT

On Sun, 08 Dec 1996 20:31:41 GMT, [email-masked] (Fitch R. Williams)

>>method...hammers/stakes/anvils/heat/sweat/cursing..
	.
	.
	.
>>found appreciation for objects made entirely by hand.

Jim;

I also do most of my work by the old methods, though probably on a
much finer scale then yours. In working with sterling I wonder if you
wouldn't be better off with either lost wax or sand castings for
finials. If precision is your desire then lost wax can produce very
fine detail. Milling or turning, it would seem to me, would render a
fair amount of lost scrap. When dealing with sterling and gold, I
normaly try to keep scrap to a minimum (prices being what they are). 

When working in steel or brass or bronze there is nothing quite as
satisfying as watching the mill or lathe shave off bits of your blank
and hurl them into the air, on to the bench or floor... but the
thought of those bits being of sterling or gold would bother me a bit.

Just a thought

Steve