I am just wondering what machine people use in general for their lathe work? I've seen a great number of machines but looking to get first hand reviews. Looking to turn abs ot pvc for big gun cannons. Thanks in advance
I've been looking into this for a while, since I used to use a very nice Jet lathe to make cannons before I joined the Navy. After years of research, I generally found three categories of lathes. 1) ultra-cheap, micro lathes. These range from tiny decorative bead-makers powered by 12v 550 can motors up to slightly bigger tools with actual dials for precision movement, but since they're all Made In Random-Asian-Country (tm), the quality is poor and they will not work for making cannons. 2) low-end hobby grade lathes. These are proper benchtop lathes in the $600-1500 range, generally with real AC motors and precision controls. Most of these are hobby-grade, however, and require quite a lot of tuning and setup to get working right, and some are still Made In Random-Asian-Country (tm) with all that entails. 3) small professional lathes. Price on these steps up very quickly beyond hobby-grade. While theoretical performance doesn't improve much, practical performance is generally much higher due to better design and construction. However, I ultimately chose not to buy any one of them. I got a high-end 3d printer instead, and haven't looked back. Sure I can no longer produce cannons the traditional way, but I don't have the time to do that anyway. Much better to design the cannon once, then just hit File-Print a bunch and get most of the complicated bits built while I'm away at work. I also use the printer for gaming minis, superstructures, VR accessories, and lots of other projects.
I have a 3d printer but it's a filament based printer and I dont trust it to print pressurized parts honestly. What printer did you go with? Designing the cannons aren't the issue honestly. It's just I dont trust printed parts yet. But that is just my opinion though. I am open to having my mind changed though
I use a Taig lathe. It's basic and inexpensive but can still do a lot. A little smaller than the ubiquitous 7x10 lathe and very basic. A cross slide is extra, I bought one and never use it. No one likes how the tailstock actuation works, I modified mine to use a screw drive. There is no leadscrew, it uses a rack and pinion system for the x axis. I power mine with a surplus treadmill motor which gives me variable speed. If you just want to make end caps for PVC accumulators, it will work fine.
I've used several different FDM printers. The one I finally settled on was a Lulzbot Mini 2 printer. While other printers are significantly cheaper, or faster, or larger, or all three, this one literally worked perfectly straight from the box. Most printers require a lot of tweaking to get working correctly. I spent a year and a half tweaking settings and upgrading my previous printer (a cheap chinese I3 design), but never got it working to a satisfactory level. Issues like improper dimensions, inconsistent bed leveling, difficulty swapping materials, etc. All of those can be fixed with time and patience, but my job leaves little time to fiddle with cantankerous printers. My time is more valuable than that, so I spent the money to get a better printer. The difference was immediately apparent. The Lulzbot is truly at a file-print level of reliability. It isn't the fastest, but I know that what I print will get done, accurately and consistently, without issues. If you're concerned about structural issues, FDM is the way to go. Resin allows high-detail parts, but they are not truly structural materials. They're great for printing miniatures for gaming, but that's about it. FDM can use several different structural plastics, and depending on your settings and post-print treatment, can be stupendously strong. I print everything using ABS, the same material LEGOs are made from. For my pressure-bearing components, I also subject them to an acetone vapor bath for between 10-30 minutes. This partially dissolves the layers and fuses them together into a very strong piece. I have never had a properly treated part fail under pressure. I have had partial layer separation on untreated pieces, but when that happened, it just split and vented, no explosions or shrapnel.
I have a LMS 5200 7x16 mini lathe (https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=5200&category=1271799306) . It fits my needs for the hobby pretty well, but i'm by no means a master machinist or doing overly complex/taxing work with it.
Keep in mind 3D printing and traditional subtractive machining have significant differences, the overlap in that Venn diagram is often overstated. They each have strengths and weaknesses and you tend to get the best result when you use the process that best matches your requirements. So I'd say figure out what you want to do and get the machine that fits that, whatever it is. Also depending on how much and how often you need to do that there are plenty of small job/prototype/contract shops that can build small batches for a fraction of the cost as owning the machine.
I invested in a nice Sherline lathe, picked up a lot of Sherline accessories like the vertical milling column, etc, but honestly I never use it. I bet I've used it a dozen times at most since I bought it over 10 years ago. In hindsight, I wish I had spent a lot less money and bought a Taig.
