[hotbarrel]

I did not make any parts but I spent quite a few hours working on the lathe itself. I spent some time in a book last night and wanted to do some of what I learned. the first thing I did was line up the tail stockcenter to the head stock center. basicaly I put a dead center in the head and a live center in the tail. extended the tail all the way back then put a shaft on the centers and adjusted the tail till the tool touched the part at exactly the same measurement fromt and back. I spent the time to get it just about exact. so now I will be turning and exact dowel not a taper any more.
my next task was to get the quick change gear box to actualy cut the thread on the index card in the positions showen. I did not change the gears in the box itself, but their is a bunch of gears that drive the box and they prety much all can be changed and in just about any order. I have a BOX of gears so it involved a LOT of try and error. this is what took most of the time tonight, I bet honestly I did well over 100 differant combinations before I found all the rite gears in all the rite places. I am shure if I had the book I ordered for my lathe it would be faster, and also I will know exactly what all those extra gears will do for me. I know their is a set that will convert to metric and you use a differant index to figure the gear box. I hope some of thies will do it. I still am looking forward to making an AK gas piston.
I guess that is enough BLA BLA BLA ...

 

[sniper69]

Looks like you were having fun with the trial and error. Once you get it all the way you want it, I am sure there will be some sweet parts being done by you. Hmmm...the possibilities could be endless.

 

[hotbarrel]

I found the index and gears to turn metric threads .. things are looking up