Hi from Australia

[Fitter]

Hi all! New user here. I've recently picked up a small lathe and mini mill and looking to have some fun building and learning (and re-learning) new skills. I've got a bit of experience from my apprenticeship but I don't get to use those skills much anymore so I'm looking forward to digging up some old trade knowledge
I like shooting but it's very restricted here in Australia but still fun to get out and shoot some targets and hunt. I really enjoy casting bullets and reloading too Also enjoy a bit of welding and machining (at work) as well as small engine work.
I'd like to build some accessories for my lathe and mill, as well as some make some jigs and handy tools for around my shed. It's gonna be a long journey but one step at a time I guess.
Looking forward to reading the forums and nutting out the projects!
I'm in the north east end of Aus so if you're from around there I'd love to catch up!
Cheers,

[Altair]

Hello Fitter!

Welcome to HomemadeTools.net! We have lots of machining sages here. I'm sure they'd be glad to help. What lathe/mill accessories do you have in mind building? I agree with you, taking one step at a time. Machining the simplest tooling is a good start I guess.

Al

[kbalch]

G'day Fitter,

Welcome!

Lots of machinists hereabouts. If you need any assistance at all whilst building those accessories, just post a note in our Help Me Build subforum and you're sure to receive some useful input.

Ken

[Fitter]

Thanks guys for the welcome
I've decided that three projects on the go at a time is enough to keep things ticking along nicely without getting flustered and forgetting what point I'm at with any given project. ( I am very forgetful! And a procrastinator to boot lol)
So I am interested in building my own rifles, so I have recently built an outboard spider, and a bolt/barrel spider for my lathe. My current project is an Action spider. I'm still not 100% familiar with how to get the best finishes on any given material, so I've settled on fit, form, function for now. When I get my basic accessories sorted, then I can start really focusing on finding super pretty finishes. Who knows, I might figure some out along the way :P
My lathe is a well used Hafco AL-960B. I have purchased a QCTP for it, and it came with 4 tool holders. I want to machine up another ten or so, so I'm never fooling around changing and adjusting tools! I've cut up some material, but our drop saw at work cuts a little wonky lol. Yes... It's the saw that does it
Last one on my list for now is some basic mill tooling. I have a Sieg SX2P Mini Mill. It's still in the wrapping, so I need to put it together and start building some accessories for it.
I wanted to build an adjustable grinder post. I haven't started this, but I think I may need to put this one off until later as I was thinking of just building a simple rest for grinding lathe bits, but after a bit of research, I found the Bonelle tool and cutter grinder This is what I want to make so I can grind all my mill and lathe bits, reamers and gauges etc. But, like I said, I think I'll put this off until I'm more familiar with machining again.
So these are my current projects.
Here's a couple of pics of my lathe spiders, and one of the action spider started in the lathe at work (I do most of my projects at work during lunch, not much time at home with the young kids and wife working.). I don't mind the rough finishes for now, as long as they do the job I can pretty them up later when I have some skills lol.

Cheers

PS: I lost all of that writing when attempting to upload those pictures, thank whoever thought of adding that automatic save thingy while writing replies!!