A new friend

First turns on the “new”, passed-down lathe. It has not escaped me how deeply a tool like this can become attached to its owner. You learn its habits. Its limits. The small ways it wants to be handled. I am grateful that the previous owner was also an electrician and wired in a foot pedal. I’m looking forward to building my own relationship with it.

A new tool in the workshop… well not new, but new to me.

These first turned piece is not a dial foot yet, but the basic idea is there. Once the brass rod arrives, the next step will be practice: turning a 2.5 mm base, stepping down to the correct diameter, and getting a clean right angle at the shoulder.

I also experimented with laser-etching the dial foot positions into a few old scrap dials. That meant a lot of time in LightBurn, nudging measurements and checking alignment, but I’m hopeful this can become a repeatable approach.

If not, there is always the option of milling these landing pads.

For now, it was enough just to make some chips and start getting to know the machine.