Got a combination milling machine/lathe from Harbor Freight a while back but haven't played around with it much yet. I've got a couple of projects that I need to undertake eventually, but both projects have brought up some technique questions that don't have answers that are obvious to me.
I'm perfectly comfortable making flat and strait-line cuts both on the lithe and the mill, but I've been trying to figure out how to mill smooth curves with the mill or how to do smooth tapers and rounded ends/edges on the lathe.
Looks to me like both techniques would require moving the X and Y axes at the same time and varying the rates accordingly. I just can't quite see how to do this accurately and repeatably by hand, though it would be easy for a CNC machine.
I'd appreciate any tips you can give, and if there is a tutorial you can point me to it would be great.
I'm perfectly comfortable making flat and strait-line cuts both on the lithe and the mill, but I've been trying to figure out how to mill smooth curves with the mill or how to do smooth tapers and rounded ends/edges on the lathe.
Looks to me like both techniques would require moving the X and Y axes at the same time and varying the rates accordingly. I just can't quite see how to do this accurately and repeatably by hand, though it would be easy for a CNC machine.
I'd appreciate any tips you can give, and if there is a tutorial you can point me to it would be great.