i'm still learning how to run my lathe. i am wanting to do the machine work to some tubes for making my own axle housing. what is the best way to do this if the tube will not fit through the chuck? i was thinking that i could chuck up the tube and use a steady rest near the end instead of a tail stock. all the work will be done beyond the steady rest. will this work? is there a better way that i am not seeing or is this beyond the capacity of my lathe?

by the way, my lathe is a craftsman 12x36". the tube is 3" od with the longest at 30". i have plenty of length to do this with the way i described above.

chuck it from the inside instead of from the outside. on the lathe i use you can put the jaws on backwards and chuck stuff from the inside

i'm still learning how to run my lathe. i am wanting to do the machine work to some tubes for making my own axle housing. what is the best way to do this if the tube will not fit through the chuck? i was thinking that i could chuck up the tube and use a steady rest near the end instead of a tail stock. all the work will be done beyond the steady rest. will this work? is there a better way that i am not seeing or is this beyond the capacity of my lathe?

by the way, my lathe is a craftsman 12x36". the tube is 3" od with the longest at 30". i have plenty of length to do this with the way i described above.

Pipe center

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-MORSE-TAPER-MT-4-LATHE-LIVE-BULL-NOSE-PIPE-CENTER_W0QQitemZ150019963139QQihZ005QQcategoryZ104 241QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Pipe center

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-MORSE-TAPER-MT-4-LATHE-LIVE-BULL-NOSE-PIPE-CENTER_W0QQitemZ150019963139QQihZ005QQcategoryZ104 241QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

...and a steady rest.

Pipe center

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-MORSE-TAPER-MT-4-LATHE-LIVE-BULL-NOSE-PIPE-CENTER_W0QQitemZ150019963139QQihZ005QQcategoryZ104 241QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


i need to be able to get to the inside for the inner seal (d44).

That will be very easy, I do it all day long at work. Put your steady rest in the lathe, back the pads out so they are not touching. Then load your tube in. Put your cone/center in the end of the tube. Place your steady rest near the end of the tube. Turn the lathe on and touch the pads on the steady rest to the tube. Back the tailstock off and machine away.

That will be very easy, I do it all day long at work. Put your steady rest in the lathe, back the pads out so they are not touching. Then load your tube in. Put your cone/center in the end of the tube. Place your steady rest near the end of the tube. Turn the lathe on and touch the pads on the steady rest to the tube. Back the tailstock off and machine away.


great! thanks allot.

That will be very easy, I do it all day long at work. Put your steady rest in the lathe, back the pads out so they are not touching. Then load your tube in. Put your cone/center in the end of the tube. Place your steady rest near the end of the tube. Turn the lathe on and touch the pads on the steady rest to the tube. Back the tailstock off and machine away.

Sound about right but you need to use some kind of lubricant on the steady rest pads or they will booger up themselves and the tube. We use white lithium greas. Also the tube needs to have a rond O.D. or your I.D. will be out.

a steady rest needs a round surface for the pads or roller bearings to ride on . if the tubing / pipe does not have to much run out on the o.d. you will be o.k. it would be o.k. to use the methods described but you will be machining both ends of the tube and the ends will not be concentric to each other. when i built my axles for my flatty i used a different approach. long shafting or or pipe should be machined between centers. chuck one end up and use a bull nose center in the other end to align it. use a pad style steady and adjust the jaws to o.d. pipe. make sure steady rest is 6-8" away from end.retract tailstock quill. face the end of tube and adjust your compound rest so you can bore a 60 degree internal taper on i.d. of tube- you need about 1/4- 3/8" flat on inside for a reference surface. machine the minium amount necessary to make tube round and concentric to the tapered i.d. you bored. when you remove the tube and chuck up this end it will minimize the eccentricity you will get. remove tube and chuck up the machined end on o.d. support other end with steady rest. face end of tube on bore another 60 degree taper. make up both tubes before doing the next step to save set up time. take a piece of scrap stock 3 - 3 1/2'' diameter and machine one end 1/8" less dia and leave a shoulder on it. remove and chuck stock with shoulder against chuck jaws. this will stop piece from sliding in jaws under pressure of cut. use your compound and machine a 60 degree angle on your dead center. this trues up the piece so concentric with spindle and bearings of headstock now load your tube/ pipe between centers on your lathe. fabricate a split clamp drive dog and clamp on o.d. of tube end next to chuck. thread and screw a 1/2" bolt into side of clamp so it rests against side of a chuck jaw to drive tube. machine required dia. to fit " c " first. remove tube and place machined end next to head stock between centers again. assemble split clamp on this end and you then machine the other end for press fit into pumpkin. turn this surface couple inches longer than you need for clearance of steady rest/ carriage of lathe for next operation. do both tubes before preceeding to next operation. you now have a set of tubes with the ends machined for proper press fits and even though they are 20-30" long the ends are concentric to each other and straight. now you remove dead center from chuck and and chuck up machined end for "c". use bull nose center in other end to support pipe. indicate chucked end of tube on machined surface . if chuck is badly worn use thin shim stock between jaws or the prefered method would be to use a 4 jaw chuck if you have one. now set up your steady rest on machined surface of other end and adjust your jaws carefully so they are bearing on the o.d. of tube. retract tailstock quill now. if you adjusted you steady rest jaws properly you will have "o"- .001 eccentricity on that surface. now you can machine the internal bore for your inner axle oil seal. you will also be able to run spindle at higher rpm with steady rest on a smooth,round surface. hope this helps you out with your 1st attempt at axle building.you can p.m. me for my phone number if you have any questions. i might be able to loan you my custom built clamp/ driver which is basically a lathe dog on steroids if it will miss the bed on your lathe. a larger lathe than you have currently would be preferable because of more horsepower/ swing/rigidity but as long as you have enough length/ swing you should be able to do the job.

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/4741/picturewm0.th.jpg (http://img47.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picturewm0.jpg)


here is a pic of my 15x50" colchester doing a similar job for e cliff on the board. it is a hydraulic cylinder tube fully machined i.d. and o.d. for a hydraulic dampener for the mechanical govoner of a steam engine. i also made the piston rod and piston assembly for it. every thing is stainless steel except the piston. could have bought everything but they wanted a little bling for the engine. cliff made the end caps for it. you can make just about anything with the proper machine tools and knowledge- even stainless steel jeeps:D

a steady rest needs a round surface for the pads or roller bearings to ride on . if the tubing / pipe does not have to much run out on the o.d. you will be o.k. it would be o.k. to use the methods described but you will be machining both ends of the tube and the ends will not be concentric to each other. when i built my axles for my flatty i used a different approach. long shafting or or pipe should be machined between centers. chuck one end up and use a bull nose center in the other end to align it. use a pad style steady and adjust the jaws to o.d. pipe. make sure steady rest is 6-8" away from end.retract tailstock quill. face the end of tube and adjust your compound rest so you can bore a 60 degree internal taper on i.d. of tube- you need about 1/4- 3/8" flat on inside for a reference surface. machine the minium amount necessary to make tube round and concentric to the tapered i.d. you bored. when you remove the tube and chuck up this end it will minimize the eccentricity you will get. remove tube and chuck up the machined end on o.d. support other end with steady rest. face end of tube on bore another 60 degree taper. make up both tubes before doing the next step to save set up time. take a piece of scrap stock 3 - 3 1/2'' diameter and machine one end 1/8" less dia and leave a shoulder on it. remove and chuck stock with shoulder against chuck jaws. this will stop piece from sliding in jaws under pressure of cut. use your compound and machine a 60 degree angle on your dead center. this trues up the piece so concentric with spindle and bearings of headstock now load your tube/ pipe between centers on your lathe. fabricate a split clamp drive dog and clamp on o.d. of tube end next to chuck. thread and screw a 1/2" bolt into side of clamp so it rests against side of a chuck jaw to drive tube. machine required dia. to fit " c " first. remove tube and place machined end next to head stock between centers again. assemble split clamp on this end and you then machine the other end for press fit into pumpkin. turn this surface couple inches longer than you need for clearance of steady rest/ carriage of lathe for next operation. do both tubes before preceeding to next operation. you now have a set of tubes with the ends machined for proper press fits and even though they are 20-30" long the ends are concentric to each other and straight. now you remove dead center from chuck and and chuck up machined end for "c". use bull nose center in other end to support pipe. indicate chucked end of tube on machined surface . if chuck is badly worn use thin shim stock between jaws or the prefered method would be to use a 4 jaw chuck if you have one. now set up your steady rest on machined surface of other end and adjust your jaws carefully so they are bearing on the o.d. of tube. retract tailstock quill now. if you adjusted you steady rest jaws properly you will have "o"- .001 eccentricity on that surface. now you can machine the internal bore for your inner axle oil seal. you will also be able to run spindle at higher rpm with steady rest on a smooth,round surface. hope this helps you out with your 1st attempt at axle building.you can p.m. me for my phone number if you have any questions. i might be able to loan you my custom built clamp/ driver which is basically a lathe dog on steroids if it will miss the bed on your lathe. a larger lathe than you have currently would be preferable because of more horsepower/ swing/rigidity but as long as you have enough length/ swing you should be able to do the job.

Wow way to much work! We are talking a bore for a oil seal. As mentioned above you need a smooth surface to run your steady rest roller/pads on. You need to put the bull nose center in the end,push the steady rest out of the way machine a small band about 1.5" wide to clean up all the way around, then you can set your steady rest. If you are using pads make sure you lube them with something. I use lindsey lube at work.

in my post the 1st sentence mentions eccentricity of the tube or pipe you are working with big toy there is nothing wrong with your method as long as you have lots of wall thickness and enough o.d. on tube/pipe you are working on. if you only have 1/ 16" difference between the rough dia of the pipe and the machined finished o.d. of it getting the rough o.d. trued up as close as you can and then machining your 1st reference point on the i.d. for a bull nose center will allow it to "clean up" before you are undersize on the o.d. you still have to machine the other end also and using the method i described will save you a lot of grief if you don't have a lot of excess material to work with. the stainless pipe that i was machining had lots of runout on the o.d. b.t.w. i like your tube bender- nice job building it.

thanks guys. that's some good information.