When I bought my Hardinge turret Lathe I wanted to use it to make a specific part. It turns out I use it all the time. The part I bought the lathe to make gets used in my Callisto table, Jupiter Bench, Mercury bench, Radian table, and Tangent liquor cabinet. It is a small rod end that allows me attach the stainless rods to the other table elements.

My supply exhausted, I set out to make a run for some pieces that I am currently building. The lathe features turret which indexes and allows me to perform multiple operations including turning the outside diameter, drilling holes, tapping threads. There is also a sliding cross-slide which faces the part and then cuts it off at the end.

Here is a view of the set-up

In order to really understand the lathe I thought a video would be beneficial. This shows a complete cycle of making one rod end. My favorite moment is tapping the threads at the bottom of the hole. In this moment, the tap is fed into the work, it clutches into a freespin when it reaches the depth stop, at this point I throw the lathe into reverse and back it out, it is then thrown back into forward in order to be cut off. This all happens in a matter of seconds, not bad considering that the lathe is spinning at 1600 RPM’s! Here is a look

The part is then transferred to my multi-headed drill press. In this set-up one head has a drill bit and the other a procunier tapping head.

I use a special vise to hold the part horizontally and drill the hole

The part is then tapped with the Procunier tapping head. The head auto reverses when I pull up on the quill to back the tap out of the work. Another video is the best way to see this.

At the end of the day, I am restocked with plenty of end fittings