Flat dovetail stock

do you have self centering 3 jaw chuck?these better for general use,maybe can get you one if you havnt got one mate,holding small items like scope rails in chuck,they need be packed from behind to keep them aligned correctly,proberly better done on face plate mate as item can be fixed directly to face plate as will then be machined parallel, on both faces,i dont do much mill work on lathe these days but have made up a clamp for the height adjustable tool holders for the quick change tool post for jobs like scope rails and use fly cutter in chuck to do the machining,any run off when maching rails will affect the amount of adjustment available in the scope,dosnt take much run off to run out of scope adjustment.you can get fully adjustable milling vice setups for tool posts that make milling lot easier on a lathe,these are not that expensive but worthwhile if you only have a lathe mate as they make milling lot easier and the lathe more versitile in what type milling you can do on a lathe.let me know if you want a self aligning 3 jaw chuck and face plate and will see what i can find for you.

do you have a 4 jaw independate jawed chuck for your machine?? if not i maybe able to get you one from my neighbour who has a large number of older lathes and parts,for free mate,but need know what diameter your chuck is and wether its threaded on or back plate mounted with bolts.need know what the swing is over your bed as well,if i can help would help me if i knew as much as you can tell me bout your lathe so can find the right chuck etc 

good see you getting good use out of that lathe Paul,you can do pretty much any machine job in a lathe,as long as the job is set up correctly,next time you up this way Paul,drop in and will show you how to made some tooling for machine jobs you can do on your lathe that will make it easier to do evan with bassic lathe tools mate.

you will need do few minor mods to your drill press to get best out of these vices,mainly stiffen up table to prevent it moving or vibrating too much,put some sort adjustable lock on the drill press quil etc,this lock is so you can set to depth more precisely and predicably,but other than that the drill press and vice can do surprisingly good work with bit of patience and taking only small depth cuts,obviously not as good as a proper milling machine,but can still do good and precise work if a little slow,it will get many small jobs done better than many would think.and will give you a simple if bassic milling capability.

further to that post,tungstan tipped router cutters work perfectly fine if run at high speed in drill press on alliminium,and come in many useful shapes at quite cheap prices from toolshed or mitre 10 etc,wd40 fine for a lube on alli with these cutters,you dont reaaly need lube with tungstan cutters but lube does help prevently alli binding to the cutter resulting in rough cuts etc.