John:
I am glad you have your lathe up and running. As (probably) all of us who own/operate lathes and other machine tools well know, we wonder how we ever lived without them. Being able to make parts to suit your needs puts you in a whole different league. As you get into using your lathe, you will find yourself making parts and tooling for every imaginable purpose. You will find yourself making parts, whether shop related, or beyond, extending into your home and other areas of your life. Your imagination and ability to think a job through while working within the limits of your shop are the only limitations. With some imagination, a small lathe can do a lot more than one might think at first glance.
In our home, there are parts as well as entire projects that came out of my machine shop. Over our kitchen range there is a range hood that exhausts thru an outside wall. The range hood hangs on brackets I fabricated from steel angle and lagged into the studs in the wall. The ducting for the exhaust off the range hood is hidden by a stainless steel panel fastened to the front of those brackets. Instead of using plain fasteners, I made some bronze finished washers and heavy bronze cap nuts in my shop. People visiting our home see the range hood and ask 'who made that', if they do not know about shop work. Others simply say: "looks like something Joe built".
Parts for lighting fixtures, vehicles, tractors, tools, you name it.... once you get in the swing of machine shop work (sorry about that pun), you will wonder how you lived previously. Even something as mundane as hardware items like fasteners, if you are caught short or need to modify them on a weekend when the hardware store is closed (or too much time to hold up a project to go there) will be within your reach. Years ago, some fellow on a jobsite I was assigned to was restoring an early 50's car. He was going nuts because the bolts which held the hood to the hinges had a shoulder, a smaller diameter thread than the shank. He could not find the bolts and was driving around with folded newspaper between the rear edge of the hood and the cowling, since the hood would otherwise move around due to the larger diameter holes surrounding the smaller threads on the bolts. I chucked a couple of standard hex head bolts with the right shank diameter in my lathe, put a center in the threaded end, and turned things down and cut the threads. The guy was over the moon about it. It was a simple job, and a handshake and thanks and knowing I had enabled this guy to enjoy his old car were all the payment I needed. A neighbor had gotten a small lathe and mill/drill to build model engines. I had shown him the basics and he was happily machining engine castings and parts. He had an old "Economy" light tractor. The steering shaft bearing in the steering box had been destroyed when water and years of dis-use took their toll. The new bearing was either hard to come by or expensive (I forget which). I told my neighbor: "You have a lathe... get a chunk of bronze and make a plain bushing to fit where that bearing was... drill things for a grease zerk and you will be just fine." My neighbor suddenly had a "Eureka" moment, realizing that his lathe and mill were good for infinitely more than building model engines.
As for oil and oil cans, you are over the top with labelling. I am not so fancy. I use a paint marker and just write in my own hand to label the oil cans. Mostly, I use Tractor Hydraulic Oil, in the ISO 46 grade. This is a 'straight weight' mineral based oil with anti foam and anti corrosion additives. I use it in the spindle bearings and other plain bearings on my machine tools as well as a general 'machine oil'. Years before automobiles came along to spur the development and rating systems for lube oils, an old designation was "DTE". DTE = Dynamo, Turbine, Engine. This designation is still used in powerplant and industrial lubricant specifications, along with the ISO viscosity rating. DTE viscosities were: Heavy, Heavy-Medium, Medium, and Light. Tractor Hydraulic Oil (which is also used in the transaxles of many tractors) is a DTE oil. A rwo gallon jug at Tractor Supply or similar will last you a good long while. I use Husqvarna Bar & Chain oil for waylube. It has the tackifiers and about the right weight for waylube on light machine tools. If I am short on bar and chain oil, I will mix about 50-50, Lucas "Oil Extender" and ISO 46 oil for way lube.
If you can stand a bit of a mess and smoke, sulphur/lard based cutting oils work quite well for turning, parting off, drilling and threading. The plumbing department of big box stores as well as plumbing supply stores will have this type of cutting oil. It comes in two types: dark and light. Either is quite good for thread cutting as well as other machining on everything except aluminum and cast iron. Cast iron is machined dry as it has its own lubricant in the form of free graphite. Aluminum is best machined with a very thin oil such as a kerosene, but penetrating oils work just fine for small work in home shops. WD-40 is fine to use when turning, drilling, or machining aluminum. About the only downsides to using cutting oils is the mess and sometimes some smoke and odors. I no sooner clean my machine tools than they are covered in chips (swarf or 'turnings' for the long curling chips). Machine tools, at least in my shop, are there to be used rather than kept as showpieces or similar., Just don't get too familiar with the long curling chips as they spiral off when you are taking a cut. Those chips can lay your fingers and hands open in a heartbeat. Do not handle the chips barehanded. Make a hook out of light steel rod to handle the long chips and use pliers and/or work gloves to handle the chips when collecting and disposing of them. I've got a few scars and had a few sutures put in, so speak from experience in this matter. Another habit to get into is
to ALWAYS remove the key from a lathe chuck or any chuck that will be set into motion. As soon as you are done chucking or removing a job, take the key out of the chuck and hang it in the same spot. A lathe spindle when started in motion can fling a chuck key with great force and velocity and do a lot of damage. When you chuck or setup a large job in your lathe, bring the carriage and compound (along with the toolholder in place on the toolpost) to the closest points it will be needed. Turn the spindle over by hand to make sure that projecting chuck jaws, lathe dogs, or work on a faceplate will clear the compound (many older lathes have battle scars on the LH corner of the compound from being run into chuck jaws). It's a good habit to be in and will avoid a crash or having to re-set your tool to finish a job. Most of machine shop work, at least in my experience and opinion, is 'head work'- planning a job, making sketches and figuring setups and cuts and anything else needed before you go near the machine tools. I also found that many jobs have more time in the setup than taking the actual cuts. The word in setting up any job on a machine tool is "rigidity". Overkill in a setup is preferred. You will build off each job you do on your lathe, gaining experience and your mind will race ahead. You will find yourself sketching on anything handy to plan jobs or dream of projects. It's a nice place to be in. Good luck !
I label my oil cans, they being all the same type- after a year or two the oil wipes out the adhesive, even with a packing tape cover.
www.jensputzier.com
I use mine with way oil on the ATW lathe where the larger size makes it easier to put hands on.
