I have a question for those of you with way more experience working lathes, as part of my machinists course as are going to make hammers, and I was thinking about using Damascus, gfor the handle and the head, the instructor is worried that it would delam while being turned, so I need to find some doccumentation to support that it would hold together. Any Ideas where I should look? Or if it is even possible?

It would depend on how well it was done. There are examples of lathe turned billets out there. I'll see if I can dig up a couple.

Note that battleship driveshafts used to be made by forge welding wrought iron into large enough pieces to turn on BIG lathes so the forge welding process itself doesn't seem to be in question...

I think it would depend on the quality of the damascus. If it is barely held together it may delam if it is solid welds it should not be a problem.
I have seen knives bent to a 90 and they stayed in one piece.
Are you buying the steel or making yourself?
If making yourself give it a try
If buying the steel it depends on how deep your pockets are with $$$
good luck anyway and show us pictures of the finished product.

My instructor doesnt know me well enough to know i make good welds and he doesnt have the experience dealing with damascus in a lathe to determine if its safe or not....He just told me if you want to do it show me something to back it up....For him its a safety issue, and thinking a delam happening in mid cut and throwing shards across the lab into people kinda thing.

Damascus is lathe friendly - here is a close-up picture of a pen I made.

This is a 448 layer 1084/15N20 twisted billet I forge welded and made into an ink pen. It's heat treated and gun blued w/ gun blued pen parts. on 5/2/09 - JK

I have made a few damascus rings on my lathe. The damascus was 15N20 and mild steel in a twist pattern, annealed. I am a rookie at both damascus and lathe operation and the rings turned out fine.

I have turned forge welded ferrules made old fashioned patternwelded shot gun barrel style . the most complicated and trouble likely welding there is. and they stayed together fine.
slow feeds and slightly slower speeds and be careful...
I mill damascus all the time.

3" sq X over 5" long "after heavy machining", forge welded wrought iron and mild billet.


Center drilled, turned rounds, and tapered ends on lathe, milled 4-sides flat and cut keyholes on mill.

IMHO: If delamination issues in lathe are a safety concern use a 4-jaw chuck instead of a 3-jaw

Worm eaten appearance is from 16hrs of deep/strong acid etching to attain those exact type desired results.

Color for wood-like look is from water diluted hydrogen peroxide sprayed on mist, little sprinkle of table salt on wet surfaces, neutralized, air dried, clear coated

Was a vessel project for my recent university artist blacksmith class, but will end up a desk lamp base soon :D

Stan

Thanks Stan Basher and Tom and everyone....

I am thinking about having a mandrel welded to the square for the 4 jaw, but it looks like slow speeds and slow feeds are the answer. I am going to do it in the steel he wants for the first one but having, the info to back up my use of damascus will help convince the instructor that it is safe....

Well my plans might be screwed, with all the electrical problems my rental is having my landlord is blaming me and my 3 hp motor on my power hammer for screwing up his 40 year old service box that was a fire hazard when i moved in. So I was told no power hammer use ever again when he replaces the service this week. grrrrrrrrrrr

Can you pay for an appropriate plug to be put in for your hammer?

As long as the welding is OK you will have no problem turning damascus on a lathe. Make sure you anneal the piece though to try and elinate any hard spots.
The link is to some of my turned damascus work. The steels used are 15N20 and 20C.


Mick.

Tom,
The breaker for the dryer plug which is what I plug into is 30 Amps, when the electricians were installing the new service yesterday I plugged in and they tested my draw at 12-13 amps. However my landlord is convinced by the idiots he has working for him that the box problem was a resuult of my hammer not the fact that the box he had in there was 40 years old and known for problems. So I am kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to using it again, risk the landlords wrath even though I KNOW with the new panel that there will be no issues, or just start looking for a better place. I had told the landlord that the box was a problem 3 years ago but he didnt believe me, 4 years ago I reported problems with the power to him and that was even before I had a hammer. So he knew or had to have know there were problems and was just avoiding it and my use of the hammer gave him something to focus on as the cause.


Mick,
thanks, we had figured on annealing and low speeds and feeds, its still a possibility but right now......with things being how they are with the landlord situation AGAIN its on hold.

Well brother let me tell you my electric bill was through the roof summer & winter with what is known around here as a "Brown Out " IE that is where the lights ,AC,heat, stove , water heater all shut down and the minimal things function . it is NOT comfortable at all , after many trips from the electric Co. out to my place and replacing many items that were burnt out due to an overload I was the 200 amp service box and the wiring to it ! the "Overload" was due to the OLD box and Breaker's in the old unit . my bill Dropped to 120.00 a month after i replaced it now everything works perfectly fine and I have 18 slots I can add for extra circuits and still not overload the new box . just imagine my relief to know I now have the right power for my new shop as well as my home .

Sam

Sam ,

The bills have been outrageous here as well, I have only had one bill this year below 100 dollars. So I am thinking this new box will solve that issue as well..Lucky for me I took plenty of detailed pictures of the box and where it was located before they replaced it to show anyone if this ends up in court. You know how landlords are always the cheapest option in fixing everything.