Hi everyone, I was too busy the last couple of weeks to post an update, but here it is, small one though:
Added a little handle to the hand wheel to ease the tailstock spindle adjustments.
1.- A live center my friend with a metal lathe made for me, works great but I lost 1” between points so right now it is 17”, I guess I wont miss it anyway.
2.- The only thing I had at hand to use as a lathe tool was a 1/2” chisel, I know, I know… I’ll get proper tools later. It worked fine though :).
I went to youtube to watch some lathe tutorials before starting the tests of course.
3.- the lathe doing his thing.
4.- Final result, as you can see I used the first scrap wood I found, and missed the center on both sides a little :D
Later I turned a dowel to measure the spindle runout with more accuracy, previous eye measuring showed 0.5 mm, digital caliper showed 0.4mm(almost 1/64”) runout.
I think I’ll pay for a proper made spindle to get rid of the runout, and I’m thinking to go with shopsmith machines method (5/8” spindle too) to attach accessories instead of the thread, should be easier to keep the accuracy while changing plates and all.
Something like this:
What do you think?
Conclusion:
Lathe turning is so fun and I’m glad I did it! I’ll show the finished lathe in the next update and final chapter of this blog, it’s been a great journey so far.
Cheers!
-- Learning one thing at a time
3 comments so far
joey bealis
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176 posts in 673 days
#1 posted 625 days ago
It looks great and i hope it cost alot less then the $1500 i spent on my first lathe.
-- We the willing. http://www.woodanddreams.com
FreddyS
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171 posts in 940 days
#2 posted 625 days ago
Hi joey:
thanks for the comment, indeed a lot less than that but I guess it won’t work as nice as yours hehee.
So far I spent like $100 in everything(had some stuff at hand already though), not bad considering the cheapest wood lathes I can buy over here start at $500 :), Let’s see how it turns out with the lathe tools.
-- Learning one thing at a time
mafe
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8055 posts in 1255 days
#3 posted 624 days ago
Freddy that is so cool.
It is really a nice little lathe you have made there, and you have learned so much on the way there.
Thank you for sharing this with us all.
Look at the local junk place for a old accu drill, from these you can get a chunk, they come out quite easy.
And yes then you can start looking for extras.
Best thoughts,
Mads
-- Mad F, the fanatical rhykenologist and vintage architect. Democraticwoodworking.
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