# rockwell beaver lathe spindle adapters



## praspekt

all of my chucks are 1" 8 tpi, and i just found an old rockwell beaver that has outboard turning, though the outboard spindle is 3/4" 16 tpi, and the inboard spindle is 7/8" 14 tpi. does anyone happen to know were i can find decent quality spindle adapters? the outboard spindle is left threaded, and the inboard standard.

thanks! i can't wait to play with the lathe, it's a lot bigger then my other lathe..


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## wormil

Oneway

http://oneway.ca/chucks/adaptors.htm


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## Wildwood

Do not know what brand chucks you have, better contact manufacturers, for thread adapters/inserts.

Even if do not have thread sizes you need can provide dimension/tolerances needed to have one made that will fit your chuck. Big concern is run out, too much not good!

While might not have a problem finding ¾" x 16 TPI, for wood lathes not sure about 7/8" x 14 TPI.

Good luck!


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## bondogaposis

Penn State has spindle adapters here.


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## praspekt

thanks for the info!!


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## BAM157

When you run into odd lathe spindle sizes , Oneway is the place to go. Good luck finding a straight forward spindle adapter for 7/8×14 but all 3 of Oneway's chucks do have adapters for that size. They do make a very nice chuck. Your other choice would be to find a machinist to make a 7/8×14 to 1×8 . See if you can find a retired one that still has a lathe. That seems to be the cheapest way to go for custom work.


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## praspekt

http://bestwoodtools.stores.yahoo.net/prstspadwith.html

i found this guy.. i already have an axminster chuck that i'm happy with, and would much rather not invest in another chuck. though, one thing that i did think about though, was that on this lathe there is LH threading on the outboard side, so do i need to get another chuck that has LH threading? i'm not really looking forward to having to retrain my hands with the rotation of the bowl going opposite..

are there modifications that could be made to the outboard spindle for it to spin counter clockwise?


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## wormil

If it's anything like my Craftsman lathe then yes you'll need a LH adapter for the outboard spindle.


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## praspekt

what do you mean? an adapter so it can rotate the other way?


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## Wildwood

Special thread sizes NOT SHOWN BELOW are available on request. Please call us at 931-788-0429 for a quotation or email us at [email protected] .

Why not just email best tools, and see if can make one for you.


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## wormil

You need a motor that reverses to spin it the other way and you'll need a LH thread adapter for your chuck. And if you reverse the lathe then make sure the chuck uses a set screw or it will spin off. Or just get yourself a 3/4-16 LH tap and make a sanding/sharpening disc for the outboard spindle.


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## praspekt

i can always wire a switch for opposite direction. so should i get an adapter with a female 3/4-16 LH with a set screw, and a male end of 1"-8 RH? i guess i can drill a hole where the set screw will be to hold it securely and not mess up the thread too much.


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## wormil

I'm curious how this will turn out. The good news is that Oneway sells all the adapters so you might want to chat with them a bit.


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## BAM157

Why would you need to retrain yourself ? Your position at the lathe changes but it's still all done the same as if you were standing in the normal position. Provided you are standing out of the line of fire, the blank with still be rotating toward you, the difference is you won't have the bed of the lathe in the way. You will effectively be standing behind and on the opposite side of the lathe to use the outboard position.


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## Arminius

I would suggest you check out the Canadian Woodworking forum on turning for info on the Beaver lathes. Lots of threads on them - I have a pre-Rockwell (Callander Foundry) model.


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## praspekt

i called up oneway the other day, and the guy told me to not go the LH threaded, with a lock screw, and not switch the rotation.

Brian.. the retraining comes from working from the opposite side of the piece. on the inboard it rotates counter clockwise, and when working a bowl i work from left towards the center, on the outboard side, with the LH threading, the rotation is going clockwise, so i'll be working a bowl from right to center.. for some reason it just intimidates me.. though i'm going to be getting a LH threaded face plate soon, and start playing. i'm just kinda new to turning, only about a year, still learning..

how large or a bowl could be turned on a rockwell lathe?? is 20" a bit ambitious?

arminius, thanks for the info, i'll check it out.


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## wormil

I'm not sure the outboard spindle was ever meant for turning but yeah, I think 20" is optimistic. Don't they have a 15" swing over the gap? That's already a good size bowl on a small lathe. Unless you upgrade the motor you'll probably run out of motor before running out of swing.


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## Arminius

There are really two issues here, the stability/mass problem, and the speed.

The issue with the size of the bowl in the outboard position is really the size of the spindle - the inboard is 7/8", but the outboard is only 3/4". The math starts getting ugly somewhere around 14-15" unless the blank is perfectly balanced. Big bowl lathes have a lot of mass so they don't start strolling around the shop, and larger bore spindles so they don't fail. A well constructed stand can solve part of the problem, but at some point the spindle is just too small.

The speed issue is simply that the Beavers were designed first and foremost as a spindle lathe. They are nice solid heavy machines for their size that allow bowl turning, but they were not designed for it in terms of where the craft has gone since circa 1948. The lowest speed in the standard configuration is 600RPM, which is just too fast for larger bowl blanks. The good news is that it doesn't take much to set up a jackshaft system to get the RPMs down to 300, which will make it a lot easier/safer.


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## praspekt

i'm in the process of building a workbench for the lathe with a concrete bottom, and a lot of wood, and if it doesn't weight enough, i put angle iron lining the corners… the spindle size never really crossed my mind.. i would still be happy turning bowls at 12", i just thought a nice 20" bowl would be great in the kitchen.

a guy from oneway, sold me that the rule of thumb goes something like this.. RPH x Diameter = 6000 (roughly) so a 12" bowl needs about 500RPM..

what's a jackshaft system??


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## Arminius

A jackshaft is a system that places an intervening shaft with an extra set of pulleys (usually 2 speed in this case) between the motor and the lathe. The 4 multispeed pulleys are moved to the shaft, which has the side benefit of making changing them a lot easier. The effect is to be able to gear down using the same hardware.

Here are some pictures

This also makes a reversing configuration for sanding much easier to set up.


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## TheDane

Arminius-Outstanding explanation and spot-on advice.


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## praspekt

that's really cool, never seen that before.. i like the table design too.. i had considered getting a variable speed set for ac motors, though that system seems fairly easy to setup. though i live in the country and the local hardware store doesn't have hardware like that.. a princess auto order might come in handy..

the same guy that i got the lathe from, also had a rockwell beaver jointer, so i got both for a bit of a deal. though the jointer has been giving me some frustrating moments.. the guy had the outfeed table setup not parallel at all to the infeed table. so after messing around, i finally got the two tables flat to one another, though now the fence is square on the infeed table, and about a 1/32" off with the gap at where the table meets the fence.. i tried planing a 32"x4"x4", and it comes out mostly square, except the tail end of it… this is literally driving me crazy.. any thoughts? i've tried using copper washer shims that i made with two different thicknesses of copper i had around.. i should mention that the outfeed table is bolted down and non-adjustable.

thanks for the help.


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