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View Full Version : Lathe dog for miniature lathe?



GrizzlyThunder
26th July 2017, 11:41 PM
I have a Shop Fox W1704 (https://www.woodstockint.com/products/W1704) and I am wanting to turn a pool cue by hand. I saw This Video (https://youtu.be/1L1VaTZdcSs) on YouTube using what's called a lathe dog or another name to have one center offset creating a taper? Is this correct? If so can one be made or bought for this style of lathe? How do you use one?

KBs PensNmore
27th July 2017, 12:06 AM
Hi, I made an attachment that is adjustable for this purpose for my wood lathe, will try to remember to take a few pics of it tomorrow.
Kryn

QC Inspector
27th July 2017, 12:14 PM
For a bigger lathe you can get a boring head and a #2 Morse taper adapter for a hundred or less. Put it in the tail stock with a straight shank centre that fits the boring head, then dial over the offset to get the taper you want. A small lathe like the Shop Fox you linked has a number 1 Morse taper. It might be possible to find a boring head and adapter to fit. I just can't recall seeing one.

Pete

chambezio
27th July 2017, 01:23 PM
I think that you will have lots of joints using your small lathe. The specs say 13" for your lathe. You only ever see 2 pieces joined in the middle for a pool cue. at 13" you will need to have at least 4 pieces to get the length. (I may have got your question wrong)

Nubsnstubs
28th July 2017, 12:42 AM
Grizz, I might be wrong on this but, unless you have your tool rest set absolutely parallel to your centers, why do you need an offset? Can't you just taper your pieces carefully matching each one as you go?

I think I saw a movie once where someone had a pool cue that was in 4 pieces. Pool hall cues are easier to mass produce, so that's probably why they are in 2 pieces. A 4 piece cue would stay straight if it was made properly, where the 2 piece cues I've seen and used are never real straight. That's all I got, folks................. Jerry (in Tucson)

GrizzlyThunder
29th July 2017, 11:11 PM
For a bigger lathe you can get a boring head and a #2 Morse taper adapter for a hundred or less. Put it in the tail stock with a straight shank centre that fits the boring head, then dial over the offset to get the taper you want. A small lathe like the Shop Fox you linked has a number 1 Morse taper. It might be possible to find a boring head and adapter to fit. I just can't recall seeing one.

Pete

I'll look around to see what I can find.


I think that you will have lots of joints using your small lathe. The specs say 13" for your lathe. You only ever see 2 pieces joined in the middle for a pool cue. at 13" you will need to have at least 4 pieces to get the length. (I may have got your question wrong)

I'll be explaining the bed length to accommodate this.


Grizz, I might be wrong on this but, unless you have your tool rest set absolutely parallel to your centers, why do you need an offset? Can't you just taper your pieces carefully matching each one as you go?

I think I saw a movie once where someone had a pool cue that was in 4 pieces. Pool hall cues are easier to mass produce, so that's probably why they are in 2 pieces. A 4 piece cue would stay straight if it was made properly, where the 2 piece cues I've seen and used are never real straight. That's all I got, folks................. Jerry (in Tucson)

Just from my knowledge, which isn't much, I think it would be easier to make the taper without eye balling it. Or at least at this point it might be easier for now to learn with this tool.

I'll look into a 4 piece cue and it's Method.

dogcatcher
31st July 2017, 12:50 PM
From what I can tell he is using a Cuesmith Pool Cue Lathe, like this one. https://www.cuesmith.com/deluxe-cue-smithtm-cue-lathe.html

The taper attachment that the router mounts to controls the cut of the taper. The Cuesmith lathe actually is a highly modified mini Taig lathe. If using a router to do the cutting a guide could be made, but it has to be dead on alongside of the lathe.

If cutting by hand using chisels, you will have to eyeball the taper along with measurements.

Myself, I would get pieces of 4 pieces 4 foot long of 2x2x1/4" angle iron, to add length to the lathe bed and on the backside of the lathe build a rail for the router to slide on. The rail for the router would be my taper attachment, ensuring smooth even taper along the cue. You will need a home made tailstock drilled and reamed to a 1MT taper at the proper height fit your live center. This can be made out of blocks of hardwood.

As to the lathe dog, I would forget it. I would use a lag bolt with the head cut off and screwed into the headstock drive end of the blank. This will insure that everytime you remount the cue stick, it will be as dead on center as when you removed it.

malb
31st July 2017, 07:07 PM
A lathe dog is an attachment to couple drive from a faceplate, catch plate, or maybe a chuck jaw mounted on the headstock to a workpiece mounted between centres. However it's value is limited to transmitting the drive, it does not offset one end of a workpiece relative to the other to turn a taper, but it will transmit drive from the headstock to a workpiece that is moderately offset at the tailstock end.

You still need a means to offset the tailstock, on larger metal lathes the tailstock can be offset a small amount to either side to provide adjustment to align the head and tail centres exactly. Most smaller lathes and woodworking lathes lack that facility and a practical method to achieve offset is to use a small boring head mounted in the tailstock, with a centre mounted on the boring head and able to offset precisely.

Nubsnstubs
1st August 2017, 01:07 AM
Wouldn't a duplicator work? You need to make a small adjustment for each piece. ............ Jerry (in Tucson)