Thread: El Cheapo Lathe - Refurbishment

Paul, what really stood out for me was your patience. I suspect that most of us have ruined threads etc by being too impatient. You are a example to us all.

Originally Posted by jimbur

Paul, what really stood out for me was your patience. I suspect that most of us have ruined threads etc by being too impatient. You are a example to us all.

Jim

You're very generous in your praise, but it may be more to do with forgetfulness and the inability to say anything in a single sentence!

To give an example of this, at work each employee has his own profile for emails and this is password protected. However in my job where the position is continually manned we "hand over" to a colleague. Occasionally we would forget to close our profile down and one particular colleague would send "love letters" to all and sundry on our behalf.

One day I was his relief and he had forgot to close his own profile so I took the opportunity to take my revenge on all those times something quite inappropriate had done the rounds. I said something along the lines of "I'm really sorry for all the wrongs I have done to youse blokes and I apologise most sincerely." Then emailed it to all twentyfive of my colleagues.

Anyhow, everybody had a huge laugh at his expense but I never got the blame for it as he considered I would never have sent a two line email and the bloke who was sitting next to me became the fall guy even to this day .

You see, I've done it again, where a simple "Thanks" would have sufficed .

Regards
Paul

Verbose mongrel!

Originally Posted by

Verbose mongrel!

I think you've nailed it nearly .

The full phrase may go:

Verbose mongrel pome b*****d .



Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by

Verbose mongrel!

I have just twigged that I may be related to you .

Regards
Paul

Great job on the rebuild.

I was in Brissy a couple of days ago and had two appointments about four hours apart. SWMBO was with me and it was a toss up between filling in the time at Meyers or Carbatec. Well Carbatec won out, but I did have to buy her lunch .

While I was at Carbatec I succumbed to the temptation of a new live centre. I think the live centre is now worth more than the rest of the lathe in total .

lathe refurb 005.jpg

Basically, a small chuck with three interchangeable centres.

Interestingly they keep a large range of spares for this machine including a new motor ($165) which is now 1HP compared to the 1/2 HP of the original. I suppose this model has been around for many years. It's another option.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

While I was at Carbatec I succumbed to the temptation of a new live centre. I think the live centre is now worth more than the rest of the lathe in total . Paul

I have that set by another name I bought used as a spare. I think it will serve you nicely.

Don't disparage your lathe too much. It has a cast iron bed and sits on very stable base. I have a around $2000 new price Hegner with square steel tubing for a bed that when starting with an out of balance blank, the tool rest is going up and down and the tail stock is going back and forth. Once the blank is more or less round, everything settles down.

I am not complaining as I paid $500 for the lathe, a Oneway tail center set, an 8 inch 1725 RPM grinder and Wolverine jigs, two bowl grinding jigs, and a big bench. It has served me well for 5 years.

I recently saw two pieces of 1/4 inch thick, 6 inch C channel, 5 feet long that were cut out of a steel frame building. I got them for $3 each and they will be the new bed when I can tear myself away from making bowls.

Originally Posted by Paul39

I have that set by another name I bought used as a spare. I think it will serve you nicely.

Don't disparage your lathe too much. It has a cast iron bed and sits on very stable base. I have a around $2000 new price Hegner with square steel tubing for a bed that when starting with an out of balance blank, the tool rest is going up and down and the tail stock is going back and forth. Once the blank is more or less round, everything settles down.

I am not complaining as I paid $500 for the lathe, a Oneway tail center set, an 8 inch 1725 RPM grinder and Wolverine jigs, two bowl grinding jigs, and a big bench. It has served me well for 5 years.

I recently saw two pieces of 1/4 inch thick, 6 inch C channel, 5 feet long that were cut out of a steel frame building. I got them for $3 each and they will be the new bed when I can tear myself away from making bowls.

Paul

Thanks for the comments. When my lathe is in the exalted company of accomplished woodturners with sophisticated machines I take the low key approach as I am fundamentally a charlatan.

Just on the vibration aspect I do believe the key is to have mass, even above and beyond the cast iron bed. The channel I have used is 175mm, blocked off at the ends and then filled with concrete. I think your channel treated in a similar fashion will work very well for you. The concrete legs add even more mass and I got to wondering exactly how much vibration there is on my lathe.

I looked around for one of our Australian 50c coins which has a thickness of 2mm and is duo-decagonal (I think that's right), but SWMBO has left me and taken all the coin (only for the day ) so I looked around for what else I could balance. I progressively added more bits.....

lathe refurb vib 001.jpg

One live centre (the dead one) under the chuck and another past the tailstock.

lathe refurb vib 002.jpg

The MT drill chuck added

lathe refurb vib 003.jpg

And some pencils and a drill bit.

The lathe is rotating at full speed, but admittedly there is only a small spindle blank in place for a chisel handle: Not a humungus out of square, straight off the tree bowl blank .

Regards
Paul