Stu in Tokyo
17th March 2006, 12:58 AM
I'm just getting started on the whole lathe thing, so excuse me for being a newbie at this stuff.
It all started with a simple request from my lovely wife,
we were given a set of wooden chairs by some friends who were moving.
One of the stretchers on the legs broke...and I got asked to fix it.
I had this little hand drill driven lathe that I bought on an impulse buy....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_set-up.jpg
It works, but man, just..........
I used a piece of Beech to make the stretcher up, and all in all I think it worked out well.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_done.jpg
A long time ago, in school, I did some turning on a lathe, but not much on wood, mainly on metal.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_thereabouts.jpg
I'm sure it will do just fine, now I have to match the color.
Here are my turning tools...
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_tools.jpg
Not expensive stuff, but they seem to work OK
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_tips_detail.jpg
They all need some sharpening, for which I have to make a jig etc.
I wanted to get a lathe, something of a real lathe, not one driven by a hand drill....
I looked at various ones here in Japan, I found some nice ones, but the prices HURT!!!!
The Delta, or Grizzly lathes that I found here were 3 to 4 times the price of the same lathe in the US.
A buddy on one of the Wood Working forums I go to, offered me one that he had sitting around unused. (Thanks again Dalton!)
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/12_inch_lathe.jpg
Like this one.
The lathe is a Craftsman 12 tube bed lathe, not the best lathe going,
but good enough for me to get going on for sure,and the price (cost of shipping) could not be beat.
I got the lathe, and bolted it together, on my work table, and had some fun....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/tokyo_slugger.jpg
The first turning off my lathe, the wood is Blue Keyaki, just a little fun thing to do
I then decided to make a good solid stand for the lathe.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/lathe_stand.jpg
This is the idea I had of making a stand, I'd use some I beam to make it good and solid, bolt it to the floor,
and then put a big box filled with sand between the legs, to dampen vibrations.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/mock_up_stand.jpg
I bought some I-beam stuff at Joyful Honda, it is 10 cm x 10 cm, good and strong, and heavy.
They cut it up there, as I don't have a cut off saw that big, cost $8 a cut, (ouch) but,
the cuts are exactly square, which made welding the stand a lot easier.
In the pic above, you can see the mock-up I did, it is all just standing there.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/first_leg_welded.jpg
Here I welded up the first leg of the stand. This metal is
fairly thick to weld with my MIG welder, so I had to bevel edges where I could,
and then I cranked the MIG up to the highest setting, and I changed from my
regular CO2/Argon gas mix to straight CO2, as you get better penetration with it, and I needed it. I did weld a few spots
several times to build up a good bead. The Hobart Handler 175 ( a 200V unit) worked great!
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/bolted_in_place.jpg
Here the stand is all welded up, and I bolted to the floor.
I found that there was a fair bit of deflection to the side, so I added some extra braces...
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/right_leg_braces2.jpg
This really stiffened things up.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/lathe_stand_base.jpg
I used the anchors to level the stand, as my floor is not level. With the nuts all tightened up,
I then filled the space between the floor and then stand with concrete.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/bolts_close_up1.jpg
Here you can see how it really looked.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/concrete_forms.jpg
Here you can see the forms holding the wet concrete in place.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/concrete_forms_close.jpg
Nothing special, just some plywood.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/concrete_forms_off_closeup.jpg
Should be good and solid.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/new_motor_mount.jpg
I ended up using a hinged board and a turn-buckle to put the motor in place.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/80kg_sand_in_box.jpg
Next I added the Sandbox. It is made from 21mm thick plywood,
and it is mounted on a cross piece between the legs, there is 80 Kg of sand in there.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/sandbox_done.jpg
I put a lid on the box to, which will make a good spot for putting my tools.....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/sandbox_tools.jpg
A tool bench of sorts.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/ready_to_make_chips.jpg
I put a switch on that I had laying around,
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/extra_gussets_headstock.jpg
I also put some gussets between the top and the bottom of the I-beam near the head and tail stock,
this helped, as the I-beam flexed a fair bit to the side.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/making_chips.jpg
I tried it out, but I was getting a lot of vibrations, something felt loose....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/missing_rivnut.jpg
Upon further investigation, I found a few things wrong, one was the riv-nuts that hold the keyway on
the bottom of the tube bed were loose, in fact one was missing.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/rivnut_start.jpg
What is a Riv-nut?
It is like a pop rivet, but it has no mandrel, and once installed, it has threads that you can screw a nut into.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/rivnut_squished.jpg
Here you can see a squished riv-nut.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/doubled_up_rivnuts.jpg
As the space between each riv-nut was close to 12, I decided to put in extra riv-nuts.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/tail_holder_rough.jpg
I also found that the piece on the end of the tube bed, the tail end, had a very rough casting,
this was not letting the holder fully engage the tube, which means it was moving around.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/tail_holder_smooth.jpg
I cleaned it up with some grinding.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/lathebed_plug.jpg
The last thing I did was fill the tube bed with sand, here you can see the wooden plug on the end,
I figured this could not hurt with the vibrations.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/a_fine_mess.jpg
Yep, making a mess for sure!!
The vibrations are all but gone!!
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/lathe_dc.jpg
The next thing I did was put a pipe above the lathe, this gives me a spot to put a light,
and I can put the DC here to get the sanding dust.
The next thing I needed to do was make a sharpening station, as the tool I have were dull dull dull.....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/sharpening_station_gouge.jpg
I made this up, and it worked well, but the hinge in the folding shelf bracket wobbled badly....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/sharpening_station_gouge_closed.jpg
in the folded position....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/long_handle_on_grinder.jpg
So I came up with this version instead, it is ROCK solid.
I was not enjoying the short handles on my tools, so I made this longer handle from some 3/4" gas pipe.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/undone_gouge.jpg
Here I've liberated the gouge from it's shorty handle.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/unthreaded_pipe.jpg
I took the threaded ends off, as they are sharp!!
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/hole_ground.jpg
I ground a flat spot to weld the nut in place.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/nut_to_weld.jpg
Like this....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/2_heads_better.jpg
Here you can see the Skew held in place.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/roughing_gouge_front.jpg
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/roughing_gouge_side.jpg
I can get a nice consistent grind on the tools.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/nicer_curlies.jpg
Yep, seems to work fine!
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/bonker1.jpg
The second real turning to come off my lathe, a carving mallet, or a Bonker.
The wood is Japanese Ornamental Cherry, or Sakura.
It all started with a simple request from my lovely wife,
we were given a set of wooden chairs by some friends who were moving.
One of the stretchers on the legs broke...and I got asked to fix it.
I had this little hand drill driven lathe that I bought on an impulse buy....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_set-up.jpg
It works, but man, just..........
I used a piece of Beech to make the stretcher up, and all in all I think it worked out well.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_done.jpg
A long time ago, in school, I did some turning on a lathe, but not much on wood, mainly on metal.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_thereabouts.jpg
I'm sure it will do just fine, now I have to match the color.
Here are my turning tools...
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_tools.jpg
Not expensive stuff, but they seem to work OK
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/turnings/turning_tips_detail.jpg
They all need some sharpening, for which I have to make a jig etc.
I wanted to get a lathe, something of a real lathe, not one driven by a hand drill....
I looked at various ones here in Japan, I found some nice ones, but the prices HURT!!!!
The Delta, or Grizzly lathes that I found here were 3 to 4 times the price of the same lathe in the US.
A buddy on one of the Wood Working forums I go to, offered me one that he had sitting around unused. (Thanks again Dalton!)
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/12_inch_lathe.jpg
Like this one.
The lathe is a Craftsman 12 tube bed lathe, not the best lathe going,
but good enough for me to get going on for sure,and the price (cost of shipping) could not be beat.
I got the lathe, and bolted it together, on my work table, and had some fun....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/tokyo_slugger.jpg
The first turning off my lathe, the wood is Blue Keyaki, just a little fun thing to do
I then decided to make a good solid stand for the lathe.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/lathe_stand.jpg
This is the idea I had of making a stand, I'd use some I beam to make it good and solid, bolt it to the floor,
and then put a big box filled with sand between the legs, to dampen vibrations.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/mock_up_stand.jpg
I bought some I-beam stuff at Joyful Honda, it is 10 cm x 10 cm, good and strong, and heavy.
They cut it up there, as I don't have a cut off saw that big, cost $8 a cut, (ouch) but,
the cuts are exactly square, which made welding the stand a lot easier.
In the pic above, you can see the mock-up I did, it is all just standing there.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/first_leg_welded.jpg
Here I welded up the first leg of the stand. This metal is
fairly thick to weld with my MIG welder, so I had to bevel edges where I could,
and then I cranked the MIG up to the highest setting, and I changed from my
regular CO2/Argon gas mix to straight CO2, as you get better penetration with it, and I needed it. I did weld a few spots
several times to build up a good bead. The Hobart Handler 175 ( a 200V unit) worked great!
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/bolted_in_place.jpg
Here the stand is all welded up, and I bolted to the floor.
I found that there was a fair bit of deflection to the side, so I added some extra braces...
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/right_leg_braces2.jpg
This really stiffened things up.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/lathe_stand_base.jpg
I used the anchors to level the stand, as my floor is not level. With the nuts all tightened up,
I then filled the space between the floor and then stand with concrete.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/bolts_close_up1.jpg
Here you can see how it really looked.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/concrete_forms.jpg
Here you can see the forms holding the wet concrete in place.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/concrete_forms_close.jpg
Nothing special, just some plywood.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/concrete_forms_off_closeup.jpg
Should be good and solid.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/new_motor_mount.jpg
I ended up using a hinged board and a turn-buckle to put the motor in place.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/80kg_sand_in_box.jpg
Next I added the Sandbox. It is made from 21mm thick plywood,
and it is mounted on a cross piece between the legs, there is 80 Kg of sand in there.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/sandbox_done.jpg
I put a lid on the box to, which will make a good spot for putting my tools.....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/sandbox_tools.jpg
A tool bench of sorts.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/ready_to_make_chips.jpg
I put a switch on that I had laying around,
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/extra_gussets_headstock.jpg
I also put some gussets between the top and the bottom of the I-beam near the head and tail stock,
this helped, as the I-beam flexed a fair bit to the side.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/making_chips.jpg
I tried it out, but I was getting a lot of vibrations, something felt loose....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/missing_rivnut.jpg
Upon further investigation, I found a few things wrong, one was the riv-nuts that hold the keyway on
the bottom of the tube bed were loose, in fact one was missing.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/rivnut_start.jpg
What is a Riv-nut?
It is like a pop rivet, but it has no mandrel, and once installed, it has threads that you can screw a nut into.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/rivnut_squished.jpg
Here you can see a squished riv-nut.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/doubled_up_rivnuts.jpg
As the space between each riv-nut was close to 12, I decided to put in extra riv-nuts.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/tail_holder_rough.jpg
I also found that the piece on the end of the tube bed, the tail end, had a very rough casting,
this was not letting the holder fully engage the tube, which means it was moving around.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/tail_holder_smooth.jpg
I cleaned it up with some grinding.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/lathebed_plug.jpg
The last thing I did was fill the tube bed with sand, here you can see the wooden plug on the end,
I figured this could not hurt with the vibrations.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/a_fine_mess.jpg
Yep, making a mess for sure!!
The vibrations are all but gone!!
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/lathe_dc.jpg
The next thing I did was put a pipe above the lathe, this gives me a spot to put a light,
and I can put the DC here to get the sanding dust.
The next thing I needed to do was make a sharpening station, as the tool I have were dull dull dull.....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/sharpening_station_gouge.jpg
I made this up, and it worked well, but the hinge in the folding shelf bracket wobbled badly....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/sharpening_station_gouge_closed.jpg
in the folded position....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/long_handle_on_grinder.jpg
So I came up with this version instead, it is ROCK solid.
I was not enjoying the short handles on my tools, so I made this longer handle from some 3/4" gas pipe.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/undone_gouge.jpg
Here I've liberated the gouge from it's shorty handle.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/unthreaded_pipe.jpg
I took the threaded ends off, as they are sharp!!
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/hole_ground.jpg
I ground a flat spot to weld the nut in place.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/nut_to_weld.jpg
Like this....
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/2_heads_better.jpg
Here you can see the Skew held in place.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/roughing_gouge_front.jpg
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/roughing_gouge_side.jpg
I can get a nice consistent grind on the tools.
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/nicer_curlies.jpg
Yep, seems to work fine!
http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/lathe/bonker1.jpg
The second real turning to come off my lathe, a carving mallet, or a Bonker.
The wood is Japanese Ornamental Cherry, or Sakura.