Thread: Jet Pen Lathe arrived! Bushing question / confusion.

Fox 3, good to see you have a great mind for detail, but just give it a "burl" and see how it goes! Amos

Originally Posted by Woodenink

Fox 3, good to see you have a great mind for detail, but just give it a "burl" and see how it goes! Amos

I am assuming you mean a burl wood, which I guess is some tough stuff which would try the little Jet? Or just don't worry about the bushing size variance?

Just took a break from the shop to consider what I want to do with the rosewood I stuffed on the Jet.

I was sorta figuring that the 1/12 HP wasn't going to give me much more than the toy lathe I found at a thrift store that got me going on all this (cut a bit, let it come back up to speed, repeat). Was rather surprised, I trimmed the edges off to round the blanks in no time and it went well, no stalling or even slowing down!

I think I am going to be happy with this little beastie for pen sized stuff . Size is just perfect for the space I have available.

Nicest part of having the Jet now is that I don't have to go through the serious cleaning out the dust from metal lathe every time I get near it with wood. That alone should give me much more time to do actual work on the pens .

Happy Dance! Yes, I am in a very good mood over this!

Take care, Vikki.

I note the lubricant on the RHS in the picture, but does it fit on a tv table?

Also "Give it a burl" is an aussieism that means try out. Neat pun!

Sebastiaan

G'day Vikki

Good to see you into it The little jet will go fine I also have one that I just purchased second hand in very good condition. Mine has had the tool rest bored out and new rest made as the original tool rests are a bit flimsy.

The bushes all vary so just mic your kits and use the reading to select some bushes within the tolerance

The machine will handle all your pen needs

"Give it a burl" is akin to "have a go"

Originally Posted by Fox3

I guess that isn't such a great difference there, so how does one determine when they are worn out? The pen I made with the stock PSI bushings looks just fine, so perhaps I worry too much ?!?

The bushies are just guides that stand in for the actual pen fittings, right? You could say that when the bushes have been sanded/accidentally turned so they're less then the dia of the matching fittings, then they're "worn out." However, in practice I reckon most of us'd quite happily continue to use 'em, eyeballing the difference, until there's significant deviation or some other form of damage. (For the more expensive or 'difficult to source' bushes I use my metal ones as templates to make disposable wooden ones for use... and I only use std. calipers to xfer measurements, not verniers. Accuracy? What's that? )

ie. they are only a guide. Although, as a new pen turner you may find you need 'em to be fairly accurate, say ±0.1mm, until you gain some familiarity with what you can get away with.

Two further suggestions are the tailstock glide needs replacing with 1/4 aluminium rectangle to improve the glide grip under the bed as does the tool rest area,if you ask Simomatra for a pic of his and his new toolrest.

From memory the drive shaft is 3/4 inch 16 thread and will take any of the Taig Lathe chucks etc,my advice is not to since it can cause grief,the drive toothed belt has an idler pulley to firm the belt the very nature of this drive does not freewheel when you turn off and the chucks will spin off,it happened to me.If you want to use a three jaw chuck to replace the 0 morse taper and make you own straight shaft as you have done there is a way to make your own live centre with an insert to snug fit the mandrel that does away with the live centre you are using.

I will search my pics I may have pics of the mod slides and a live centre I made for the Taig lathe I have.

Take care Peter

Fuzzy pic pre present camera of the aluminium mod may be even thicker than 1/4 inch,ignore the wedge for the pick only,note the Allen headed screw for the tool rest.

Replace the slide under the tailstock with the same thickness but leave the spanner to tighten as you can see it is awkward otherwise the way it is positioned.

A pic of another lathe same principle can be applied with a shop made live centre,then you can fit a straight shaft for a mandrel,no threads snug fit in the live centre.This pic shows the brass insert with a 3/8 snug fit hole in to receive the mandrel before it was pressed into the centre itself.

Attachment 47644Shop made live centre front view flared no lightbox,overall view. What I do I go to the bearing supplier and buy common use bearings and work around them,saves heaps,then overall view tailstock with live centre fitted for pens.

In the USA you can buy short lengths of Stainless Steel 6 mm hollow tube of varying wall thickness,choose the OD you want to get. Turn the outside to your measurement and drill the ID first to be neat fit to your mandrel,piece of cake.

Have fun on the metal lathe from your site you will do it easily. Peter

Overall taig Live Centre. Peter

Vikki,
Congrats on your new lathe! I know you will be getting lots and lots of use out of it. Can't wait to see what you turn on it.l


Cheers,

Rick

Originally Posted by Sebastiaan56

I note the lubricant on the RHS in the picture, but does it fit on a tv table?

LOL, both will I think. Perhaps I CAN turn pens while watching TV . Those pix were taken while I was cleaning it up and exploring the cute little beastie ), grew up around hospital people and have seen enough of the carnage from drunks to NEVER approach machinery while enjoying a decent brew ).

Also "Give it a burl" is an aussieism that means try out. Neat pun!

Sebastiaan

Ah, Thank you! I'll have to chastise my Aussie friends who are supposed to be seeing that I don't embarrass myself when communicating with you wonderful folks down under . Sometimes us Yank Shielas can be slow to assimilate .

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

"Give it a burl" is akin to "have a go"

The bushies are just guides that stand in for the actual pen fittings, right? [ ... ]. Accuracy? What's that? )

ie. they are only a guide. Although, as a new pen turner you may find you need 'em to be fairly accurate, say ±0.1mm, until you gain some familiarity with what you can get away with.

OK, gotcha, THANKS!

I may have screwed up in taking them as the last word on sizing (silly me), what I did with those pen kits that were given to me 10 years ago that I found which was (since I had no bushings) use the micrometer to get it right.

I think this is called being educated and gaining experience. Much appreciate everyone who shares in helping me figure all this out.

Part of the problem may be my experiences on the metal lathe . That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it .

Wood turning is a bit different than the metal related stuff I have been doing where it seems to be experience and touch as well as some degree of measurement.

Having a LOT of fun with this and a fair chunk of it is learning new skills and again I very much appreciate everyone here helping peel back the layers of ignorance !

Thanks & take care, Vikki (The slow).

Originally Posted by Simomatra

G'day Vikki

Good to see you into it The little jet will go fine I also have one that I just purchased second hand in very good condition. Mine has had the tool rest bored out and new rest made as the original tool rests are a bit flimsy.

I'm quite pleased with the thing so far. Perfect for me is hard to beat ! Could stand a bit of work but nothing that absolutely seem to NEED to be done to make pens.

The tool rest seems to sit too high or so it seem to me with my great experience of owning a wood lathe for all of about 24 hours now . Not doing anything at this point until I have a better idea of just what should be done, if anything.

My tool rest was dinged up some which caused the tools to drag and catch so last night I filed it all down and sanded it down to 400 grit, smooth as silk now ).

The bushes all vary so just mic your kits and use the reading to select some bushes within the tolerance

The machine will handle all your pen needs

After that great amount of experience in the 24 hours of having it now, it will indeed!

Nice when something you get exceeds expectations these days! That I can make the MT0 tapers easily, if necessary, probably makes it a lot easier for me since they seem to be unobtanium, something I can make on the metal lathe .

I guess the bit with the bushings should have been obvious, sometimes I am a bit slow .

Thanks & take care, Vikki.

Originally Posted by ScrollZilla

Vikki,
Congrats on your new lathe! I know you will be getting lots and lots of use out of it. Can't wait to see what you turn on it.l

Cheers,

Rick

Thanks Rick!

I really am fired up with it, utterly amazed that it works out so well for me!

The nicest part is now I can play freely without a major cleaning (usually taking longer than to make a pen!) after each use as I had to do with the metal lathe.

Now the tough part , Got no excuses left so I need to get turning !

First thing I am thinking of making for it is an MT0 adapter for the indexer, yes, I have some crazy ideas I want to try. Might take a while to get it all together since I am pretty much a rank newbie with lots to learn, but I'll get there!

Fun Fun Fun!

Thanks & take care, Vikki.