Thread: Lazy Susan

If you have indexing on your lathe, it's a simple matter to bring the tool rest around to the back of the piece as a reference point and to mark every 90° with pointy chalk or a soft-lead pencil, then dismount the piece and connect the marks to form a cross.

Without indexing it's almost as easy but you need to know the centre point of the work. I use a short steel bolt of the same thread as my lathe headstock that has been ground to a point, I simply remove the chuck/faceplate with the piece still mounted, then tighten the bolt in the chuck/faceplate until it centre-punches the work. From there, it's a simple matter to draw a line across the piece through the centre-point and then use a good square to create the perpendicular line.

Either way, once you have an accurate cross, it's simply a matter of place the bearing in position so the screw holes are over the lines and mark the hole centres with an awl. Remove the bearing, clean off the marks, then reposition the bearing and screw home...

Originally Posted by John Doyle

Does anyone have an easy way to align lazy susan bearings
I currently use a turned disc fitted neatly into the bearing and centre it on the timber i find this method satisfactory but thought that someone out there may have a better way.

John Doyle

Engineers centre square .

My old man always turned a shallow recess into the top and base just big enough to take the squares of the bearing. Not only gives you foolproof centering and a more attractive low profile, but also leaves less gap between the pieces to see the ugly bearing.

G'day John, what vern says. (TTIT)

I plan on using some of the info at darrels site.
http://aroundthewoods.com/lazy.shtml
when i get to it.

why not make a perspex template of lazy susan complete with corner holes?and a small centre hole to line up with centre of piece.bob

What Vern said. Use a round bearing mech. Turn a recess in both pieces the same diameter as the bearing and the base and top should line up perfectly.

Or if you're using a square bearings then line it up as best you can, then clamp the base to a router table with a straight bit in it. Spin the lazy sue and the router bit will cut off anything that's eccentric.

FunkyC

I like Vern's idea... will definitely have to try it!

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

I like Vern's idea... will definitely have to try it!

Thanks Skew but I can't take credit for that one - t'was me dear old dad's way of doing it and the best method I've seen.

Originally Posted by robyn2839

why not make a perspex template of lazy susan complete with corner holes?and a small centre hole to line up with centre of piece.bob

i tried making a round plastic insert for the lazy susan bearings with an 0.125" or less hole to center it after i determined the center of the wood top.

only problem seemed to be that for some reason i couldn't figure out, even if one side of the bearing was dead-center on the wood, after i screwed it to the "top" of the lazy susan and flipped it over, it wouldn't spin "true" but was off by anywhere from 1/16th inch to maybe 2-3 times that, and totally unacceptable.

i've thought of trying the "centered countersink" of the whole thing, but i'm concerned that the "corner-to-corner" centered-ness of both halves of the bearing itself won't be true to each other.

what's available to me are very inexpensively made!
but my major gripe is that, even if i then true up the wood to match the bearing, the doggoned bearing is noisy! the steel balls rattle around in their race, and i'm loath to put any lubricant in there for fear it'll drip out!

a long time ago, i thought i'd found some nice, inexpensive plastic-on-plastic lazy susan bearings, but i can't seem to locate them any more. any leads on something like that would be great.

thanks!
+af