Clay, Tim, and I completed setup of the lathe today. Per Dave and Greg’s suggestions I took another look at the height, and turns out I was very wrong about the height of the OEM stand, which is 30", bringing the center of the work peice to about 44" on center. I have redone the legs to be 30" just like the official Delta. Further, per’s Steve’s suggestion I’ve braced the legs, and added another cross bar. That bar may or may not become part of a tool holder in the future, we’ll see how things progress.
All the accessories have been installed, and carefully shadowed on the tool.
The four jaw chuck is mounted on the back of the lathe, along with the allen wrench to tighten it on the spindle, and the wormwood screw. As is the other rest, mounting plate, and mounting plate wrench.
Please return all wood lathe tools back to their mounting points on the stand so that they are not lost or misplaced.
I would wonder about putting tool under the lathe, though, as reaching down there while it’s spinning seems to be asking for entanglement with the workpiece.
Thanks, I had a lot of help, truly a hive project. I should also mention that Steve spent a ton of time getting the extension bed setup just right so that the tail support would move smooth as butter.
I would wonder about putting tool under the lathe, though, as reaching down there while it’s spinning seems to be asking for entanglement with the workpiece
I’m open to other suggestions. I think it’s reasonably safe as long as you don’t bend down too far. I see a lot of people also putting their tools under the lathe, which is probably what would happen without a tool storage area. I also believe the OEM stand has something like that. Right now it seems pretty natural to put tools and materials on any close by flat surface, which usually means another tool.
Sounds good, right now the chuck and faceplate have wooden dowels to hold them without messing up the threads, because as we know wood is the kinder, gentler material, not like the harsh cold and unforgiving metal.
But what would really be cool would be a larger faceplate. Our current one is about 3", while we can spin up to 12 1/2" materials, so maybe a 6" plate?
Looks like the lathe can be setup for 8TPI so we should be able to make the plate.
Probably be nice to sketch up a design.
I would want to make a test part before the full size one.
I think we would probably get a 1" 8TPI tap instead of trying internal threads.
Looks like the lathe can be setup for 8TPI so we should be able to make the plate.
Probably be nice to sketch up a design.
I would want to make a test part before the full size one.
Okay. I think the biggest hang up I have right now is how to do the plate + threaded rod as all one piece without buying a huge chunk of aluminum. Seems best to have two separate pieces, and weld them together somehow, but I’m not sure if that would stand up to the abuse it would get on a lathe that turns at 4000 rpm (though that’s about like the 2700 rpm setting on the metal lathe )
I think we would probably get a 1" 8TPI tap instead of trying internal threads.
Seems like the easiest approach, though I like the idea of cutting our own threads, probably because I haven’t done it.
Let’s talk about what would be more fun, and what would be more practical.
None of this is practical, you can buy premade (and more importantly), balanced faceplates for $30-70 depending on what you’re looking for. I think that’s probably close to our material costs. But it seemed like you were looking for a fun project, and a bigger faceplate seems more practical than a mounting screw.
External threads we can do - internal would suck. Making faceplates, would be difficult to keep balanced, and require internal threads. yuk. Spin the plate and buy the tap maybe and pray. But we know they’d be square at least.
The external threads would be a great mount on the lathe stand for nova chuck, faceplates, etc.
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