An alternative to the second slot would be a second screw further up the slot - make the screw small and use a big washer/plate to hold down the iron so you don't lose the ability to vary the angle of the iron.
I think that the tapered hole would help in centering which is important as you want it centered on the spindle. However, maybe a constant diameter hole would work. Buy a cheap pencil sharpener with a removable blade(most art supply stores would have one for cheap) and take a look at it for the geometry. Maybe even try drilling a constant diameter hole and see what happens when you use it.
If you want a shoulder at the tenon I'd consider fixing another blade perpendicular to the main iron (could be as simple as a single blade razor or utility knife blade) which would cut the shoulder and prevent tearout.
Good luck. It sounds like fun.
-Jack
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but I'm too mean to pay collector prices for one, and I also have lots
Greetings and Salutations... Or...look at this as an excuse to go out and buy a nice, new lathe! Woodcraft has the Jet MiniLathe on sale for $199 or so just now (getting rid of old stock in anticipation of the NEW models). In any case, a lathe would be handy to have if one is going to be making spindles for chairs, as well as OTHER projects. Regards Dave Mundt
Haw! Neither was I for a lot of years. Then, I borrowed a small lathe for a project, and, got addicted. As a woodworker, I was REALLY good at making flat things....but being able to make round things really expanded my horizons. Also, while it might be considered to be a problem, it also changes one's view of wood. Stuff that I used to be able to toss without pain as "scrap" now looks like turning stock for pens, lamp pulls and other small bits. On the other hand, it also lets me recycle a lot of stuff that would have been waste in years past.
good lathe when it came on the market but has been superceeded by hardier lathes. About the only quibble I had with it was that it was a TAD light for what I wanted to do. The variable speed feature is pretty nice, though. I used one once, and, I thought that after one put a shelf on it, and, put some bags of sand on as ballast, it was a pretty solid lathe.
bed length can be REALLY useful.
It is amazing how often it is that the lathe we have is just SLIGHTLY too short for the project we have in mind. I have, in the past, been known to clamp the tailstock to a stand a bit past the end of the lathe, to get that extra length. I recommend several bags of sand on the base, though, if one wants to do this... Regards Dave Mundt
How can you tell what my ISP is ? I use a .com address, I (as of yesterday) am paying for a usenet feed direct from supernews, because my own ISP's feed is too unusably crap to bother with, and I get my mail and web hosting from yet another company.
I think somewhere in the midst of that I still have an ISP (they still bill me) but I'm beginning to wonder what for ?....
It does the job, as neither of us are much good as turners.
The clamp locks for the tailstock seem a bit feeble though and it has been known to creep. If I had a bit more time up there (Christmas ?) I might fire up the metal turning lathe and make something better. Did the Delta have similar trouble ?
On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 20:55:46 -0400, Silvan brought forth from the murky depths:
I saw a very large lathe in the local HFT warehouse a couple weeks ago. It was 3x7", I believe, and cost a whopping $39.99 on sale. All the people who walked past me for the next five minutes thought I was nuts. I didn't stop giggling until I left the store.
I lucked out in that I don't have *room* for a very large lathe, or I probably would have opted to save money, and would have wound up with a POS. (Though probably not as much of a POS as that thing probably was.)
I don't have enough experience to appreciate the finer points of the thing, but the JET sure looks and feels well-made at first glance.
My only problem with it so far is that I underestimated my willingness to hoist the 80-pound thing up onto my workbench and back down to the floor or wherever. When I conceived the lathe purchase, I wasn't using my workbench for much, but now I'm getting ready to put a new top on, and bore dog holes so I can plane wide boards more easily. That's a bit of a conflict of interest there, because it means the lathe can't take up semi-permanent residence on the bench.
I have to decide what to do. I'm thinking maybe relegate the sander to mobile duty. Now that I've taken to planing and using real wood, I won't have a lot of use for it anyway. There's just no point ruining a perfectly glass smooth piece of walnut by scratching the hell out of it, and I no longer need it for cleaning up saw marks or off-square edges. Planes really kick ass!
It _is_ useful for some things. Most notably the disc sander. Wasn't it you who told me to dump my combo and get a big disc unit? :)
Well, I can ponder this in some other thread, where it's more relevant to the subject at hand.
On Sat, 25 Oct 2003 01:29:20 -0400, Silvan brought forth from the murky depths:
Hmm, looking back at that post it sounds as if I bought one of those toys. I did not. I have a perfectly good $10 lathe for those rare occasions I need one.
I would have pointed out a $79 lathe at HFT which just went on sale if you'd asked (or if you did and I'd seen it).
Make a hefty sawhorse and mount it on that. I'll be doing that for my lathe once I finally paint that wall behind it with a couple coats of Kilz. (The cigar smoke bled through the cheap interior primer and it reeks out there again. I hate smokers.)
Almost orgasmic, eh? Look into cabinet scrapers. Lee Valley has two sets which will, combined, set you back about $20, and they are well worth it.
I have the little Delta 1" belt/5" disc combo and it's great. I use it to dress both metal and wood parts.
===================================================================== -=Everything in Moderation,=- NoteSHADES(tm) glare guards -=including moderation.=-
Well, actually, I was kind of making a leap of faith, since codesmiths.com IS an English company, and I did not really think that you would be using it for a return address unless you had some connection with it. *smile*. Also, since you had bought the lathe from an English company....
Haw! The world of connecting to the net is getting MORE and more complicated in some ways, this is true.
Yea, and actually the Jet version of the same lathe has the same problem. Now, since currently, I have some small connection with the Jet version, I have to say that it IS possible to get rid of most of it by adjusting the tension of the nut on the shaft that goes through the bed and pulls up the locking washer. However, it is still possible to push the tailstock back when it is locked down, by cranking the tailstock in tighter. The "big" problem with the Delta lathe was that it had the span to swing a 12" disk, but, I gather it really did not have the muscle to do it with sufficient power. However, as with most lighter duty lathes, lighter cuts worked fine. I actually own a somewhat heavier Delta lathe, and, I don't have that problem...and I suspect that a bit heftier cam or something like that would be an improvement.
On Sat, 25 Oct 2003 11:42:13 -0400, Bob Bowles brought forth from the murky depths:
I keep the dust sucker on when using it for wood. I vacuum it out after the tool, etc. have cooled for metal. It's an old Grants metal-canned screamer which it damnear as loud as a bloody routah. The stocking helped mend the hole in the filter, but I should try to find another one some day.
===================================================================== -=Everything in Moderation,=- NoteSHADES(tm) glare guards -=including moderation.=-
On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 01:12:24 -0500, Silvan brought forth from the murky depths:
No, the old, mean drunk who lived in the house before me smoked stogies in the remodeled garage when he worked on blueprints. I tore down the old smoky curtains, ripped up the smoky carpeting, and repainted the whole shebang, including the floor. The cheap interior primer is nothing at all like Kilz. That stuff is the BEST. The Ace primer (used by the idiot who painted my house) didn't keep the back of the house from peeling 7 months later. I need to strip it, Kilz it, and repaint some year soon. The second 5-gal bucket of primer was Kilz2 and everywhere he used that stuck, and will probably look good for another decade.
D i t t 'effin O.
You'd hate my house. I painted it Catmint green with Hunter green trim.
It does help. Just a bit.
Ayup. I'm sold all the way on the 1-incher. ScaryPaper(tm) and any old flattish surface is the only other way I normally use that sandpapuh stuff.
===================================================================== -=Everything in Moderation,=- NoteSHADES(tm) glare guards -=including moderation.=-
The readymix button shellac I've been using lately is a cheap waxy grade (Screwfix). It's not bad, so long as you let it stand and then decant the clear part.
This of course leaves you with lots of waxy "sanding sealer" looking for a job to do. When a friend recently tried to de-smoke their new flat (previous occupant was Dennis Leary), we used a gallon or so of this stuff. Lousy as shellac, but it's still a good odour sealer.
Would have been cheaper to just start smoking cigars. Then you wouldn't have noticed the smell so much.
That's reassuring.
That's extremely disturbing. Sure you're not a 90-year-old lady?
Scary is right. I forget how sharp these damn things are sometimes. I just barely, barely touched the end of the blade while reaching over my chisels to get something off the pegboard, and I didn't even notice the cut until blood dripped on my workpiece.
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