Make You Wood Lathe into a Wicked Good Machine Lathe for $100.

There are three full sized wood lathes in the shop. They all have a long history going back to about 1940 and I obtained them when they had been replaced by newer equipment.

The Powermatic in the picture was made from two lathes that had been junked by a school department. After replacing the motor and getting some bits and pieces that were missing, the lathe runs like new. I use it to turn all types of wooden bowls, urns and fishing plugs and it is a very nice machine to work on.

I needed to turn down the plug material for the whistle mouthpieces so they would fit precisely and it is not practical to do fine tolerance work like this on a wood lathe. I needed a machine lathe to do the job and a good one costs around three grand and change to start. So after thinking about the difference between the two machines, I came to the conclusion there wasn't a huge difference in the lathes for what I needed to do and I decided to mount a slide vise on the lathe and cut the plugs using the equipment I had on hand.

Before I could get everything in place, I made a trip to Boston to visit Jay C. and family and we went to the Rockler Store in Cambridge to pick up some router bits. My long time friend Woody was in house and I discussed my idea about the slide vise being used on the wood lathe. He thought the idea was a good one and mentioned it would be a nice way to turn writing pens and handles that need long straight cuts.

I originally thought I would use one of the Bitmoore slide vises, but I had a Shop Fox from Grizzly that was a little shorter in height and fit the lathe better. After mounting the vise and adjusting the travel and alignment, I can turn six inch sections of rod within .002" tolerances for a nice fitting mouthpiece plug and have zero waste. You can also turn tenons and joints in pipe with very good accuracy.

For safety, I replaced the handle on the slide vise with a rod from an old trophy and I can move the cutting tool in the slide vise without being near the piece as it is turning. This is not a dangerous turning procedure, but turning the handle with the long rod is great fun!

I purchased a steb center to drive the rod to be turned from Penn State for $24. which has a retractable center and fine drive ring that doesn't mark the ends of the rod. You can also mount the rod without turning the lathe off if you like!

The bottom line is the slide vise costs new in the Grizzly catalog a charming $54. and with the steb center and a few bolts and washers, you have a machine lathe for less than a $100. So if you have a wood lathe and need to do similar work, this is a great fix and a new way to use your wood lathe. Posted by The WhistleSmith at March 2, 2008 3:55 PM | TrackBack