Roby's New Lathie Setup

[Roby]

I took John's advise and kept everything relatively simple, but here it is.  I can't believe that out of all of you lathies, you haven't put together something similar to this.  I think that all you guys are holding out on me.  Is it just because I am the rookie?  I can't see crafting such cool pens without some form of rigged lathe attachements. 

Ok, everything is attached to the old aluminum sliding grid system that I never used for my last table saw (because it got in the way of my sled).  The moving bar slides like butter as it moves on its bearing wheels along its tracks, allowing me to do exact measured cuts with ease.  There are two small micro-movement wheels on the bar that allow me to move it very slowly when I want to.  I can pull the lever and lock the bar down at any point to focus on detailed cuts on a particular area.   

In the back, I have attached to the sliding arm my table saw's miter gauge (also not used on my table saw because it got in the way) .  Currently, I have a simple chisel from an old hand planer clamped onto it, but most any lathe tool can be clamped on as well, but I first have to remove it from the handle to get it to lay flat.  The fact that the miter gage is adjustable means that I can use tools with different angled cutting tips.  Once clamped on, I can just slide the main bar slowly across its tracks and give the project a perfectly even radius all the way down.

In the front, I have attached a drimmel press to a swivel base.  The drimmel can move forward and back on the bar, angle left and right on its base, and pan almost 180 degrees in respect to the horizon of the project.  With this setup, I can approach the project from most any angle with varous carving bits.  The plunge press on this system has a setable stop block so that once I get the proper anglel, I can slowly plunge into the project to the exact depth that I want, and then let it spring back so that I can move the main bar and do a duplicate cut a few inches down without marring any of the project in between or turning the lathe off.

For those of you wanting to make penta-sticks - this setup allows a drimmel attachement to carve out a flat surface across the entire project if you simpley lock the lathe in position so that it will not rotate, and slide the drimmel on the bar assembly across project .  You then rotate the project manually by however many degrees you need, and make another pass to produce a second flat surface.  Voila - you have perfect penta - octa - or deca sticks.  I have not yet, however, built a locking mechinsm to lock the lathe in various positions of degrees, but I plan to in order to make wooden gears.

Serously, I know that you guys are holding out on me and have made far better systems than this for projects you have done.  Chinney has some cool attachments for making threads and egg cracks, so I know that the rest of you have things as well.  Fess up and post your pics.   


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[Roby]

More Pics

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[Roby]

Still more pics

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[Chinnomotto]

Holy crap!, I'm speechless,,,,God's speechless

If this fandangle contrapsion  works,and you can dupilicate your next piece

you should patent this Stickman Thingomagic, sell millions and retire

I can see what you want the jig to do, take little cuts as you go , and that puzzle in your mind will become reality

Well done Mackka, its a nice set up,,,,er    peep peep!

You can get what is called a segmented chuck that screws onto the headstock end ( you need to tell them your lathe thread size)

It has 24 segments, ie 24 holes at 15 degrees, then make a pin handle that locks the wood at different positions, wallah poly sticks

Now if only we can persuade you to jig up for that perfect round sphere,,,,,,

[DCBluesman]

Jigs?  I don't need a jig to make a pretty, wood pen.  Now, I want one of these!

[Roby]

Really, you guys honestly make pens without wood jigs.  Honestly!!! That is just insane.  I thought you guys were holding out on me with your jigs.  I don't know how you do it, and I now respect your crafting art even more.  I can say that after playing with the lathe for a bit, there is nothing that can replace the feel of moulding a piece by hand.  It is a zen experience. 

So, I suppose then that no two pens are exactly alike?  See that is way cool, and I like that aspect of woodworking.  I despise mass produced items and like everything to reflect the mood and talent of the artist at the time of production.  Unfortunately, when making puzzleboxes, I have to make multiple pieces that are exactly identical or they won't fit into part "B".  I can't do that freehand and need jigs.

Hopefully, this system will do that for me.  So far, it works pretty well from me just playing around, but I still have to take things slow or I end up with tear out, even with the drimmel.  It is definately something that you can't rush.  Also, the way the system works, I really can't do much with the last 4" of the stock because everthing is firmly mounted on the left side of the bar.     

[Roby]

Ahh!!! Call me just plain lazy, but I love a good overkill.  Here is a pic of my last modification to the lathie setup.  The drimmel attachment works fairly well for detailed cuts and odd angles, but when it comes to removing the bulk of wood from a project my drimmel and chisel attachements are just too darn slow, and I am not a patient man.

Here I have modifed the system to include a full sized router to really tear things down to size.  Like the other attachments, it is held firmly to the moving grid bar so it can glide across the working plane.  Notice that I have it on hinges so I can adjust the depth beyond the normal 2" that a standard router can acheive and quickly modify it for stock of differing radius.  Also the hinges have adjustable slots so that it can move the router forward and back to center the bit once I have height established.

I should be able to remove up to 3/8 inch of wood bulk in a single pass (3/4" if you consider that I am taking it off of both sides at the same time) and still get a relatively even circumference all down the shaft.

Next on the list? A nuclear flame thower.       

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[Canuck]

For some unknown reason I did not get notified of this post?  Very well done Roby!!

The last set-up you have with the router is one I definitely tried back during the 'Chopstick' experiment...there's a company that makes router bits for similar rigs like that (ornamental lathes):

http://www.amanatool.com/routerbits.html

Unlike other router bits, many of their bits are solid carbide and in shapes suitable for use with router/lathe set-ups....

[Canuck]

Here's a link to one of the companies that makes those 'ornamental lathes':

http://www.legacywoodworking.com/

You should be able to get a lot more ideas for your rig from them...

[Roby]

Thanks for the links.  Lots of ideas there to add to my system, and I am looking around my old parts box to see what things more I can add.  Oddly, however, the most important revision has to do with the chipsticks you just mentioned.  I can cut perfect straight across, but what if I want the project to taper.  I can't make pool cues or chopsticks with the current setup.  Now I have to modify the entire jig to mount on a swivel system to accomplish this.  Perhaps that is a project for another day.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that while this jig does just about everything I want, I just have to pull the locking handle, and the entire thing lifts out so I can also play with traditional lathing without all that crap in the way.  Are you sorry yet that you got me hooked on the spindle machine.   

[Canuck]

  Are you sorry yet that you got me hooked on the spindle machine.   

Seriously, I've only been pestering both you and Eric for the last few years about the lathe!

[Canuck]

 Oddly, however, the most important revision has to do with the chipsticks you just mentioned.  I can cut perfect straight across, but what if I want the project to taper.  I can't make pool cues or chopsticks with the current setup.  Now I have to modify the entire jig to mount on a swivel system to accomplish this.  Perhaps that is a project for another day.
  

Yeah, that shouldn't be too difficult a modification, you'd need to be able to mount one end differently than the other...

Now as far as pen making with that sort of set-up well...check this out: http://legacywoodworking.com/galleryItem.cfm?project=439

I actually purchased a few of Anthony Turchetta's cocobolo blanks (shown in the link) and made them into pens, that's the only pens I ever made that wasn't 'freehand' 

[Roby]

Ahh, see..  Those are the sort of pens that makes me think somebody was holding out on me with thier lathe modifications.  It would be tough to put in twists free hand.

[Roby]

Oh, and it just occured to me, if you attached some off centered wooden circles to your project, and used that to rest that hinged router plate on, then you could produce "oval" stock on the lathe.  The  circles would lift the plate at one place and and gravity would pull it down in another.  Of course you would have to turn the project manually by hand, as off centered circles would beat things up at high rpm.

[Roby]

Oh, and I just found how to easily make those pool cues and chopsticks.  You just put shimms under one side of your lathe while cutting with the router from the top.  Ta Da!!!