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Tom Dacon WR Noob Offline WR Rocks! Posts: 16 Port Townsend Washington USA Gender:	Starter lathe and bench Oct 10^th, 2014 at 12:30pm Here's an old Craftsman lathe that I restored, and the bench I built for it. A fun project, and I think it'll turn out to be a pretty decent starter lathe. Tom
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Walt Nollan WR Addict Offline WR Rocks! Posts: 2,002 Hanford California USA Gender: PM 3520A	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #1 - Oct 10^th, 2014 at 12:36pm WOW! I turned on one of those for twenty years!
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Tom Dacon WR Noob Offline WR Rocks! Posts: 16 Port Townsend Washington USA Gender:	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #2 - Oct 10^th, 2014 at 12:52pm Well, I might end up doing that too, Walt, if it turns out to do everything I want to do on a lathe. For now that'd be just spindles and small faceplate work, which it ought to do pretty well. I know it's not very rigid, but I've at least tuned out most of the vibration and it runs pretty smooth. Here's another pic. Tom
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David Hamann WR Administrator WR Patron Offline papadave Posts: 5,701 Pasco WA Washington USA Gender: Jet 1014VSI	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #3 - Oct 10^th, 2014 at 6:14pm great job on the restoration and the bench looks good and sturdy. and if you do have vibration problems in the future, you can add a shelve and some sand bags for additional weight.
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Tom Dacon

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Re: Starter lathe and bench
Reply #4 - Oct 10^th, 2014 at 7:14pm

Thanks, David. I ground an old file as a scraper and trued up the pulleys. That got rid of most of the vibration and the link belt took care of the rest. It's not nickel-on-edge smooth, but smooth enough for me.

The bench top is 2" of MDF, so I've got a fair amount of mass for small wood, I think. I'm going to build a set of drawers under the bench top to hold the tools, so that will add some more mass, and I don't expect to be turning anything real big on this old citizen anyway.

Tom

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JimQuarles WR Addict WR Patron Offline WR Rocks, BIG Time! Posts: 13,194 Glendale, AZ Arizona USA Gender:	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #5 - Oct 10^th, 2014 at 7:25pm Do not use files for turning tools. They are very brittle and can shatter and throw shrapnel when they do.
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Tom Dacon WR Noob Offline WR Rocks! Posts: 16 Port Townsend Washington USA Gender:	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #6 - Oct 10^th, 2014 at 10:00pm That sounds like good advice, Jim. In my dreams I'd have purchased a $100 carbide scraper to do that ten-minute job. Fortunately it worked out all right for me. You'll be relieved to know that I was at least using a face shield over safety goggles. Tom
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James Saxinger Senior Member Offline WR Rocks! Posts: 373 Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada Gender: NOVA 2024 GI 25-200	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #7 - Oct 11^th, 2014 at 7:47pm +1 on the restoration, it looks like it just came out of the box. I turned on a tube lathe for 3 years before the vortex got a firm grip on me !! Nice work on both James
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Mike Turner WR Addict Offline WR Rocks! Posts: 784 Laurinburg North Carolina USA Gender:	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #8 - Oct 13^th, 2014 at 5:26pm Great job. I turned on one of those for yrs too.You'll be able to do more than you think. Looks like new!!
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Tim Hyatt

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Re: Starter lathe and bench
Reply #9 - Oct 15^th, 2014 at 1:04pm

I think what he was referring to with the file was not so much as cutting as smoothing. if it's the way I believe he's talking about, it's not really used in a "cutting" fashion (as a cutting bit would be), but in a "smoothing" mode...

(essentially it's a similar position to "testing" the roundness of a piece by letting the shaft ride on the piece to see if it'll bounce...)

I watched my great uncle do this innumerable times to refine the finish on a piece of work before moving to some grade of emery cloth to begin polishing...

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JimQuarles WR Addict WR Patron Offline WR Rocks, BIG Time! Posts: 13,194 Glendale, AZ Arizona USA Gender:	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #10 - Oct 15^th, 2014 at 1:15pm He specifically said he reground it as a scraper. Which is why I gave the warning. Files and rasps can be used to take out tear out as a first step before sanding, but never as a scraper.
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Tom Dacon

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Re: Starter lathe and bench
Reply #11 - Oct 15^th, 2014 at 2:45pm

Well, Jim's got me dead to rights. I'm guilty as charged. And I was truing the pot metal pulleys, no less, not even using it on wood. In my defense (not that I really should be trying to defend this), even such luminaries as Ernie Conover have done it and written about it. Which of course is where I got the idea. He makes scrapers out of some of the darnedest things.

I'm usually not too much of a cowboy but I've had my moments (one of which is now memorialized on this forum) in the forty years or so that I've been working wood. I won't even mention the time I put an end mill in a plunge router and used it to machine down the shanks of some broken-off bronze screws below the surface of the planks on my boat so that I could put plugs over them. Wait...I just did, didn't I?

Tom

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Alastair Drong Junior Member Offline WR Woods! Posts: 29 Chicago Illinois USA Gender:	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #12 - Oct 15^th, 2014 at 9:09pm Very nice restore! cool setup.
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David Hamann

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Re: Starter lathe and bench
Reply #13 - Oct 16^th, 2014 at 4:02pm

Tom Dacon wrote on Oct 15^th, 2014 at 2:45pm:

Well, Jim's got me dead to rights. I'm guilty as charged. And I was truing the pot metal pulleys, no less, not even using it on wood. In my defense (not that I really should be trying to defend this), even such luminaries as Ernie Conover have done it and written about it. Which of course is where I got the idea. He makes scrapers out of some of the darnedest things.

I'm usually not too much of a cowboy but I've had my moments (one of which is now memorialized on this forum) in the forty years or so that I've been working wood. I won't even mention the time I put an end mill in a plunge router and used it to machine down the shanks of some broken-off bronze screws below the surface of the planks on my boat so that I could put plugs over them. Wait...I just did, didn't I?Tom

i am sure that most of us have done something that would be considered dangerous by others, but got away with it, that time. and i learned to never do it again.

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“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” - Ted Geisel

Be yourself, after all, everyone else is taken.

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Tom Dacon WR Noob Offline WR Rocks! Posts: 16 Port Townsend Washington USA Gender:	Re: Starter lathe and bench Reply #14 - Oct 16^th, 2014 at 5:10pm >i am sure that most of us have done something that >would be considered dangerous by others, but got away >with it, that time. and i learned to never do it again. Yeah, he says ruefully, I'm not likely to be trying that end mill stunt again. Gives me chills now when I think of it. Tom
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