I need to turn just a couple legs for a small table I'm trying to repair. The problem is the bed of my lathe is not long enough. I could add a bed extension but that would require building a new stand etc
A good reason to not buy the bed extension is that this is the first need for such a long turning after several years of owning the lathe.
I'm wondering if I could support the spindle in another way that is safely support the spindle.
Depends on how long the leg you want to make is when finished. I have made longer pieces on my Jet mini by making it a two piece affair, with a female and male part on the connection point. A "feature" of some sort will magically appear on the joint to cover it up. If it is painted, I wouldn't even bother with that.
Standard table height is somewhere around 28 to 30 inches, so you can two piece a leg easily on the mini.
I have two Jet minis... maybe you can borrow another small lathe like yours since they are pretty common and easy to transport. I can take one lathe and flip it around and make a bed to bed connection, then clamp it together with the tailstock reversed on the right hand side lathe. Don't bother about it matching perfectly, it doesn't need to since the location of the tailstock will providet the correct axis for turning. It does need to be very, very well attached at the bed connection though so that you won have movement.
Years ago, (I think it was Bill Grumbine) posted a lot of pics where he turned something like a 12' boat mast with his Nova 3000. He mounted the tailstock on something he could move and after determining the right height and alignment, he tightened the tailstock to the material and away he went. There were some additional devices to help keep whip down, but it worked great.
Robert
Hi Bill
You could make one part of your stock round, (like a short piece of pipe clamped around it) then use a steady rest and turn one half, flip around and do the other end, it's one way of doing it.
Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo
william kossack wrote:
I needed to turn a couple 6' columns in a 4' lathe. I removed its gap bed block and screwed it to a nearby counter using some shims to get the height correct. I turned one end, flipped the spindle end for end, and finished the other end. Dan
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