Back in business

It is nice to have a new toy. I agree with you about the variable speed. What is the max size over the bed?

On 2017-02-07 4:43 AM, Dr. Deb wrote: I said it turned out passable because I could not get the bottom of the bowl smooth as a baby's butt, because of the tearout due to the spalting. I did soak it in Minwax Wood Hardner, but that caused it to pick up two new splits, which I filled with epoxy and Bright Penny Copper, saving the bowl.

If I have excessive tear out, I coat the piece with a thin, penetrating epoxy. Of course, that adds a day to the process while it cures thoroughly, but I'm not a professional. I have used the stuff sold by Lee Valley:

I just bought the liquid replacement rather than the whole kit when I had to repair a short section of fascia that had rotted but not yet disintegrated. It worked a treat! Graham

now i thought the larger rikons had a moving headstock but maybe that is only the late models

i recall the first time i encountered tear out with some found wood that had been at sea for a long time

never could fix it on the lathe so i put sandpaper to it because i had no choice really

started very coarse like 40 or 50 than worked my way up

it came out suitably but not museum quality

do wonder if reversing the lathe and turning the tear out section would be a solution

my lathe does not reverse

Part of the problem here was that I did not notice just how uneven the area was, until I had the finish on it and it out of the chuck. Had I seen it, I would have gotten my ros and cleaned it up. But c'est le gar.

As for the headstock on the larger Rikon's reversing, the 70-450's does. The 70-500 does not. Having had a lathe with a rotating headstock, and now one that does not, I much prefer the non-rotating model, for the simple reason that is its more stable.

Reversing is good and I like the feature. But it would not be at the top of my list of things I just had to have on a lathe.

i think there is a mix up of two things into one

was wondering if turning the tear out section with the lathe motor in reverse would provide a solution

attack the grain in the opposite direction

a moving headstock makes a lot of sense but it has to have a solid attachment mechanism or it would be no good as you pointed out

but anytime hardware is implemented poorly it is essentially no good

I've got the little General and the headstock both rotates and slides. I have not noticed any instability.

Turning in reverse would be "fun" unless you can stand on the backside of t he lathe, or have a outboard setup. Mine has both, but something I did no t find out until yesterday is that the outboard setup is not the same as it is on the newer versions of the Woodfast M910. Way back in 1998. when thi s lathe was made, they put a 1x8 LEFT had thread on the handwheel. The new er models have an 1 1/4 x 8 (same as inboard) RIGHT had thread with a setsc rew. Fortunately, I have a local machine shop owner who does little jobs f or me, from time to time. He is making an adapter to convert the left hand thread to right hand thread (like the ones what convert from 1x8 to 1 1/4 x8) and it should be ready in a couple of days. Then the entire project wi ll be completed and I can actually turn outboard. In fact I have a small p roject waiting on that adapter.

I use reversing during sanding. Some woods have a grain that tries to "fuzz up" on sanding. I reverse sand every other piece of sandpaper to take care of this.

area was, until I had the finish on it and it out of the chuck. Had I seen it, I would have gotten my ros and cleaned it up. But c'est le gar.

. The 70-500 does not. Having had a lathe with a rotating headstock, and now one that does not, I much prefer the non-rotating model, for the simple reason that is its more stable.

op of my list of things I just had to have on a lathe.

For sanding, the capability to reverse is huge. As you said, you can get r id of all those nasty fuzzies that just folded over when you were cutting a nd sanding. I like to alternate directions as I alternate grits.