Lathe abuse?

Instead of just cutting in half, you could have undercut those end grain portions which were going to be removed while getting the piece into bowl shape. By reducing the diferential mass far out on the edge you could reduce the problem to a minimum. Slowest speed, of course. You can even do a static balance, mark and remove mass from heavy spots if you cared to. Take the marked piece off the lathe and use a big carving gouge.

You can also use even a modest bandsaw with tilted table to nibble away unwanted wood. I've used ~8" thick wood on a saw with 6" clearance by nibbling round top, bottom, and middle, though only when I was trying to get the absolute max diameter. Usually the chainsaw's enough.

Should. the darker is brown rot, and if sound, will last. Streaks of white show in pieces fifteen years old that I made.

Not sure which lathe you have, but my Jet 1442 will actually run a bit slower than the last detent for the speed control (for the Reeves drive) allows. I simply retract the pin and set the lathe a bit below that detent. I checked the speed with an optical tach and found it runs at roughly 280 rpm--much better than the 400 the bottom detent allows. This of course begs the question as to whether this is hard on the Reeves drive, or if it is an acceptable practice. No one at the Jet distribution center had the slightest idea. But it works, and I'll probably continue to use this method until I either damage the drive or learn from an authority that it's deleterious.

One additional point--I bought a monstrous 2.75" roughing gouge from a friend who used to fabricate such tools from high speed steel bar stock. Mine was his personal gouge, as he is now 87 and has retired from woodworking. Once sharpened, it holds its own against really rough turning stock with a minimum of fuss.

I turned a bit of crab apple a while back, and the color, while persistent, did fade a bit. It might have had something to do with my finishing materials, however. I used mineral oil and beeswax on one piece and shellac followed by wax on another.

Max

"Maxprop" wrote: (clip) Not sure which lathe you have, but my Jet 1442 will actually run a bit

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I did something similar with my Jet 1236. I actually drilled an extra hole so I could pull the lever down and lock it. I don't think it can do any harm to run it that way. If anything is going to suffer, it will be the belt, from running way up on the edges of the driven pulley. Belts are easy to replace. When you do replace a belt, eventually, I recommend the linked belts. They run with less vibration, and the length can be adjusted in 1/2" increments, which may allow you to further reduce the speed. See whether the belt bottoms on the motor pulley before it reaches the largest diameter on the spindle pulley. If it does, you can further lower the minimum RPM by adding length to the belt.

If you keep a short length of link belting on hand, you can repair a broken belt without replacing the whole thing. Usually, a broken belt results from a stall, which causes the motor pulley to spin on one spot, burning the belt. So repairing by replacing a few links makes sense.

I'm using a link belt, Leo, and have been since last year when my original belt began to show some rather ominous wear. The idea of replacing the belt without pulling the pulleys was appealing, and the primary reason I chose to use a link belt. But you are absolutely correct--it runs more smoothly with less vibration, not to mention failing to show any significant wear after a bit more than a year of use. I'm not sure if the link belt enables me to use a slower speed than the former rubber belt, but it seems to work fine.

One additional point with Reeves drives: if the user remembers to slow the drive down to the slowest speed detent before shutting the lathe down, the next startup is far less stressful to the belt, link or otherwise. While I don't know for sure, I can imagine that this might be true of lathes with EVS drives as well.

Max

"Toller" wrote in news:jt7qi.12911$ snipped-for-privacy@news01.roc.ny:

Toller, Is this the Craftsman 15" you bought recently on Ebay? I don't think you will hurt the lathe as much as scare yourself a bit. In the future, scribe a circle on the blank and cut or nibble as close to scribe as you can with your chain saw. You will have a blank with many sides, but a bit more balanced. Thank my wife for your new lathe ($87 if I recall). I was watching it and was going to bid that day. She insisted that I wine and dine her that evening (using yhe oldest bribe/threat known to man). I hope it is working for you. I found another (older 15" Craftsman with the electronic drive) and I'm as happy as can be with it. One day soon I'll post the whole story about the lathe and what came with it (not new wife). Regards, Hank (in the Catskills)

The very same. It is spooky to see it shaking, but good to know it is okay. I tried to trim it with the chainsaw, but once I roughed it, there wasn't any way to really hold it in position. Any suggestions?

The same week I bought the Craftsman there was a Jet on eBay in Syracuse; you should have gone for that one, closer.

Screw it to a plank, future open side down. Weight the plank and have at it.

If you don't have the ability to nibble down the blank before mounting it on the lathe you can take some time to balance it between the headstock spur drive and the tailstock. Mount it just so it stays between centers, watch it roll to the heavy side and then try moving the tailstock end a tad towards the light side, let go, repeat until balanced. Then tighten it down and rough. I've had my Jet 1236 waltz me around the garage once until I tried balancing the piece better and now even bigger pieces don't make it rock.

Check out my Crabapple pot:

This branch was at least 8 or 9 years old and dry as a bone. There was a bit of punk that I firmed up with CA but the pot came out quite nice and very colorful. Unfortunately I don't have any left and have since had the tree removed. Overall I'd have to say crabapple is my favorite "local" wood. All fruit woods seem to have more color and life to them.

Couple of personal experience things...

I'd asked the same question about the bearings and such a few years back and the general feeling was that since you (and I) used the tailstock, the lathe is probably built for the use you gave it...

What size band saw do you have? Does it have a riser kit?

Before I got my BS, I used my recip saw with a dewalt blade about a foot long to round stuff off after the chain saw...

I've also used the recip or mallet and wood chisel to take off high spots after it's mounted on the lathe..

With it mounted, you get a pretty good idea of balance and what might cause a catch without turning the lathe on... I like to take some material off then.. YMWV

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

drive, or if it is an

Yes, but not right away... I guess in the last 3 years I've put as many hours on my 1442 as some folks do in a life time, but it's showing signs of wear..

Notably is the pulley on the motor shaft, which is sticky and noisy even with frequent disassembly and lubrication... As far as I can tell, this is caused by me running the lathe slower, exactly as you described... I'm not a machinist, but as I understand what the jet help desk told me, forcing the pulleys into a position that they weren't "designed" to be in misaligned the pulleys and puts stress on the rod in the headstock that moves the headstock pulley to change speed..

I WILL keep doing it when I feel I need a lower speed for safety, but I try to limit how often I do it...

I really would like a now Nova with digital control and all, but I need to make my Jet last for several more sales before hinting to the wife that it's time for another lathe.. lol

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Excellent point, Leo...

I haven't needed to change the belt on my 1442 yet, but the day that I read the instructions for taking the spindle out to change a belt, I bought the link belt and have it ready!

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I've had my Jet, which weighs quite a bit with the cast iron legs and all, loaded with a couple of hundred pounds of logs and still try to "walk" out of the shop... A couple of things that have made it less prone to doing that, (besides better blank preparation), are replacing the factory "feet" with bigger, better ones from Grizzly, making sure that the feet are adjusted as well as I possibly can to have all 4 on the ground tight and not working in a garage that's sloped for drainage...

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I sure hope so, as that is how I normally rough with mine!

I limit the time below the bottom detent as well, Mac. I've watched the pulleys in that configuration, and have concluded it probably is putting strain on the system. Like you, however, I'll continue the practice until something breaks.

Max

If you mean electronic variable speed drives and if you are referring to inverter drives for three phase motors, it doesn't matter where you start, (so long as things are balanced) because they have a soft start feature that slowly spins up to speed. I'm using a 3HP Teco inverter fed by single phase 240vac, and running a 3 hp 3-phase motor on the lathe. I can set any speed from about 40 to 1000 rpm on the spindle in the current pulley setup, and as I turn larger items, this is a near perfect range for me. (The lathe will swing 42" over the bed, about 37" above the mount for the toolrest. Most of what I currently turn is 10 to 36" diameter, with length of 18 to 36" (tall when finished). As you might imagine, it takes several seconds to go from zero to top speed, but always starts slow and accelerates to speed. Unlike reeves drives and other belt only systems, where the motor essentially goes from 0 to full speed in a second or so, electronic speed controls can ramp up at a rate determined by settings on the controller.

--Rick

Max... Since this thread started, I've been running the lathe with the cover off and watching the pulleys during turnings.... It would appear to these old eyes that when I run it under the low speed detent, the belt isn't true in it's alignment with the motor pulley...

Might be my lathe or the pulley, but when running at most speeds, the belt is centered in the middle of both pulleys, but when at "sub low" speed, the belt appears slightly off to the left..

I just bid on an order for 200 pens... I really don't want to become a pen factory, but the money COULD go for a Nova with digital speed... *eg*

It would also give my youngest stepson something to do besides sleep.. he's here for a month or so... He's 25 and the average age here is probably 70 or so... nobody here his age and he's pretty bored..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Use an axe or hatchet to true up your blank. You can mount the blank on the lathe and turn it by hand, marking as needed for the hatchet. If you start the lathe and the piece still shakes too much, trim some more.

Pete Stanaitis

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Toller wrote:

"spaco" wrote: (clip) You can mount the blank on the lathe and turn it by hand, marking as needed for the hatchet. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I strongly recommend you take if OFF the lathe for the actual chopping. :-)

Chew off the high spot with something else. I've used both a drawknife and a router (mounted on a lathe-mounted jig for control). With an appropriate jig for control, even a portable circular saw could work. Finding the high spots is easy in the lathe (unplug it, or at least don't turn it on.)

IMHO, a lathe with a 400 RPM low speed is a poor design anyway, but I got into this hobby on a gol-durned shopsmith that has a 700 rpm low speed and a teeny-tiny 5/8" spindle. That did make me love the heck out of the first variable speed system I met that would go more-or-less to 0 RPM.