Thanks Chez; nice job too in supplying such a top forum to show our work and exchange information.
Thanks John, I derive lots of pleasure making things of use from scrap or offcuts which cost nothing but look good once completed. I've only got four lathes at the moment and would encourage anyone to obtain and use a lathe whether it be a wood or metal lathe. Of course this sounds easy but considerations as to cost of lathe and tooling and having somewhere suitable to run the lathe are important. Woodturning lathes can be bought quite cheaply and are plentiful on eBay; my small Record Power DML24" bought as a present for me by Bron over twenty years ago has been and still is a joy to use; it is solid and of cast iron construction. Both metal and woodturning kick up lots of dirt; woodturning generates lots of shavings and dust in short time the dust when sanding fills the air so a safety mask or extraction is needed; metal turning generates lots of very hot swarf in fact when I had the big Colchester I've seen stainless swarf come off white hot; I never used suds (coolant) because of the smell the lathes being in the garage located below the bedroom.
Tooling can cost as much as the lathe to buy but turning is a wonderful hobby in its own right and lathes can be used for all kinds of work; whilst restoring my Lorch metal lathe I was faced with the problem of cleaning gears and pulleys which were extremely dirty; I had just fully restored my Graduate woodturning lathe so used the Graduate to good effect turning this mundane job into a little project in its own right; I turned a couple of dummy mandrels from wood and mounted the pulleys and gears on these they being a friction fit and thoroughly enjoyed myself; it was wonderful to have the Graduate running and be able to use it; it's possible I've posted these pictures before but it's worth adding them again to show how versatile a woodturning lathe can be;
- Polishing 1.JPG (180.53 KiB) Viewed 1712 times
- Polishing 2.JPG (184.04 KiB) Viewed 1712 times
Our front room has a 12' wide window which really catches the sun during summer so we installed three blackout roller blinds which did the trick but the middle blind was a pain to reach because the sofa was always in the way. At the time I had the huge Dominion woodturning lathe so I set about turning three four foot long wooden dowels which I completed successfully. I end bored each dowel on axis to accept stainless steel round bar stock which was cut to length and hammered home it being a friction fit. Using my Colchester I then turned two stainless coupling sleeves boring these to accept the rods in the dowels adding tapped cross holes to accept grub screws; steel plain bearing blocks were made for attaching the assembly to the window frames.
The material was removed from the roller blinds and attached to the new dowels. A new belt drive mechanism was designed and made the crank having a simple friction brake added. Once all the work had been completed everything was assembled in place on the window frames; to this day we can still hand crank the three blinds just as if they were a "line shaft" which technically they are. I could have motorized the drive but it's no problem to hand crank and a lot more simple and reliable; the brake was adjusted it being spring loaded to prevent the blinds slamming down and it works a treat. Next year the room is getting a big makeover so I can service and repaint the crank assembly which is hidden from view behind a curtain.
- Crank assembly..JPG (153.89 KiB) Viewed 1712 times
- Coupling and bearing block..JPG (146.25 KiB) Viewed 1712 times
- Belt drive.JPG (149.26 KiB) Viewed 1712 times
It's freezing outside this morning and I don't feel like wandering into the garage squeezing past the car to get my Bosch sander to do some filler sanding on the coffered ceiling; I'll do this a bit later when I feel warmer. I also need to move the position of the ceiling light but no way do I feel like going into the freezing loft fighting through 12" of insulation to get to it; I'm getting soft?
Another day; another ramble.
Kind regards, Col.
