cscc Machining

Well, it's been a year now and I have done more than purchase my lathe. When I got my lathe I had an idea about how I wanted it set up and what accessories I needed buy or make. First, I set it up on the melamine board pictured here with the 1725 RPM motor, both from Lee Valley Tools. This picture is the back view of the board. I didn't care for the way the belt tensioning was handled using this board although it was handy for some initial projects. I realized immediately that I would have to set the lathe up and use it to make some parts I needed in order to set the lathe up the way I wanted.

I don't have any photos of my initial set up but I only had the lathe set up on the melamine board long enough to make this new pulley for the motor. I knew I wanted a good solid set up. I had limited space and I wanted all the lathe accessories to be easily accessible. I wanted to add a jack shaft to slow the lathe down from the 500 RPM it was currently running when connected directly to the motor. I also wanted to add an index plate and a lead screw. That's a lot of wants, but I took my time and came up with a setup that would allow me to have all of those things and works in the space I had available.

Posted by The Joker at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In June of 2006, I decided to get my dad a small metal lathe for Father's Day. Since I had a little extra money at that time, I thought I'd splurge and get myself one also. I did quite a bit of research online and kept coming across the Taig Mini-Lathe. I was first introduced to the Taig lathe from a Lee Valley Tools catalog. (I like to do woodworking - except I don't have the space right now - and had ordered some woodworking tools from Lee Valley). I read about the little lathe quite a bit and it seemed that people who owned and used it were very pro-Taig. That played a large part in my decision. I then shopped around, again online, for the best price. At the time, the best price was from also from Lee Valley Tools. So, through them I purchased a pair of lathes and motors, 2 sets of all the metal working accessories and chucks I could afford and I got some of the wood working attachements for myself. That was almost a year ago now. I've done little more than set up my lathe (almost done) but I really enjoy using it. It also takes up so little space that I can hobby with it in my apartment's single stall garage even when a car is in there with me. Try that with a table saw!

Pictured above is the basic metal lathe setup. You can order that melamine board -- which I did. I set my lathe up on it initially because I needed to use the lathe to make parts for the lathe so that I could then set it up the way I wanted. Being able to make parts for the lathe on the lathe is currently my favorate thing about it. That photo is from Nick Carter's site. I spent (still spend) hours on his site reading about setting up and adjusting the lathe, making/modifying accessories and looking at pictures from others. I"m sure I'll mention his site many more times in the future.

Posted by The Joker at 07:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)