Yo dawg, I heard you like lathes

On the little wood lathe we have lost the inner insert to the live center.

OH NO!

But luckily, we have just the tool for fixing that! A lathe!

I mounted a rod of scrap steel to the lathe and turned it down a bit.

Once I got close to diameter, I turned a point then took it off the lathe to double-check the fit.

I parted it off, here it is ready for assembly.

Luckily we have a box of set screws. I found a matching setscrew and installed it!

Tada! Fixed!

I should probably do it again, because I can get the fit a bit closer. I should learn how to use one of those inside hole sensing devices to get the exact size, because I don’t think I got a good measurement from my calipers. There’s a slight bit of wobble, but it is better than we were (without one). I’ll probably remake this at some point, but now we have something that works.

Yay lathes!

14 Likes

Okay - that is amazing. Being able to machine your own replacement parts is pretty sweet.

3 Likes

Cool @mike!

1 Like

Using our tools to fix our tools? Favorite~!

1 Like

@Stevemopolis took a quick look at the work last night; it looks like my measurement issue could actually be based on the geometry of the hole; we think it might be a taper!

Round 2 - This time with more accuracy!

So this time I did a much better job of creeping up on the dimension. I also figured out how to unmount the quill on the tailstock so I was able to do test-fits on the metal lathe. There’s no perceptible movement and it is a bit of a tight fit. From what I can tell, the clearance is about 0.05mm, but that’s far below my measurement error I imagine.

I also made it with some chrome round bar I found in the back bins. That stuff was super tough and I had to take lots and lots of very light cuts. I imagine that’s probably a job for carbide tooling, but I got the job done.

I’m happy to have that little lathe back in full action. If you use it, please let me know how it works out.

-Mike

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.