Trying to get my lathe setup to do more

[Larry Buskirk]

@MountainGaurdian,

The dryer motor probably has a metric size shaft.

For larger pullies I salvage them from riding mowers/garden tractors/etc..

(The older ones have SAE sized shafts.)

[MountainGaurdian]

I tore down my old dead rototiller yesterday to see if I could make use of the pulleys, but the largest was 6 inches in diameter and was unusable for shaft size, plus the issue of figuring out how to mount it to the existing pulley set.

 

The uhmw worked out incredible though, I am amazed at how relatively simple that was using the lathe.  I have many times tried to mount one thing to another and "attempted" to get them centered and balanced, until now I have never actually managed to accomplish this feat.  As of today I have done it, and done it well....  If  I thought I was impressed with lathes before, I am thoroughly impressed now.... 

 

 

This is three pieces of 3/4 inch uhmw plastic attached together to make this addition.  The first piece is stepped in two sizes and fits inside the top of the pulley set in the hollow.  I drilled tapped and mounted that inner piece with three small bolts, then I drilled and tapped a 6 inch diameter piece to the inner piece.   The 8 inch piece is also drilled and tapped and held on to the center piece with four small bolts.  The thing fit perfectly on the first fitting, no play no wobble no nothing, I was blown away...  This addition is balanced, centered and smooth turning.  I couldn't count the number of times I have "attempted" such a feat in the past and failed miserably every time.  I never realized how easy it is to center and balance on a lathe, man the wasted effort and time I could have saved over the past 40 years had I been aware of that...

Edited December 7, 2019 by MountainGaurdian

[MountainGaurdian]

LOL....  I spent the morning cleaning and getting that motor ready to work with and wired it up and it doesn't work....  I am sure it worked the last time I used it when it was running my old large meat grinder but it has clearly died out in the mean time.

 

After realizing that I laughed a bit and was sitting back in my chair looking over at my lathe and thinking about old washers and dryers I have laying around and I suddenly laughed out loud when I realized......   I can just use my wood lathe to power the darn thing....  Not sure how that thought escaped me throughout all of this process.  I definitely had to laugh at the stupidity of that though.  Here I was wishing the 1/3 horse dryer motor was a 1/2 horse and wishing that it had a lower rpm range than 1,720 rpm.  I was also taxing the brain a fair bit coming up with an efficient means of mounting the motor to drive this without interfering with my wood lathe operations.  The Shopsmith motor is like 3/4 hp so it is plenty powerful enough to run this especially being geared down another 17 to 1 for the metal lathe portion.

 

I was already designing this to be removed easily and reset up easily as the majority of the time I will be using the wood lathe, and I will never be using both wood and metal lathes at the same time so using the Shopsmith lathe to power this will work out just fine.  The awesome part of that is, my lathe has variable speed and a low rpm rate of 700 rpm.  If I leave the 6 inch pulley attached to the pulley set I will have a 6 to 1 reduction in speed on the first belt and then my 2.86 reduction on the second belt.  This will allow me to get all the way down to 41 rpm or so on the metal lathe setup.

Edited December 8, 2019 by MountainGaurdian

[Larry Buskirk]

...Does the ShopSmith have reversing capability, so it will turn the dp head the proper direction?

[Gene Howe]

Ed, your ingenuity is totally amazing. I'll bet you get as much fun out of building those tools as you do in using them. You're making that old Shopsmith jump through hoops that most of us users didn't even know existed.

Thanks and keep 'em coming.

[Gene Howe]

6 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said:

...Does the ShopSmith have reversing capability, so it will turn the dp head the proper direction?

Larry, not that model but, I'll bet Ed could remedy that.

[Larry Buskirk]

28 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Larry, not that model but, I'll bet Ed could remedy that.

Gene, I had a Homer moment DOH! 

If Ed simply runs a jackshaft he'll be good to go, add a couple more pullies and further speed reduction possible.

[MountainGaurdian]

The lathe already runs in a counter clockwise direction of rotation.  The drill press will be in line with the lathe head and also turning in a counter clockwise direction.  

 

I was even thinking last night that I might consider bringing some old trailer frame that I welded together into a wood splitter many years ago and use that as a lathe bed to mount the drill head too permanently, and have two dedicated machines both run from the Shopsmith.  This would have the advantage of being able to permanently mount things up to the metal lathe without worry of interfering with my wood turning process.  The pulley set I am using to run the drill press head is easily put on and removed it just slips over (okay taps on with a hammer) and set with a set screw so that is easy and running a belt between the two and tensioning it between two heavy pieces of equipment should be easy enough to swap back and forth.  Down the road I could I could still find another motor to run the metal lathe deck with as well.

 

I will have to get the boys to help me with this one as that wood splitter frame weighs in around 500 pounds or so.  I wasn't joking around when I built that thing lol...  I put on a 3 inch by 18 inch 20 ton two way hydraulic piston on that and ran it off the pod control of my Case backhoe.  I built a giant head for it about 12 inches tall and maybe 10 inches wide at the back and maybe a foot long.  Once I idled up the tractor a bit to get good hydraulic pressure I could slam that head into wood at about 40 to 50 miles an hour, and with that wide head it would split basically anything on the first hit.  The only issue ended up being safety as it wasn't uncommon for pieces of wood to fly 20 to 30 feet from the splitter as I split them.  lol   Yet again I had lived up to the nickname my little brother gave me years ago...  Maximum Overkill... LOL...  It was a very handy unit though, I just installed quick disconnects on that one pod controller and you simply disconnected the pod and plugged in the wood splitter.  I would just haul the wood splitter out in the woods in the bucket of the backhoes and use the backhoe to tear apart my slash piles and when I had everything set out I would cut it up and split it up.  Instead of burning those piles which terrifies me I was instead able to sell all of that wood at $100 a cord.

Edited December 8, 2019 by MountainGaurdian

[Larry Buskirk]

@MountainGaurdian,

So how's your project coming along? Inquiring minds want to know. ( Well at least this one )

I've been going through my stash of parts, and if I did the math right  should be able to get my old Delta 11" lathe down to 37.5 RPM.

Pulleys, belts, & line shafts. 

[MountainGaurdian]

Been busy between numerous doctors appointments for the wife and a bunch of them for the kids as well and even a couple for me, I swear I have been having to drive to town about 3 and 4 days a week.  Then Christmas shopping and finally having to spend some down time to get my jaw infection beat back a bit, I haven't accomplished much the last 2 weeks.  On the few days that I have had free time and felt decent physically I spent them cutting more firewood, I have a feeling I may need some extra this winter.  I still have several trailer loads of poplar and willow to haul as well, but that may have to wait a while until I catch up on everything.

 

But in my down time I was able to do a "lot" of thinking...   I designed first in my head and then on paper a new form of lathe head that I want to try, it is not as stout a design as the modern lathe head is but would be far easier to machine with my current machining capabilities.  I also designed in my mind a nice cross slide vice that I want to build. 

 

I think I have mentioned before that I used to work in a foundry many years ago and that I have ability to melt metal here, though my furnace is large and uses charcoal as the fuel.  I was thinking about the old carbon arc headlamps on the old model t's and the massive amount of heat that they produce and was kind of curious as to whether you could somehow utilize that carbon arc heat to melt things on a small scale.  I'll be damned if I didn't type in "carbon arc melting metal" and apparently this has been done for quite some time, so I went in search of plans and videos on "carbon arc furnace", "carbon arc foundry" and I found a plethora of information.  So I promptly tore apart a microwave for a transformer power and am currently in the process of building a small arc furnace to melt some metal without having to run my big system which is a pain in the azz and takes quite an investment in time and effort.

 

With any luck I will be able to pour the materials I need for the lathes within a few days.  A rather round about method of things but mine has always been a strange but fascinating road  to travel.... lol...  That is a basic synopsis of the last two weeks, add in some teen challenges to all that like a suspended drivers licence and the several hours of cooking and cleaning up after them and caring for the wife on bed rest and that pretty much sums up the last two weeks.

[Larry Buskirk]

Get the health taken care of first.

 

I need to find a compound cross slide myself, can't afford what they go for on epay!.

I've got a couple of vintage motors that need the commutators turned. 

Still working on firewood myself, it's 15° with a WC of 3° here now. 

[MountainGaurdian]

I have some old broken down ones, but they are so sloppy they are useless for all but the most minor uses.  I was looking as well and while there are a lot "cheap" slides on the net, they are terribly low quality and wouldn't be any better than my old worn out ones.  I went looking for older built cross slides hoping to find a used in decent shape at a decent price, but those animals appear to be extinct.  To buy what I want would cost several hundred dollars, no way around it.  While technically I can afford it, I am cheap and I am stubborn and that always wins out... lol...