Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Spring Pole Lathe - She's On Her Feet





Yesterday I finished getting the lathe bed rails dovetailed into the uprights and got the moveable poppet cut to shape and morticed for the wedge that holds it tight to the bed. Everything is turning out good so far. Bed rails are even and square to the uprights and the poppet holds tight to the rails. I guess the next step is to figure out what hardware I'll use for the dead centers and get those shaped and installed. I think I should probably do that before I mortice the poppet and the taller upright for the arms that will hold the tool rest as the height of the centers should dictate the height of the tool rest. I'm also just going to leave everything dry fit until the very end. Any shaping I may do to the feet or uprights I will also leave til the end. As for the location of the lathe, this looks like this may be my best bet. Guess it's either here or against the back wall.











6 comments:

David said...

Starting to look really good, I like the joinery!!
Great work!
Thank you for taking the time.
Cheers
David

Derek said...

Hey Jamie,

The lathe is coming along great....it's almost too nice to use! OK, maybe not....too nice NOT to use!

Say, any thought of posting the finish dimensions of the parts? I'm thinking of carving out some time to build one, too, but am still in the planning stages.

Also, what are your plans for the centers? What do you think about just buying 2 cheap 60 deg dead centers and using those? I figure with the poppet adjustable, you don't really need to be able to adjust the center on it to tighten up the workpiece. Or am I missing something? Don't know...like I said, I'm still planning (aka, dreaming!).

Anyway, great job so far, and thanks for the pictures!

Cheers,
Derek

Shannon said...

Jamie,

I was talking with Roy Underhill about this last August and for his classes he has started using morse taper live centers. He drills a stepped hole in both uprights and friction fits the centers in place. I have the Grizzly part number if you want it. This is what I did with my spring pole. Works great and was so easy. You have more metal working experience than most so perhaps you are looking for a homemade solution.

Jamie Bacon said...

Hey Shannon,

First off, it's so cool to hear someone say "I was talking to Roy Underhill last August". Even though I took a class from him and sat beside him at lunch and talked, I'm still a little star struck.

As for the solution to the dead centers, my original plan was to purchase square headed lag bolts from blacksmithbolt.com, but if both Roy and yourself used these Morse tapers from Grizzly, I think they are obviously worth looking into. For me, like with a lot of things, it may end up being a decision based on aesthetics, assuming I could get the bolts to work. Those square headed lags look pretty old school cool. Thanks for the info.

Jamie Bacon said...

Hi David,

Thanks for the kind words. I stole the idea of dovetailing the bed rails into the uprights from Roy Underhill. But hey, if you're gonna borrow an idea from someone, who better than Roy, right. Although they fit nice and tight, I'm thinking of ordering some 10" long 5/8" square headed bolts, square flat washers, and square nuts from blacksmithbolt.com and running one thought each end to make sure they stay tight. And it's really cool looking hardware to boot.

Jamie Bacon said...

Hi Derek, Thanks for the praise. I'm happy with the results thus far, though I wish I'd thought to check with Shannon on lumber first. That 4 x 8 Doug Fir he mentioned would have been sweet. Oh well, maybe for my great wheel lathe. :-). I'll see what I can do about getting some measurements up here. My measurements are largely guesses but I think they're gonna work out well.