The most mods on a mini lathe ever!

hillscues

American Craftsmanship
Silver Member
Hear it is , it doesn't look like much so let me explain .my last mod was direct drive on the spindle , I took out the high low gears in the head stock. I made a hub for the rear chuck and ran 2 hoover vacuum belts and made a new pulley for the motor. all the gears for threading were removed along with the lead screw , I will not be needing power feed for putting a ferrule on. 4'' chuck was added , also a quick change tool post with my own mount , the compound bottom has been removed. lathe bed has been drilled out to lightin it up , as I take to it tournaments . let me say it runs so quiet and smooth putting tips on coulden't get any better. let me know what you think! darrin hill


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Wow nice

Darrin, great job on your mods....I would love to see a "how to" on (you tube) ....Keep that in mind ....Your work is soooo clean it would be a joy to watch....Thanks for the post....keep them coming ....Ray:D
 
Yes I did do some of the mods on the mill , and my clausing lathe. I forgot to mention I put high performance bearings in the head stock , so sweeeeet !
 
Willee, it had a belt but ran into a gear on the under side of the spindle. if you ever heard a mini lathe run thay howled vary noisy , and i've heard more than a dozen , all the same. so my belt drive is direct to the spindle , you are right though. thanks
 
I also built an extension bar for cleaning shafts. this is an older pic way before all the mods.

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Very cool, wish I could do work like that.
Thats seems to be the new Yamahauler you mentioned that you have in the back ground.
 
Willee, it had a belt but ran into a gear on the under side of the spindle. if you ever heard a mini lathe run thay howled vary noisy , and i've heard more than a dozen , all the same. so my belt drive is direct to the spindle , you are right though. thanks

Yes, those gears make a LOT of noise.
My big lathe has gears for the power feed train and when it is engaged there is a big rise in the noise level.

Nice work on the lathe.
Its fun to make or improve your own equipment.
Anything that makes it easier, quieter, or cleaner is good!
 
Nice job Mr. Hill and I have two questions 1st is that wood between the belts and rear chuck and when you say high performance bearings did you use some of the new all ceramic bearings.--Leonard
 
ironic

This is pretty wild...have seen the avatar with Darrin and the bike and really didnt think there was anyway it was the same guy that built my cue "figured he had to be old and extremely experienced" "you would understand if you were able to see or play with this cue". Whats wild is that I MX and own a hill cue "a badass one" so nice that its been my inspiration to cue building. Anyway, the lathe is cool but still doesnt compare to the quality of his cues "or atleast mine". Will post a pic tonite after i dig it out.
 
Leoanrd, I new some body would ask that , no its not wood its phenolic vary strong stuff.

LGSM3, I am getting old way to fast. I raced moto-cross all through my youth I was state champ at one time. I just got back into it 2 years ago after being off for 15 years , last year I ended up 2nd over all in the senior nationals I've lost over 60 pounds. thanks for the great comments Darrin.

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I also built an extension bar for cleaning shafts. this is an older pic way before all the mods.

Nice job on the extender bar.

So when are you going to nail a coupla' extra beds on the end
and make a mini-lathe long enough to build a cue/shaft on?

You know you want to:)

Dale<or is that me?>
 
Oh I have one of those did that some time back , had to have the bottom of the beds ground a lot of work. check out the tail stock from a 9x20 lathe I remachined the bottom to fit.

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What about them high performance bearings ? ceramic ? just wanting to know as I have been trying to order a set of three all ceramic bearings for my headstock, heck they are fifty times smoother and last forever and have no play. The only drawback is the sizes they are making are something they can sell a few hundred thousand of for bicycles or inline skates and stuff like that. If I get them ordered for $50 each this week I'll let you know how they roll, the machine that grinds the ceramic races and ceramic balls is the triple nuts at 2 million a pop.--Leonard
 
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