my home made lathe

I've been using the drill w/crutch tip "lathe" for about 5 years and I've put on several tips and cleaned a bunch of shafts using a Magic Eraser and the drill lathe.

My drill has a variable speed lock on switch so I can run it very slow (slow is BEST!!) and I found an extension cord at Lowes that has a switch on it so I avoided doing wiring. I have it attached to a board with a bungee cord and I hold the tip end in a towel as shown above. I was worried about holding the end in that fashion but it works great.

I wanted something to spin a shaft and that's what it does and does well. I'm very happy with it.
 
Was fun making too

This is the one I made. Motor cost $10 on ebay.
 
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jondrums said:
I've seen the kind of trouble you can get into using a drill as a lathe...

Without going into details about why, basically the cheap bearings in the spindle of the drill tend to produce a "three lobed" circle. They just aren't designed for side loading like lathe bearings are.

Anyone ever tried to make a largish hole in aluminum with a hand drill? Notice how the hole isn't very round - more like rounded triangular. That's the same phenomenon.

Don't get me wrong - I love DIY projects, and that thing might be just fine for doing tips, BUT:

I'd be fairly wary of putting anything in that "lathe" that you want to keep round. I'd never consider doing a "shaft cleaning" (sandpapering a spinning shaft) with that. But then I'll only use a magic erasor to do that since I don't like the idea of removing wood just to make my shaft look cleaner.

Jon
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Actually I use the magic eraser too. And then I use a jewelers abrasive kit to "sand the shaft".8 pads from 1500 grit to 12000. The shaft shines and feels like glass with minimul material lost.Initially I was scared to "work on" my good shafts so I practised on the "Wilson". No great loss if I scewed it up,but It works better than I thought so now I'm doing the shafts for my Lebow without reservations. Don
 
Ky Boy said:
The other problem bisides the using the crutch tip is the shaft rest. It is very easy to become involved with the tip and get the shaft too hot where it rests. And this will cause the wood in that particular place to expand. Otherwise, not too bad.


Gary
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I found that if you put your finger on the shaft where it sits on the rest you can monitor the heat easily.
 
hemicudas said:
These you can also get on ebay, Jim. With shipping the set was about $16.
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Now that is a cool idea.

I think I bought something like this at Home Depot. There are connectors for 000 electrical wire (or some such weird number) that are used to connect the main service wires from the mast to the house meter. They look very similar to what you have shown. I bet that they could be rigged to do the job. Of course finding the screws might take more looking.

To make a similar rig with a small pipe and a tap would not be too much trouble either. Neat ideas, thanks again.
 
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my quarters worth

I use a bosch 1/2 inch with joint protectors and collars, and for portable use I use my dewalt 24 volt. I use a wood clamp for motor control. On the dewalt I use the pistol grip and pivot it to 150 degrees and the drill lays out horizonal. A little quick release clamp-800rpm or 2000 rpm. The best type to copy is the porper-the large steel tubes wood lathe motor and you can use different size jaw chucks-(there are many kinds I prefer the centering type, and remember there are soft jaw types that don't damage your cues and stuff. This way you have a way to attach the cutter tools and a taper bar. Go see your local gunsmith he will show you things you haven't ever seen (fixtures for each process) they accurately turn steel- woods nothing and they have wood knowledge as well .Making stocks refinishing etc. I have used the drill methods 30 yrs. If you are not mech. inclined pay to have it done. If money was no problem clausing lathes - This is just the tooling then you need to learn How to accurately,face the ferrule,and what type of threads for threaded ferrules, glues, For the best hitting tip and ferrule and it does make a difference.mark
 
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eddieindetroit said:
I admire the way you splurged for the hose clamps instead of duct tape. The German suits were real high on that when they bought Chrysler. Sadly this decision alone resulted in the elimination of more than 12000 SE Michigan jobs.

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You might want to read your post again, eddie. You insinuate that Detroit used duct tape before Daimler Benz bought Chrysler out. It's believeable too.
 
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