New Lathe pictures
- Thread starter brianna187
- Start date
Looks great Lee If you could figure a way to use a powerfeed using a ball screw rather than a carrage rack and pinion gear set up I think your customer would be most happy. You could use a carrage rack and pinion gear for manual operations then have some sort of quick connect fixture to attach a ball screw setup to the carrage for autofeed operations. Just things you might consider that I have seen others looking for in this type of a lathe...
-Rodney Sr.
-Rodney Sr.
I don't think so.rackboy1 said:
From the pics, I gather that the tool movement is limited to the top slide travel, and no rack or screw to move the carriage. If I see what I think I see, then you manually slide the carriage into place, lock it down & are limited to the top slide travel as your working area. Hopefully there's more to it than this, especially with all the hype & claims of it being so much better than the other lathes. IMO, it should have a feed rack for handwheel, and feed screw for auto feed tapering or cutting.
I'd also like to see a nice Jacobs drill chuck accurately attached to the tailstock, and some heavy duty bearing rests. But while i'm dreaming, i'd like to see 4" tailstock barrel travel with zero slop!!!!
In essence, the perfect cue lathe will have a hardened steel dovetail bed that is dead nuts smooth & symetrical. It'll have this type of double chuck headstock, but with taper fit chucks instead of threaded on, and a set of taper fit/closed collets that can be used instead of chucks for the precise jobs. There would be a handwheel rack, then a feed screw for auto feed. The taper system would be spring loaded. The tail stock would be heavy & accurate with a handwheel & 4" barrel travel. There would be infinitely positionable bearing rests that lock down dead center on the dovetail every time, every location. A threading system would be nice, too. That's about all I think would be neccesary for me, if I were going to build a lathe. I wouldn't even mind paying fairly for it if it had all this. The current cue lathes all have similar to this, but none have all of it. 1500lb metal lathes have it all except for the close proximity double chucks & infinitely positionable bearing rests. So figure out how to do it all, and you'll have a perfect cuemaking lathe. As of now, it's never been offered.
I'd also like to see a nice Jacobs drill chuck accurately attached to the tailstock, and some heavy duty bearing rests. But while i'm dreaming, i'd like to see 4" tailstock barrel travel with zero slop!!!!
In essence, the perfect cue lathe will have a hardened steel dovetail bed that is dead nuts smooth & symetrical. It'll have this type of double chuck headstock, but with taper fit chucks instead of threaded on, and a set of taper fit/closed collets that can be used instead of chucks for the precise jobs. There would be a handwheel rack, then a feed screw for auto feed. The taper system would be spring loaded. The tail stock would be heavy & accurate with a handwheel & 4" barrel travel. There would be infinitely positionable bearing rests that lock down dead center on the dovetail every time, every location. A threading system would be nice, too. That's about all I think would be neccesary for me, if I were going to build a lathe. I wouldn't even mind paying fairly for it if it had all this. The current cue lathes all have similar to this, but none have all of it. 1500lb metal lathes have it all except for the close proximity double chucks & infinitely positionable bearing rests. So figure out how to do it all, and you'll have a perfect cuemaking lathe. As of now, it's never been offered.
I think I see the same thing. Not much travel. .....Jim
qbilder said:
Sounds to me like you just about described a 12 or 13 by 40" metal lathe. The main difference is that most commonly used metal lathes this size only weigh around 8 to 900 lbs. and a larger distance between chucks which, in my opinion, is a plus, not a detriment. The farther apart the chucks - the more accurate the alignment. On top of this they are a lot cheaper to purchase than a designated, lightweight cue lathe and since it is made for cutting metal and is large enough you can easily construct what other devices that you desire. Collets are nice for quick and fairly accurate part changing and plastic ones protect the finish, but, you won't get accuracy using any plastic collet. Good metal ones are much more accurate but they usually damage the finish. If you want real accuracy and at the same time protection, then you must use a plastic collet but not in a collet holder but in a 4-jaw independent chuck.
Dick
^
Now, if the'd only make SIX by 40 with a bed that extends beyond the spindle...
Now, if the'd only make SIX by 40 with a bed that extends beyond the spindle...
rhncue said:
This was pretty much the point I was making, Dick. The only things I disagree with is the chuck separation length and the collets. The chucks being close together allows you to work with components such as forearms & handles, before assembly. And for collets, they can be made of plastic & be extremely accurate & repeatable. I know one top teir builder who bought an elcheapo enco & had a set of delrin collets made for the closer, which costed more than the lathe. He has no chuck, just plastic collets in the stock closer. Otherwise, I agree with everything.
qbilder said:
Not to beat a dead horse - but plastic collets are not as accurate as metal.
BTW - what most on here call collets -are actually split bushings.
I use them myself any time the cue is past the 'roughing' stage.
Having a short spindle and close-together chucks is one way to work
on shorter pieces, but as Dick corectly pointed out - sacrifices some
precision.
There are other ways to handle machining short components. At least
two that are more precise than close-together chucks leap to mind.
Dale< developer of the new machining term 'close-together chucks'
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qbilder said:
You'd need to use a 'nut style' collet system like ER40 so that you could use a collet at both ends of the spindle. This custom spindle would not be too difficult to get made.
I'm not a big fan of bolt-together headstocks, btw, unless there are taper pins to hold the alignment of the parts. This would be especially true of any production machine (one-of machines can be very carefully built, but that gets costly if you want to build 100 of them all the same).
Dave
A year ago I built my own lathe with double collets at each end. With an 11.5 inch spindle I can hold a forearm. I made delrin collets of different sizes that I use in the construction process of my cues. This setup is the nuts because you use lighter pressure on the cue and still get great holding power. I'd post pics but because it has some "extra" tweaks and adjustability that noone has thought of before.DaveK said: