Greg, you brought up a couple of points that need to be clarified. It' true that you need to use collets to protect the shaft but that is true on any lathe in the world. To be fairly accurate, collets should be made on the lathe they are going to be used on. It is a very simple task and only costs a quarter or so to make each. A collet is also used in the live center that holds the back of the shaft for alignment but you only need one as it will fit all shafts.
As far as polishing a shaft, why would you need to hold the end in a tail stock? The shaft will run much truer with one end loose. Doing this for 40 years and I don't believe I've ever held a shaft between centers unless I am turning at very slow rpms spraying or installing a deco-ring, never, ever for cleaning and polishing. The faster you go the the better as centrifugal force becomes your friend.
In the shop I do clean, polish and take out dents on a wood lathe but when doing small tournaments I keep it simple and utilize as little equipment as possible as I don't like transporting anything not necessarily needed.
I have this one mounted on a long piece of aluminum channel and had the intension's of adding two other beds, one on each end so that I could use a tail stock on both ends but the live bearing I am utilizing eliminates the need for the one in the back and i can just make a live center on an appropriately dimensioned block that can be easily clamped to the channel for wrapping cues. This keeps it much lighter and simpler. "Little Machine Shop" has a lever activated tail stock that eliminates the need for a wrench when moving the tail stock along the bed. I thought this would be a great time saver but being the tight a$$ that I am I converted the stock tail stock to work in the same manner.
That is one of the reasons that I have regular full size lathes and a mill. I can make or adapt almost any tool or jig that will make my cue making endeavors easier, quicker, usually more accurate and much more pleasurable.
The ready to go, smaller lathes, will usually start getting you building cues faster. They also are good if you don't have much room but I constantly hear on this forum that the bigger stuff is so much more expensive and you must buy so much extra tooling at a great expense and this is just not true. I have a full size 14X48 engine lathe that I bought for 200.00. I have a 13X40 Jet that I paid 1200.00 for and a 13X36 enco that I bought new for 2000.00. I've also got a few Atlas lathes that I have little in also. When I purchased the Enco I designed and built a full length Taper bar set-up for around 15.00. I bought a steel pipe connector for 2.00 and a new 8" scroll chuck for 70.00. I made an adapter for a rear chuck out of the connector and then put the 8" on the front of the spindle and then took the 6" and put it on the rear. This was all done in the first 2 days after delivery of the lathe.
Using my lathe and a drill press I built a stand alone saw shaft machine for less than 400.00. I then built 4 more of them and sold them for between 1600 and 2000.00 each. These never utilized a table saw to operate. They had the blade built into them. There are cheaper ones around now but not in the mid 90's.
Dick
I'm with You 100% on the collets, those are something that could and may would be best made on the lathe in use, so there is some money saved there.
cleaning the shafts, I don't really work tournaments, but I see Your point there,a simple clean and polish could be done without a tail stock, and at those, on the spot like that Your probably more less just changing the tip & freshening a shaft up for the day's event. For me most shafts come here, and need more extensive work like what You mentioned doing back at Your shop. Sometimes I get someone that takes good care, but most are way past due. On the really bad ones It's not usual for me to spend 30 minutes to an hour on a shaft pulling dents, gouges, and nicks while trying to remove as little material as needed. I do occasionally get some that I could do without the aid of live center, and the cup on Mine will burnish the fresh tip a bit, so either way I do have to free hand that part last, using My left hand as support, and finish the tip off with my right.
Your channel idea sounds like what I had in mind when I mentioned a little imagination, and spare parts saving money. I've seen some real simple steady rests on these mini lathes from what people just had on hand and laying around. The first one I ever saw, was in person at a tournament I was playing in. The guy just had a piece of steel angle bolted to the top of the headstock that extended back, and for the steady he cut a "L" profile out a block of wood with a hole in It, for the shafts, and so it would slide back and forth, A set screw locked against the angle. A aluminum block & bearing may have been better, but It actually worked pretty well for Him. I don't remember If he had delrin in the hole or not, seems like he just used a piece of felt. Looking back now It probably would not be up to our standards, but It ran surprisingly true for what It was. If I was to set this one up now, which I may end up doing, I'd probably use a piece of 2x4 80/20 that I have, and mill a bearing block that slides and can be locked in place, but I have that stuff on hand, and a different setup could be done for less then what It would cost to do if I didn't already have It.
I agree with You, having machine equipment is a huge advantage when doing stuff like that. I think that's why I have a hard time recommending either the mini mods or a cue lathe. I built My panto with out the mill or lathe, and they sure would have come in handy when doing that. It also took me quite some time to complete that machine doing everything By hand, and having to search down pieces and parts that would cut back on some of that. That was more involved then what We are discussing here though. Getting those machines were not only about money but space as You mention, They open up a lot of extra capabilities for me though. I built a rod lathe pretty much from scratch for My brother and they sure made things a lot easier. I milled the motor mounts, all the brackets and steady rests on the mini mill. Really I use them for all kinds of stuff.
I've got the taper machine on the mind again as of lately. I busted out My slides, cleaned them up, and they look like they will be good enough for a taper machine. I need a couple of pieces of plate to make the saddle, and need a gear motor and screw to make a feed for It. I do have a variable speed DC motor for the spindle, and the 80/20 to make a bed way and frame from though. I have some shorter SR25 rails that I'll probably use for the saddle, and just spring load those with a cam bearing that rides on a taper bar. It will be a router system, so not sure how well It will work, but I figure with the variable spindle and a variable feed I should be able to tune It in. I can just fix position the Z since It will only be for tapering.
That's a cool idea You had on the Enco simple yet effective, I like It. Yeah I think that's the thing with Me recommending which way someone should go, If they have access to tools and materials that can help other then the lathe It's-elf, or are good at how to make existing things work like you are then that may be how they want to proceed, but If they want It out of the box, then the cue lathe may be they're best bet. I can't say one way is better or the other when just doing tip and ferrule work, because both will work well for the purposes mentioned here. I think It really depends on if they want to do more then that, or if they want It ready to work. I have a deluxe I do most all My cue repair on, but I do prefer the mini lathe for metal work. Mostly because I feel It is better suited for that kind of thing, but also to keep the wear and tear off of the deluxe. Still when I have the extra space I will add larger lathes and mills. I'm with Your thinking there, the more dedicated machines the better. One reason I'm thinking of setting the mini up is just to have more then one repair lathe. That alone would speed things up for me, When It comes to building that's another story though, I defiantly need more lathes to be productive there. But freeing the deluxe up from just the basic repair would help. I didn't get much building done this past year. I had a boom for a few months recently, and It along with other responsibilities kept me busy, but this month repair work has tapered off some, so I've been playing around a little bit again. I'm way behind on turning My woods though. That's where the taper machine would really come in nice.
