Would this metal lathe do?

Newton

Newton

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This has been discussed a lot of times here, metal lathes vs cue lathes and this is not another go on that.

I'm going more and more down the route of having a lathe which can help me with making other stuff than just cues. However the lack of big bore in the chuck had me wondering...
Have a look at this lathe :
http://www.bernardo.at/sitex/index....l_working_Turning_lathes_Profi_750_E.htmlhtml

It has long distance between centers (750mm) but the spindle bore is just 26mm. The ideal would of course be to have a larger spindle bore so that I could have which ever end locked in - and through the chuck. Most likely this would require a steady rest on the opposite side of the chuck.My idea is to use the machine in it?s full length with a steady rest when doing joint work. I can?t see any reason for that this should not work out, but then again - any expert opinions would be highly appreciated.

The only work I would do is joint work,tips and possible butt tapering when I come to that stage.

N
 
sorry, keep looking

I have that size lathe at home, among my three metal lathes. It is good for tips and ferrules. I also can thread for inserts, collars of shafts, and thread my shafts. I sometimes make my screws and collars for the butts with it. But that is the extent. Even with using a bearing and a center rest you cannot do pins in butts or sand/taper a shaft or butt with that lathe as it only allows 30 inches between centers. I use 12x36 and a 12x38 for that. The 36 length is only marginal for shaft tapering. 38 is ok, and 40 is ideal. Yes you can buy a cheap wood lathe to sand your shafts, but to accurately taper you need to mount a router on a power fed carriage and let it follow a taper bar, or very carefully mike every inch and you can even do it by eye. But you will starve if you try and cuts shafts by eye for a profit. And keep in mind my 36 inch lathe can just barely allow enough carriage travel to taper a butt! A 30 inch lathe will be several inches short for that job. It will move the carriage about 25 inches under power most likely. And you need room to either end of the butt to avoid running your tooling into something immobile and then stripping a gear, or cracking a router housing. I did that with my 36 more than once I confess!
I am sure some will rave about how you can extend the bed, or bore out the spindle, but if you are planning to do cue work, then why not buy the right lathe to begin with? It is not easy to modify a machine to accurately do a job it was never intended for. It is a nice size lathe for fun with a home hobby though, just lacking for any extensive cue work. Now add that lathe along with Hightowers or Uniques large lathe and you have a nice combo for most cuemaking tasks.
 
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Thank you for you're answer. I knew that it might be pushing it to actually believe that I might squeeze a ballbearing steady rest on it and being able to do pins on a completed butt. How if you do a pin insert in the forarm before you actually join the handle and the rest of the cue? After a complete assembly, I would then use the pin as my center point doing my final turns? In this way the 30" would be good enough. I plan on using a Gantry CNC system for actual tapering where I would have plenty of space in the length direction (a spinning 4th axis with a chuck would be used).

If this is a stupid idea I would look for one of it's "brothers" :)

N
 
well then use a wood lathe

For sanding your shafts and butts. Better than getting that sandpaper grit on your ways of the metal lathe too. I have a Cuemonster 4 axis cnc, but still prefer a shaft machine on a table saw for production tapering, I am making one of those now. And a cheap wood lathe for sanding works great for my workflow. I have 6 lathes all told so far.
Yes you can install the pins into the A-arm before attaching the handle. I prefer to do it after though, after I have my points running true, and all within .oo2 inches of final size. I prefer the center rest and bearing for all pin work myself, but you need room to work. Even the 36 can be a bit tight with some tasks. I prefer not to chuck on a fresh finish, even with a soft collet.
 
Thank you for you?re feedback. I have already a wood lathe so the finishing touch with sand paper would be done on this. The main consern is the pin install in the butt where my consern was that a center rest and bearing was not "solid" enough for this precision
work. Installing the pin in the forearm, then mount the pieces together with a rough cut would be my approach. Then make it running true in a Gantry for tapering to close tolerances and add inlays. Since you mention that you would build a tapper machine based on a saw; is the cuemonster causing vibrations and mess up you?re tapering of the cues in this setup? I know that the sawblade approach is the best but hopefully a Gantrysystem could work out as a starter and maybe build a tappering machine later? As you understand, I have neither bought a Late nor a Gantry but pretty close to treat my self some nice Christmas gifts. The best ones you buy you?re self ;-)
 
Center rest

IMHO I believe a properly aligned quality bearing in a center rest is the most accurate means to installing pins and such. Yeah a dual chuck lathe using Buck chucks or the like is great, but the center rest is easily set up with indicators, and seems to be very repeatable for my work. I get very well aligned pins and shafts, they always go together perfect, and no matter the length of the Aarm I get a perfect pin install. My dual chucks only work well if my Aarm is long enough to span both chucks, and sometimes this is not the case. Yes a complete assembled very straight butt spans it fine but we do not always have that to work with.
 
This sorted most of my questions :-) I would check if a longer bed is available .
Thanks

N
 
Newton said:
This sorted most of my questions :-) I would check if a longer bed is available .
Thanks

N
Click to expand...

If it was me, and I was looking for a primary lathe, I would pass on that one. It looks fairly expensive and just doesn't have the capabilities needed in a primary lathe. It would be great for a secondary lathe as shaft work, parts building and such can be accomplished but the spindle hole is to small and the bed length is to short. Even with the use of a steady rest, with the spindle hole so small that the butt couldn't be extended into it and the bed length so short that you couldn't work on the joint with the butt cap chucked up, you would be in real trouble. I don't know how hard it is to find machine tools where you are at but I would continue looking if I were you.

Dick
 
Thank's Dick. I has decided to search for a larger one with a bore which is bigger.

N
 
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