Mini lathe update for 2004-02-01
making spectacular progress!! My bearings and knobs are arriving tomorrow. I need to RMA my motor and order a new one.. McMaster-Carr has them, so I may just order one from there so it will get here faster.
Archive for the ‘woodworking’ Category.
Mini Lathe update
Great progress today with my limited time resources. I’m so glad I built that rolling cart for my closet. It really helps cut down on set up time and tear down time. Anyway, I cut the channels and angle cuts for the bases… slightly erroring, as usual, in the process. The instructions say “Carefully lay out the channels for the i beams”… which is really hard with my cheapo tablesaw and wobbler dado blade. I cut both the 36″ and the 24″ pieces exactly the same, so I’m just going to march onward and adjust the dimensions of things to match what I have to work with at this point.
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mini Lathe update
Welllll, bad news yesterday and today.
Yesterday an extra set of 3 step pulleys showed up at my office. That’s my fault. I should not have tried to cancel the order from McMaster-Carr.. I should have just ordered the rest of my parts and forgotten about it. (Still waiting for my knobs and bearings… 
)
Ace called me too, to let me know that the v-belt I no longer need because I ordered one through McMaster is available to pick up at local store. Great. Thanks. So, now I have an extra pair of pulleys and a matching v-belt. Stellar.
Then, today the biggest problem yet: electricmotorwarehouse.com shipped me a motor, but it appears as though I somehow, some way, even thought I’m 90% sure I ordered the right motor, but they shipped me a motor I can’t use. It’s a 1/3hp 1/2″ dia. 4.5″ shaft 3 speed motor without a housing or mounting bracket. Unusable for me :( so, I probably have to pay a restocking fee, and definitely have to pay for shipping this thing back to them.. in michigan.. and I’m in california. What a bummer.
So it’s looking like it’ll be at least 3 weeks before I can try out my lathe (assuming I get my bearings soon, although without a motor, I’m not really doing anything).
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Shop Notes 73 Mini Lathe image gallery
I’ve started photo documentation on the mini lathe.
click here to view
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shopnotes mini lathe
I’ve decided I’d grossly underestimated myself, and that I’m capable of making the Mini Lathe pictured below, without the assistance and mentoring of the woodworking class i was hoping to get into this quarter at the community center. (but did not)
What’s interesting about the project I’m building is that they show you two alternative uses for the lathe, bowl turning with a faceplate and disc sanding with an attachment. I’m thinking I’m going to build an extra platform for a steadyrest and later, I’m going to see if I can fashion a drum sanding table out of this as well. What’s the difference? It’s almost exactly the same mechanics. I see no reason why I can’t utilize the motor and driveshaft assembly for a sanding table.
holy crap it’s been really reallyhard tracking down some of the parts, though.
First of all, the 9″x5/8″ USS Bolt in the headstock is not “all thread” like one of the drawings (exploded perpective assembly drawing) leads me to believe, it’s only threaded in the last inch and a half or so. The detail drawing of the hardware assembly does accurately show thread in only the last 1.5 inches. I only noticed this after I made my best guess at buying what turned out to be the correct hardware. By the way, “USS” means “Coarse Threaded”… Don’t spend 3 hours going to every hardware store looking like I did.. that’s all it is. I found mine at Orchard Supply Hardware. They were super helpful.
Next, finding 3 step pulleys has proven to be extraordinarily challenging online. The article says “my local hardware store had to order them for me”… they’re talking about ACE, after many hours and hours of research I come to realize. Here is the link to the pulleys I’m ordering. 3 step x 5/8″ bore.
Stop collars… I found them, finally.. Bitsnbores.com… part number 11900625 5/8″ stop collar $2.65 apiece! Excellent! might as well order a couple extra.
Update: reid tool has these as well. I believe the part numbers are:
LSC-10 LSC-10SS 11/8 .6260-.6280 1/2 5/16-18 $1.49 steel, $5.09 stainless steel
The motor was relatively painless. I found This page quickly, and decided that the second motor listed, the 1/3 horsepower one, would probably do fine. Will the fraction of a horse more power than the 1/4 horse they suggested make a difference? I figured for 6 extra bucks it’s worth it. I’m already in for over $60, might as well step up a little.
Knobs… There’s a 500+ page PDF catalog available for Reid Tool, the vendor suggested at the back of the magazine for knobs.. which is a blessing and a curse. They have about 8 or 10 pages of knobs in their catalog. I picked the one I thought was correct one time, went back through the catalog a second time and picked the exact same part, so we will see if I made the right choice. Before I did that, I called them and said “Has anyone called about this project?” No. “Do you have any idea which knobs I need? There’s 8 or 10 pages of them in your catalog.” No. “ok, thanks.. <sigh>” I suspect this is the correct part:
(qty. 10) JCL-132 - 5/16-18 1″$1.18 and,
(qty. 4) DK-22 - 5/16-18 1 1/2″ $1.79 I think corresponding tee nuts would be WN-125, $5.39 per box of 100
We shall see.
4 threaded inserts from reid:
STI-225 1/4-20 .394 .551 .300 .303 .669 $0.32 each
(4) 1/4″x20 knobs
4JCL-127 1.58 .45 .49 .95 .63 1/4-20 .98 $1.38 each
bearings: (qty. 2) NB-1095 from Reid.
Update 2:
to be honest, I’m over-ordering on some of the parts, because I’m planning on doing some other things with the motor, as stated above… here’s the boiled down version of what I’m ordering.
Update 3:ACE hardware cancelled my order for the 3 step pulleys. My next door neighbor Duane properly reminded me what my old room mate Jason has told me a couple of times… McMaster-Carr is the end-all be-all of parts and materials. Pulleys are re-ordered and en-route. I shoulda ordered everything from here in the first place. Doh!
update 4: I remembered that I had only requested a quote from Reid, so I ordered everything from McMaster-Carr… yesterday… Half my order showed up at work today! that was FAST! … so, that’s the two pulleys, the flange bearing, a couple of knobs, and the stop collars (aka Shaft Collars). Woohoo!
