Making a float-making lathe.

Made some other form of traditional fishing tackle.
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Watermole+
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Making a float-making lathe.

Post by Watermole+ »

..After reading all the interesting posts concerning making your own floats-and after seeing that intriguing 'YouTube' video on making a simple lathe from a sewing machine motor, I thought that it may be of some interest if we tried to do something like it on here.

This is an entirely new project as I have no previous experience in either making anything like this before, or indeed, trying to make floats! I therefore will be very grateful for any input, ideas or suggestions that you may wish to contribute, so it will be a joint 'TFF' venture..

There are no plans or drawings as yet, only some sketchy ideas in mind; so this will be entirely ad hoc and subject to constant revision as we go along. It is not intended to be a precision engineering project-apart from a few small but important details-so it would be great if some of you could also have a go at this. There will be no set time for completion; I'm just going to do a little at a time, as and when possible..

It seems that the two base manufacturing problems in float-making are, (1) Drilling the hole through the float body; and (2) turning the body true to the stem.
The idea then, is to (try to) make a little, indoor, table-top lathe, which will be able to take care of that, with-if possible-profile repeatability..in other words, to be able to make more than one of the same size!


The first thing was to acquire a small motor and here, I was incredibly lucky, as I was told of an ancient Singer sewing machine which had been thrown out for scrap. It was a shame really, as the machine was obviously a very early one, but had been left out in the rain for months; the wooden case, though rotten, had protected it to some degree, but continual exposure had rusted most of the works and machine bed beyond all viable repair. However..at some time in later life, it had been fitted with an official Singer electric motor with a 'Bakelite' case..

After completely dismantling the motor and cleaning everything, tests showed both stator and armature to be electrically sound. It was easy to buy new brushes and after cleaning the commutator and re-assembling, it ran beautifully, though may need new bush bearings in the future-which shouldn't be too hard to make.

My local tool supply shop sold very small drill chucks so the next step was to buy one of these. It has a capacity just a little more than 1/4", which should be more than adequate.
Here is the refurbished motor and chuck..


Image


The next-and very exacting-task, was to attach chuck to motor shaft.
This particular little chuck has an internal No.1 Morse taper fitting, not a screw thread, and the motor has a 0.250" shaft with a tapped, ANF (American National Fine) through-hole.
All the dimensions for Morse tapers are easy to find so was able to turn an adaptor on the old Myford..


Image


. By turning the taper carefully, testing constantly for fit in the chuck by using a felt-tip marker pen and polishing off the high spots, we obtained a good interference fit. The hole was first drilled then bored to a light, push-fit, to ensure complete concentricity. The motor runs quite fast so eccentric running would be both undesirable and dangerous!
I then made a little grub screw to fit the thread in the shaft and drilled a clearance hole through the adaptor bush..


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This was then fitted to the motor, thus..


Image


A test run showed that it runs very nice and smooth, with no vibration-and goes in the right direction! ..so the next thing will be to plan out the actual layout for the lathe.
I was thinking of buying a piece of aluminium alloy sheet for the base, but as this is to be made on a budget, I am going to make it from a piece of hardwood. This is in fact, the part of the front, from a 1940s, 'Utility' chest-of drawers, which had been scrapped because of woodworm. I think it's walnut, but will stand corrected.

The machine 'bed' and 'tailstock' are going to be made from some odd bits of brass, from my local metal suppliers.

Here are the base materials..


Image


..More next time.

Regards,

wm+

P.S. That 'Perfection' roach rod is still not finished! I actually did finish it once, but was not happy about several details, so complete strip-down to bare wood and start again...Hey-ho..
Last edited by Watermole+ on Mon Sep 30, 2013 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Yet one of them shall not fall without your Father knoweth" ..Jesus of Nazareth, King James AV

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Loop Erimder
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Loop Erimder »

Very interesting this wm+. I have a lathe motor which I want to turn into a working lathe for turning float bodies etc. Looking forward to the next installments :Thumb:
Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish

Estaban

Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Estaban »

Excellent start WM+ looking very forward to seeing this come together. Have you considered using a rheostat, such as a dimmer switch, to control motor speed?

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GarryProcter
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by GarryProcter »

Like Loop, and others, I will be following this with great interest. I'm sure this will be another wm+ masterpiece. I really want a lathe for floats, and if I can I will probably have ago at a version of whatever turns out to be the final design. I'll probably have to buy the parts though, and as I have no lathe for making bits for my float lathe I expect a certain amount of (very non wm+ style!) bodging will be involved :Happy:

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Nobby
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Nobby »

This will be very interesting.

I have a small modellling lathe, but a three-jaw chuck isn't kind to balsa and a cane float shaft whips about at high speed, so turning a 'built' float wasn't a success either.
You can clampo down on a bit of balsa in the three jaw chuck and just accept some wastage, but it is never consistently dense and rarely clamps down 'true'.




Balsa is too soft to be held by a wood-turning thingy...a sort of coarse screw.

I did wonder about some sort of leather strap arrangement.......?


As to drillling through cork I mean to try some strange drill bits I saw in the local toolshop...some sort of grit down the drilll bit ...I think they were intended for tiles or ceramics.

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JimmyBobkin
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by JimmyBobkin »

I have a lathe that I am hoping to transform into a sewing machine.

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Kingfisher
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Kingfisher »

JimmyBobkin wrote:I have a lathe that I am hoping to transform into a sewing machine.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Trust you Jimmy. :Thumb:

God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling.

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DaveM
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by DaveM »

Knowing what watermole is capable of, I can't wait for the end result.

Scott Thompson

Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Scott Thompson »


That website is also in English at http://www.dobberbouw.nl/4%20techniques ... e.html.htm

Ronald the site owner is a very skilled floatmaker and a really nice person, he will answer any questions you may have and often appears on several UK forums posting about float making.
Its mostly pole floats but he also makes excellent large floats for fishing the sliding float method.

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Watermole+
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Watermole+ »

Part 2. Making the baseplate

Firstly, an apology for not posting the 2nd. part before now. Just too much on at the moment..
Secondly, a big Thank You to everyone who has contributed and offered tips..all taken on board Gentlemen!

Estaban; That is an excellent idea to use a variable rheostat for controlling speed-and one which I will experiment with. I did toy with the idea of using a mini-system of belts & pulleys, but it became a little too complicated, besides which, it would have been a drag on the little motor's power output and smoothness of running.

Mick B; Have considered all your valid points and hopefully, worked things out. The little drill chuck was new; the Morse tapered adaptor arbor turned & bored in one op. so can report that it all runs within 0.0015" of true..cannot complain about that!
The mini-tailstock is going to have an adjustable, sliding movement capability, to cover floats up to just over 8" long. I haven't yet quite decided on the tool rest set-up, but am in favour of something which will allow profile duplication..not quite sure about this yet.

I think I may have cracked the problem on the type of drill to produce clean holes in balsa and foam..have been making a few experimental drills and have had some very encouraging results so far..

Nobby; Have also had really good results with an idea on how to hold balsa or polystyrene foam, without crushing it, or having to cut an extra sacrificial waste end.. Not going to show you yet-but all will be revealed in time..You are going to like this..!

..Anyway, let's crack on,-and this is what's been happening so far:-

I thought it was best to get the baseboard done and then we can start adding things to it.
Having looked at it closely now, that piece of wood I decided on is probably oak. It has a nice grain and is quite hard. There were a few woodworm holes-which were probably old ones-but it was treated with Cuprinol woodworm killer, just in case.
The first thing was to cut it to length..

Image

The sawn ends were dressed up square and then chamfered with the old Stanley..

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..then the sides..

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Then the top was shaved flat and devoid of all the old varnish etc. using one of my bamboo strip fine shavers. I made this one with an off-set handle and the reversible blade is from KE672 tool steel, hardened and ground. It holds an edge beautifully and cuts finer than finest sandpaper.

Image

The base is now done, apart from polishing, which won't be done until after all the fitting holes etc. have been drilled.

Image

The lengths of brass strip will be for the lathe "bed" and the block of steel will be for the 'tailstock'. I would have preferred to have used cast-iron, but fine grain cast is a bit too expensive.. The steel was an end cut from a bar and given to me free (because I asked nicely!).


The next thing was to attach the motor to the base.
The bottom of the motor was only thin Bakelite and to would crack if I tried to attach to it directly, so I thought we might make some little mounting blocks from a piece of scrap 'Tufnol' and make drilled & tapped, internal brass spacers to keep everything together.

Two identical pieces of 'Tufnol' were cut and filed, then the fixing holes drilled..

Image

Making the brass spacers was a simple turning job,ensuring that they were in length, the exact width of the gap in the motor base. Here are the components, ready for fitting.

Image

..And here you see it all together:-

Image

I tapped threads in the tufnol blocks so the motor can now be attached to the base by four machine screws, fed through from the underside of the base.

Image


Attaching the motor will have to be done carefully because it has to be set up dead square and dead level. I have lightly gripped a solid carbide TiG welding rod in the chuck as a guide; the object being to set the motor so that the rod runs true to the centre and parallel to the base.

The next task will be to start making the lathe "bed".

..More next time.

wm+
Last edited by Watermole+ on Wed Feb 20, 2013 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Yet one of them shall not fall without your Father knoweth" ..Jesus of Nazareth, King James AV

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