Making a float-making lathe.

Made some other form of traditional fishing tackle.
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MGs
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by MGs »

Watermole+ wrote:
MGs wrote:WM+ given my lack of success with chuck swapping and the fact that you seemed to have sourced the chuck here locally, is there any chance of telling me where? This may solve my own problem.

Hello MGs-I thought you might have a few problems swapping chucks from different drills.If the chuck jaws are visibly worn, it's usually time to say goodbye to them..
didn't realize that you were still looking for replacements though..


Regards,

wm+
Many thanks some useful information about thread sizes. Having got the chuck from the best drill. It is a 3/8 x 24 Jacobs. Similar replacement found online for about £5. It should be good enough for a few floats
Old car owners never die....they just rust away

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

Post by Watermole+ »

Part 3, Making the Lathe Bed

..Having been giving some thought to this for a while, what would be the easiest sort of lathe bed to make, which would give a reasonable degree of accuracy for float making..?
In the end, I decided upon a simple 'monorail' design, which would allow the basic 'tailstock' to move up-and down and also support whatever I can come up with for a moveable toolholder.
If any one out there is copying this, the bed is made using standard, stock-sized brass strips; the centre rail being 1/2"x3/8", which is flanked by 3/8"x1/8". I bought everything from my local supplier, but small stock sizes like these can be had from many different Craft & Hobby shops. The idea is that the tailstock travels on these two pieces and is guided by the centre rail. It sounds a bit complicated but you will see how it all goes together very soon.
Of course, it would have been much nicer to have made an 'H' section bed, from one piece of material instead of three, but I don't have a mill and so am limited to what the old Myford is capable of.

The lathe motor is fixed to the base with four M4 cap-head screws from underneath. The through-holes are a little oversize to allow for motor position adjustment and have a steel washer at the bottom of each counter bore to prevent the screws from 'burying', like this..

Image

The next thing was to make and fix the centre rail. This is held in place by a series of M3x0.5p countersunk screws-again, from underneath. Here you see the 2.5mm tapping holes being drilled..

Image

..then the M3 holes tapped right through..

Image

It is now ready to be set into position. I did this by carefully measuring and marking out the centre position on the base board, then clamping it whilst the first hole was drilled through the wood. It is always best to get one screw in place first, then check for alignment before putting the others in.

Image

The centre rail is now fixed in place..

Image

Now it's time to add the side plates, upon which the tailstock will move.
The two pieces were cut to length, then drilled & tapped in similar fashion to the centre rail. I used a clamp to hold these firmly in place whilst the through-holes were drilled in the wood. Thes will be held by M3 cap-head socket screws, again, from underneath, with the counter-bored holes reinforced with steel washers.

Image

This more-or-less completes the lathe bed. It is not permanently fixed yet because there are a few more holes etc. to go into the wood, which will be polished before final assembly. There are quite a few in it already!

Image

..And this is the bed with the motor in place.

Image


The next step will be to make the tailstock from that roughly cut block of steel.
The first thing was to try and true-up the faces, by taking a light skim cut, holding the block in the 4-jaw chuck..

Image

..but we'll continue that next time.

If the pictures look any different this week, it's because I am having a lot of problems with uploading from my Photobucket account. I can open the 'Get Links' menu but they will not 'copy', so Mark has kindly advised me to use the 'tinypic' option..

Regards for now,

wm+

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

Post by Nobby »

Sadly Photobucket have forced us all to use their stupid new betaprograms Watermole+.


Hanging's too good for them!


But your images came out perfectly.

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

Post by Loop Erimder »

Looking remarkable
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 »

Looking very smart WM+

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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by The Sweetcorn Kid »

Intruiged.com :Wink:
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MGs
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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by MGs »

Great stuff
Old car owners never die....they just rust away

Paul-H

Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Paul-H »

Nice job going on here.

I do find it quite amusing though that to make a Lathe, a Lathe has to be used.

Paul

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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Greentura »

try this video. it shows the brass holder in the chuck being held by a collet instead of a chuck, like in a router, and the drill bit is supported in a tube held in the static drill chuck.

http://www.dobberbouw.nl/3%20gereedschap%20Ned.html.htm



I used a pillar drill in a similar way to make avon bodies bit with a 3mm hole drilled through a piece of balsa dowel from the top with the dowel held between 2 blocks of wood and a hole drilled at the joint. To get enough tention i put a sheet of paper between the 2"blocks before i clamped them together and drilled the hole and it was enough to just grip the balsa without crushing. once i had made a few drilled cylinders i put a nylon 1/2' rod with a 3" long, 3mm rod and a couple of darning needles each side of it and cut off with 6mm protruding. the block had a 3mm hole in which was lined up with the rod and clamped down. the balsa cylinder was threaded onto the 3mm rod and the drill head lowered so the 3mm rod went into the hole and pushed the balsa onto the pins. shaping was with a dremmel but by eye and finished with fine sandpaper. i think the jig is around somewhere but the pillar drill belonged to where i worked back then. i bought a cheap Lidl drill press last year to try again but my wife bought me 200 assorted balsa avon bodies, perch bobber bodies and other bits for christmas, i think she remembered the mess i used to make back then. i have seen that a tube cutter for drilling the hole is better than a drill but have yet to see one small enough, it must have been something the Guy on Face book made himself, i will have a look into it though

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Re: Making a lathe..for making floats!

Post by Nobby »

That's almost certainly 'Ronald' from Maggot Drowners. A nice answer, but I think it'll only do for pole floats. I'd like to be able to turn thin tapered wagglers like Billy Makin used to offer, though I suspect it was a particularly hard grade of balsa he used.


http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g288/ ... G_0193.jpg



Here's bigger in balsa by Martin, who copied Ronald's:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAdCSexA0K8


But you can't see how he mounted the work in the chuck.

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