I like my Jet Mini lathe, but with a spec of about 12-1/2" between centers (IIRC), it's a little too short for the longest Irish bagpipe part, namely the chanter, the "oboe" of the bagpipe. Just a little extension would do.
I had two 1 foot pieces of 25 year old end-cuts from 4/4 x 3" Teak flooring; I ripped 4 pieces 1/4 x 1" off of one board to make a bagpipe part, and used up most of the other to make this homemade bed extension for the Jet:
Here's a right-hand view:
And a close of of the end, where you can see the construction, including one of my typical mistakes, cutting the rabbet the wrong direction, having to 5-minute Epoxy the pieces back on and re-cut the right way
There were other mistakes as well; my wood pieces didn't all turn out perfectly square, so there was much more work fitting the extension to the bed than expected
I spent at least twice the time fixing the mistakes; lots of chiseling, SandSharking, and block-sanding to get the fit to the bed, and getting the ways and slot matched to the Jet. I also had to enlarge the mounting holes to 1/2" to get the clearance for the now slighly lopsided piece to mount on the 5/16" bolts.
In the end, it works!
John
05-12-2007, 05:52 AM
Linear Mode
