Improvised peg lathe

[CarvedTones]

WARNING:
If you have strong opinions about using only the proper equipment, you might want to go on to the next thread.
Even Earl might find it a little dark in here...

I started a thread in the carvng forum about getting my tuning pegs shaped close to final form:
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/s...589#post141589

One suggestion was to consider turning them and I even had a nice old lathe offered to me. I will probably take Mike up on that offer, but it will be a while before I can get up his way. In the meantime, I decided to improvise...



That's a pear wood peg blank (see the other thread for a picture of a similar instrument; the pegs are huge). I carved a little divot in the center of the blank so it stays on my fancy dead center (the ground pin of a 3 prong was the handiest round pin I could find already mounted in something I could clamp). My cutting tool is a Microplane rotary rasp. that worked out really well. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the surface is textured with tiny facets. It looks carved. With both drills on, I use the Microplane on the surface that is running away from me and didn't need a tool rest. This is a short term solution, but it is working pretty well. I got all 3 shaped close enough that I can carve and/or use a peg shaper to get them the rest of the way.

[Glennbear]

Obviously you are a long lost relative of Rube Goldberg. Very inventive!

[jerrye]

Originally Posted by Glennbear

Obviously you are a long lost relative of Rube Goldberg. Very inventive!

Only 6 components? Far from a Rube Goldberg!

[RandyJ]

That's using the ol' noggin, Andy!
It's amazing what the mind can conceive with just a little thought...
Congrats on a fine solution to your quandary.

[nelsone]

Necessity is the mother of invention!

[Mike Davis]

I did that same set up 25 years ago. Had to make a handle real quick at work and that was what I had in the shop. I used a piece of hedge wood from the row out back.

[Eaglesc]

It worked didn't it?
There is a site that is tied in with Rocklear where someone turns a pen on a drill press using a similar technique.

[Travis Porter]

I had seen the drill press used like this before, but I have never seen an electrical splitter used as a tailstock. If it works, why not use it!