Lathe boring jig updated

[Gotcha6]

LOML wanted some wooden curtain rods for our front windows. Problem is, they only came 8' long & the window was 9' + to outside of casing. So I needed to splice 2 rods together to make the length. I'm using a splined rod, so it has to align fairly straight. Here's how I built a jig to line bore the rods for a dowel glue up:

First, I took 4 pieces of PW 10" x 10" and cut a 'v' notch in the center that coincided with the height of the bed tube on my Craftsman lathe. I then cut a dado in each piece to spline them together & drilled leveling screw holes in the 4 base points.


After that I squared the bases with the lathe bed & spotted register points on the bases. The upper supports were then registered to the base by placing the drill bit back into the thru hole drilled at the spindle center & sliding the v up to it. A notch was then made in the bottom of the upper support to clear the bed tube & the base v was lowered for larger stock.

A slot and corresponding hole were drilled in each set using a 3/8" router bit in the drill press for height adjustment. Then a stretcher was added & here it is:



To set up, I chucked the piece to be turned in and adjusted the headstock end to seat the piece in the 'v'. I then used 2 try square heads on one ruler to establish this height off the bed. Moving the tailstock end to the same height produced a seat for the piece that was in line with the centerline of the headstock axis. And we're ready to drill!



I thank you for looking & hope you find this useful.

[Gotcha6]

bump
Done

[sawduster]

It is amazing what falls out of peoples' brains on this site

I had to read it 3 times just to understand it ....and forget me thinking of something like that on my own

Good work !