Yes, its been a while.
The ambitious plan to build my father a bowl lathe for christmas (of 2007) has seen completion.
This lathe will safely turn a 30" bowl using a 3450rpm motor. A slower motor and some gearing come out to safely support an 80" bowl, so I don't think he'll outgrow it anytime soon.
I've updated the photo gallery with the final pics. There are also some new shots of the assembly.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?cat=1058
Lessons learned? Plan the small stuff. I lost more time on a few little things like mounting the motor and the tool stand.
Machine shops are not keen on woodworkers. I learned the hard way that what I wanted them to do was not as simple as I thought it was.
In the end, they responded well to handing them the parts and saying "i want this to fit on that and this cut to that". They did not like "i am building my own giant bowl lathe and need to fit a 1 1/2 x8 tpi face plate to a rod".
Speaking of rod, I went with a 3' (cut down to 18") 0-1 tool steel 2" drill rod. Big mistake. It cost me a lot of $$, and more to have threads cut on it. I'd still go 2", but use a hot or cold rolled steel rod.
The machinest also had lots of rod stock on hand, which would've saved me big bucks.
In the end, my father loves it. He uses it daily. My favorite comments are, it does not vibrate at all and it does not move.
Thanks to all who bounced ideas off me during the project.
Jim
The ambitious plan to build my father a bowl lathe for christmas (of 2007) has seen completion.
This lathe will safely turn a 30" bowl using a 3450rpm motor. A slower motor and some gearing come out to safely support an 80" bowl, so I don't think he'll outgrow it anytime soon.
I've updated the photo gallery with the final pics. There are also some new shots of the assembly.
http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?cat=1058
Lessons learned? Plan the small stuff. I lost more time on a few little things like mounting the motor and the tool stand.
Machine shops are not keen on woodworkers. I learned the hard way that what I wanted them to do was not as simple as I thought it was.
In the end, they responded well to handing them the parts and saying "i want this to fit on that and this cut to that". They did not like "i am building my own giant bowl lathe and need to fit a 1 1/2 x8 tpi face plate to a rod".
Speaking of rod, I went with a 3' (cut down to 18") 0-1 tool steel 2" drill rod. Big mistake. It cost me a lot of $$, and more to have threads cut on it. I'd still go 2", but use a hot or cold rolled steel rod.
The machinest also had lots of rod stock on hand, which would've saved me big bucks.
In the end, my father loves it. He uses it daily. My favorite comments are, it does not vibrate at all and it does not move.
Thanks to all who bounced ideas off me during the project.
Jim
ccasion1
