I brought my lathe home with me today.
I have just had time to unbox it and give it a cursory glance.
I need to read the manual and do some basic assembly.
Here it is, in all its glory.
Banana for scale.
No, it’s not a huge banana, it’s a small lathe…
Careful with that thing. No long hair, ties, necklaces, or Seinfeld puffy shirts around that thing. I’ve heard nightmare fuel lathe and table saw stories at my job from the nurses…
Ok. Can do!
The shop is a small room and I need to rearrange stuff all the time, depending on what I’m working on. And for larger or messy jobs I need to move to the garage.
Shaved head. No turning in uniform. Only necklace I’ve got is my Airside card. See above. Don’t know how I’ll survive without them, but will drop the puffy shirts…
It has got some nice safety features that prevents accidental start and running with the key in the chuck, etc.
But one must respect power tools!
Not long ago I was just going to brush off some metal burrs that had collected on the drill bit. The rotating burr snagged my glove and tore it straight off my hand and twisted it around the drill chuck in a fraction of a second.
I don’t want to think about what could’ve happened if my glove hadn’t come off…
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!!!
Glad that you mentioned that. I’ve just inherited a wood lathe from my father-in-law. In fact, a shop full of wood working tools. Would rather have metal, but not complaining. It’s sitting in Columbus Ohio ATM. Need to run up there and rent a UHaul trailer.
Reminds me, when I was 17 or 18, dad was teaching me how to tune up my Malibu’s 283. There I was leaning over the front of the engine shinning the timing light at the flywheel, with one hand on the distributor. As I leaned further in to see the timing mark on the flywheel, my long hair began to get caught in the fan belt, which would have pulled my face and head into the fan, belt, pulleys, etc. My dad seeing what was happening, grabbed me by the back of my jean jacket’s collar, and jerked me out in that same moment. It took a good chunk of hair, along with my pride. Oh yeah, my dad chewed my ass for a while. Lesson learned.
No, but doing so will steady the slide and reduce vibrations.
I’ve seen some users bolt their lathes to kitchen countertop boards. Stone tops, even.
But that’s mostly important when turning long steel axles, that require high precision.
I will make a box for the lathe, with a sturdy piece of board as a base.
Tried the lathe today.
Wow!
Just, wow!
So much fun!
Result was great as well.
I’m still waiting for 9mm alu rod stock. I have only 8mm, but it’s good enough for testing. The knob is turned down to 7mm, leaving a flange and then the circles are turned using a saw blade.
The cap is made from 11x7mm alu pipe that I drill out partly with a 9mm drill bit.
Shaved head.
