Left handed lathe.

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 01/02/2020 23:15:45:

It would be a useful thing for model engineers to train themselves to use both hands…Is it possible to do that successfully?

Well, I did, albeit consecutively, not concurrently.

The message is, no matter what your handedness at birth you can learn to use the opposite hand just as or almost as successfully provided disability doesn't prevent you and you're determined or desperate enough.

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Steviegtr on 01/02/2020 23:33:49:

Better if you are ambidextrous then it does not matter.

True – I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

[bill ellisParticipant @billellis45274]

Nice to see others are as mixed up as me.

Right master eye. Shoot right handed, archery left handed, write right handed, throw with left hand, kick with left foot, snooker left handed, fish right handed. Painting, DIY, doing stuff either hand.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Very much right handed. Even though my dominant eye is left I still shot a bow right handed and it didn't stop me getting master bowman scores at the time.
My last year at College I saw practice where the 4 partners were all left handed and taught myself to use left-handed gillies Link

right handed which caused confusion back at college the next term.

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

My wife is left handed but she is always right

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

Bob Charles NZ champion golfer played LH, he was RHed in normal life, but as a child the only clubs at home were his mothers LH ones, so he stayed with those. I found that when I took up wood turning about 40 years ago, being ambiiidextrous was quite useful.

Ian S C

[GeorgineerParticipant @georgineer]

Posted by Bandersnatch on 01/02/2020 23:15:45:

It would be a useful thing for model engineers to train themselves to use both hands. Useful in itself and useful before ageing when partial loss of use of one hand might occur.

Is it possible to do that successfully?

As mother used to say, you should learn to cut your fingernails with your left hand, as some day you may not have a right.

George B.

[Nigel BennettParticipant @nigelbennett69913]

Some years ago, then Editor Ted Jolliffe wrote in ME how he had modified a Super Adept lathe to be left handed, like him. It wasn’t a success apparently.

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

I had a different problem a few years ago, in Vienna. I needed a simple spacer for a Ducati I was rebuilding, and I was offered an old lathe to do this simple task. Except that it wasn't at all simple. The headstock was on the left, and the controls for it were conventional (so I wasn't at the back of a German-style machine – see earlier posts). But, the controls on the saddle and for the tailstock were the wrong way round. Turn the feed screw clockwise and the tool moved away from the job. No problem, just get used to it, I thought. But just when you need to lift the tool away, it digs in as this action is so 'automatic'. No-one there could explain – in deed the young self-taught owner of the lathe said 'Its no problem for me – I thought they were all like that …'

Cheers, Tim

[Dave Williams 7Participant @davewilliams7]

When Mr. Whitworth set up in the machine tool business, the lathes he built for sale had the headstocks on the left, as per custom. But (at least some of) the lathes he built for his own factory had the headstocks on the right, which apparently saved a lot of grief with novices screwcutting production parts…

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I'm sure I remember a photo of a giant lathe with a headstock at each end, 2 saddles, 2 tailstocks. the idea being that when you wanted to turn something really long you could take off the tailstocks and use both headstocks and both saddles. There are some biggies on this link **LINK**, I particularly like the 4 way toolpsot with a chap sitting on it.

[norman valentineParticipant @normanvalentine78682]

PGK, I am left handed, left dominant eye, but I still struggle to shoot a bow accurately. Am I just incompetent?

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

My mum was left handed. At school she had her knuckled rapped by the teacher because it was wrong to write with your left hand. OK. My mum could write left handed right handed & inside out ,so to read her writing you had to look at it through a mirror. Best of all worlds I guess.

Steve.

[vic neweyParticipant @vicnewey60017]

error

 

 

 

Edited By vic newey on 09/02/2023 15:42:54

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Posted by Steviegtr on 23/02/2020 21:49:18:

My mum was left handed. At school she had her knuckled rapped by the teacher because it was wrong to write with your left hand. OK. My mum could write left handed right handed & inside out ,so to read her writing you had to look at it through a mirror. Best of all worlds I guess.

Steve.

Same for me left handed from birth they tried to 'knock' it out of me in both infant and junior school even to the point of bleeding knuckles, so now I,m ambidextrous but tend to write with my right hand. The funny side of this was at school I got a reputation when playing cricket by receiving a few ball's with a right hand stance then as the bowler was running up changing stance

H

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

I'm ambidextrous, I write equally badly with both hands. The subject of left and right handed versions of items has me puzzled sometimes. You never see right handed pianos and a lot of other instruments but you do get left handed guitars. If it was simply to a case of catering for dominant eyes then why this inconsistency? I went to my daughter's school for a concert and there was one trumpeter playing a standard "right handed" trumpet with his left hand. It looked crazy and I could not figure out why he did not learn to use his right hand when he first started.

Martin C

[Swarf, Mostly!Participant @swarfmostly]

I'd be interested to hear (read ) how this right or left handedness thing affects how folks use a shovel. Which hand do you use to grip the shovel handle to push the shovel into the sand/gravel/soil/coal and which to grip the shaft close to the loaded scoop to lift the weight?

I've called it a 'scoop', what's the proper term for the 'business end' of a shovel?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

[egaParticipant @ega]

I would guess the "blade".

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

Posted by IanH on 01/02/2020 14:21:03:but on closer inspection I realised that in the photo he is wearing his watch on the wrong wrist,

Ian

I wear my watch on my right wrist so do a couple of other people I know. Never though it to strange or different.

BTW I have what I believe to be a genuine left handed metal lathe. Cast iron body very heavy about 24" x 10 x 15" as I recall but not seen it for a few years so could be a bit bigger/smaller. No motor or means of fitting as it stands at the minute

Made by New ULM Manufacturing Minnesota USA. Can find no references anywhere to it. Have tried contacting what I believe to be the successor company but no answer to my query to this date.

Might be tempted to part with it as it is just anothe project to do sometime. It is buried in the garage somewhere so needs digging out.

regards

[john halfpennyParticipant @johnhalfpenny52803]

I remember a science experiment of many years ago where subjects wore glasses which showed an image upside down and reversed side to side. The participants all adapted quite quickly, showing that the brain can cope. At the beginning, extreme precautions were taken to prevent accidents.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

As a left pug you soon learn to adapt and in certain circumstances it's easier for lefty's to do certain jobs as I found out in my earlier years at work. As to the question I would have the handle n the left hand and the blade in the right., fly rod in the left etc.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Evening Gentlemen,

I'm left handed and was never forced to write right handed, my right hand is only there to balance the symmetry

I use my left hand for everything but I do struggle a bit with standard micrometers and vernier calliper's when measuring work in the chuck, as regards the shovel I hold the handle in my left hand and the blade end with my right.

I've always assumed that left handers are more intelligent because we have to adapt and relearn to keep up with the rest of you 

Martin P

 

 

 

 

Edited By martin perman on 09/02/2023 18:22:46

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

Isn't it odd that lefthandedness led to insulting adjectives, and ability to use either hand, a compliment?

Do I need to explain? Well, even-handed folk are regarded as fair and reasonable, and left-handed iones can be sinister, cack-handed, gauche, etc. Other adjectives are available.

Cheers, Tim

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

Martin – your argument is similar to the one that reminds us that English folk are always a bit clever because they have to cope with such a silly language. I'm English so I am sure it is correct …

Tim

Edited By Tim Stevens on 09/02/2023 18:08:37

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Is that better, it was meant as tongue in cheek.

Martin P

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