Mini Lathe Owners – how do you fix your lathe? Or not?

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 22/01/2015 16:00:17:

I'd like to ask mini-lathe owners whether or not they fix their lathes to the workbench or not, and if they do, how do they do it.

Neil

I took a few photos. The commercial lathe stand was obtained for $50 during a 're-location' sale. Bolts go through stand top.

Also included how I mounted my X2 mill – A pre-loved filing cabinet (which is of heavier gauge construction than the lathe stand) has a 1" MDF top and all bolted through. Even with the drawers open and full of vices and tools it will not rock forward. (I was careful to check this). In operation, the drawers are closed of course. Cost of filing cabinet another $50 at a second hand shop.

* Danny M *

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

John

I would suggest that composite materials such as work surface are probably more stable than like for like solid wood structures. Wood is inherently dimensionally unstable with humidity. If you do use solid timber it really needs to be sealed well on all surfaces.

My comments on air mounts were more of a thought experiment than suggestions for a practical mounting solution.

regards Martin

[Eric CoxParticipant @ericcox50497]

Two questions

1) By how much would a mini lathe bed twist or distort

2) How big would a work piece have to be before the effect of this was noticeable.

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Posted by Bogstandard2 on 26/01/2015 08:57:38:

If you read early machine manuals, almost all of them advocate bolting the lathe down to a 3" or 4" thick plank of hardwood. It would cost the price of a new lathe to do that nowadays, but work surface boarding is almost as good for it's stability.

Might that not have more to do with strength and vibration rather than adding to the dimensional stability?

Timber, both hard and soft, varies in length along the grain by about 0.05% between 40% and 75% relative humidity. So for say 20" between mounting points for a mini lathe that would give 0.01" movement.

Russell.

[VicParticipant @vic]

My 8 x 14" is bolted directly to my bench. It didn't come with any rubber feet. The bench top is two pieces of 18mm ply screwed together. My mill is just sitting on the floor, but needs a couple of screws through the base at some point!

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

How do the makers of lathes test them? I suspect that the hobby lathe is tested just by putting it on a bench and running a few measurements.If that is the case bolting them down could make them worse. My 8" lathe is bolted at the head and just nipped at the tailstock end, just to stop it wandering about.

[Jens Eirik Skogstad 1Participant @jenseirikskogstad1]

Never had problem with minilathe. not bolted on bench. Stand on wood plate. Precision work comes from skilled hands and not from lathe.

[brian goldsmithParticipant @briangoldsmith20924]

Neil,
when I was aligning my mini lathe i found I could get the spindle set up parallel to the bed but it would not stay parallel for long. I bought it second hand and it was bolted to a 1.5 inch thick piece of mdf which I thought would give it some rigidity but I found that pushing down on opposite corners of the mdf base would result in the dti showing 0.005 to 0.010 inch deviations. Something more rigid was needed. I made a steel frame to mount it on, and now while aligning the lathe it can be lifted at one corner with no movement on the dti. in use it doesn't move on the bench.

I have three photos but need to find out how to put them in. When I put them in my post is 3000000 characters to long.

Brian.

[brian goldsmithParticipant @briangoldsmith20924]

Neil,

I have put the photos in an album,

It is made from 12mm plate, 20mm electrical conduit, 21mm X 41mm unistrut. The feet are from a washing machine and are threaded into short bits of 40mm round bar. The studding is M12.

Brian.

Edited By brian goldsmith on 08/02/2015 21:45:56

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Thanks Brian,

That's useful to know.

One they are in an album you can insert them with the black camera icon .

If you paste them into the text you smash through the character limit on postings!

You can paste tiny images in though:

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 10/02/2015 12:18:26

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 10/02/2015 12:04:52:

You can paste tiny images in though:

.

Sorry for drifting off-topic, but; on the subject of tiny images

… have a look at this regarding Samsung & EE.

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

> … have a look at this regarding Samsung & EE.

£1000 worth of texts at 40p each? I make that over 80 texts a day.

Ah… a hairdresser…

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 10/02/2015 20:55:34

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

……cheap at twice the price !!

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 10/02/2015 20:54:35:

£1000 worth of texts at 40p each? I make that over 80 texts a day.

.

Neil,

The point of the story is that the Samsung 'phone converted each and every one of the silly emoticon things into a seperate MMS message. She didn't compose lots of messages, she just included lots of those stupid smiley things.

MichaelG.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Hi Michael,

I understood that, ordinary texts were free but picture texts were 40p. She still had to send 2,500 texts to run up a £1000 bill.

Neil

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 10/02/2015 22:08:23:

Hi Michael,

I understood that, ordinary texts were free but picture texts were 40p. She still had to send 2,500 texts to run up a £1000 bill.

Neil

.

… or, more likely [for example] 250 free SMS each containing 10 emoticons

MichaelG.

[Bill PudneyParticipant @billpudney37759]

A bit late in the discussion, sorry about that….

My mini lathe is bolted to a benchtop consisting of two laminations of 17 or 18mm structural ply and one layer of 20mm (high strength floorboard type stuff) MDF, all glued and screwed together. The MDF is in the middle of the ply "sandwich". No rubber feet anywhere.

My Russian 3" lathe sits on top of another laminated benchtop, consisting of 3 laminations of 12mm structural ply, interleaved with 12mm "ordinary" MDF. All glued and screwed together. The Russian lathe despite being smaller than the mini lathe by a fair margin is significantly heavier, something like 40/45 kg to 60/65kg

cheers

Bill

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Thanks Bill,

We've wandered far from the point… do you have a photo of the Russian lathe, I've heard of these 3" beast as precursors to mini lathes.

Neil

Pedants Corner

Michael: "Hairdresser Paula Cochrane said she was charged 40p for each text message,"

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 11/02/2015 09:49:37:

Pedants Corner

Michael: "Hairdresser Paula Cochrane said she was charged 40p for each text message,"

.

Neil,

She probably did [unless it's just sloppy reporting]

She's a Hairdresser … so she may not have been aware of the difference betwen SMS and MMS.

… until this awakening.

MichaelG.

.

Sorry I mentioned it; this has taen the thread way off-topic.

[Bill PudneyParticipant @billpudney37759]

I don't have any pictures of the Russian lathe, but Tony Griffiths site has a fair bit, here's a link…..

http://www.lathes.co.uk/russian/

It's a terrific little lathe, I haven't used it as much as I should, because it was too heavy for me to get into a usable place!

There are not to many similarities between this and a mini lathe. There is another small lathe (TOS?) that was built in the 80s/90s though that could have been used

cheers

Bill

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