Lathe Setup

brown50 · Post by **brown50** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:16 pm

I have been working with a 12" throw midi lathe, and a larger lathe at the Army craft shop. Turning pens, natural edge bowls, bottle stoppers, pepper mills, etc.
I now have a SS Mark 7 and am having trouble with set ups for short spindle work, like 6" pepper mills, and other short spindle work.

Is there a site or reference which shows set up configurations?

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:21 pm

Welcome to the forum! Your Shopsmith will give you lots of pleasure!

Got to remember the spindle. Extending the spindle will help a whole lot. I made some 6" salt and pepper mills and don't remember major issues.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:21 pm

brown50 wrote:I have been working with a 12" throw midi lathe, and a larger lathe at the Army craft shop. Turning pens, natural edge bowls, bottle stoppers, pepper mills, etc.
I now have a SS Mark 7 and am having trouble with set ups for short spindle work, like 6" pepper mills, and other short spindle work.

Is there a site or reference which shows set up configurations?

Do you have a 'short' tool rest? 4" IIRC.

Can you extend the quill to increase space?;)

brown50 · Post by **brown50** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:30 pm

I do have the 4" tool rest, but in order to use the tail stock for support, I can't arrange the tool rest to get close to the workpiece.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:52 pm

brown50 wrote:I do have the 4" tool rest, but in order to use the tail stock for support, I can't arrange the tool rest to get close to the workpiece.

Which tailstock center are you using?

algale · Post by **algale** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:53 pm

This seems kind of obvious, but have you moved the headtock over sufficiently to the right? With the headstock and carriage moved to the right, you should be able to extend the quill (with the lathe drive center attached) and touch or come darn close to touching the dead center. Don't forget to re-lock the headstock. Now, if you have the universal tool rest as opposed to the standard tool rest, it won't reach quite so far over....

Oh, and welcome!

Al

brown50 · Post by **brown50** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:04 pm

For pens I am using a spindle saver, I have a couple of live centers I use mostly.
I also got the Universal Tool Rest which helps, except it takes up a lot of space between the head stock and tail stock.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:10 pm

http://www.amazon.com/SL2-2-Morse-Taper-Extension-Socket/dp/B00095VUAK

brown50 · Post by **brown50** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:15 pm

That's a thought. Hadn't come up with extending the tailstock

algale · Post by **algale** » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:26 pm

brown50 wrote:For pens I am using a spindle saver, I have a couple of live centers I use mostly.
I also got the Universal Tool Rest which helps, except it takes up a lot of space between the head stock and tail stock.

The Universal Tool Rest definitely limits how short a piece you can turn between the standard drive center and dead (or live) center. You can get an extender for the live center.