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Lathe question

nickoleyt

I lost my whole wood shop in a fire. I am thinking about buying the mark V. Can you turn stuff as small as pens. Sounds like adumb question but i have never even seen the machine yet.

charlese

Hi, Nickoleyt - Welcome to the Forum! To answer your question - Yes you can turn pens on a Mark V. I'm sure some our pen turners will post you more information about pen projects on a Mark V.

nickoleyt

Thanks Chuck,

how about a router table in combination with the Incra TS system.

charlese

nickoleyt wroteThanks Chuck,

how about a router table in combination with the Incra TS system.

You're welcome, although I don't have the Incra system, others do. There was a recent discussion about the use of the router with the Incra stuff. Here is one of the discussions (with photos) which may help. https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=2255&highlight=router+table

Don't get in too much of a hurry. It may take a day or two but I think you will get some very helpful replies from those more knowledgeable than I am.

paulmcohen

nickoleyt wroteI lost my whole wood shop in a fire. I am thinking about buying the mark V. Can you turn stuff as small as pens. Sounds like a dumb question but i have never even seen the machine yet.

I have turned lots of pens with my Mark 5, several people sell the proper adapters. Make sure you use a live center in the tale-stock.

RobertTaylor

yes indeed, the shopsmith is quite capable of turning pens and other small projects. it is much easier to turn small projects on a large lathe than large projects on a small lathe. however one of the short comings of the shopsmith is turning large projects. while the fit on the shopsmith the speed lowest speed is much too fast. you can add a speed reducer.

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dusty

bettyt44720 wroteyes indeed, the shopsmith is quite capable of turning pens and other small projects. it is much easier to turn small projects on a large lathe than large projects on a small lathe. however one of the short comings of the shopsmith is turning large projects. while the fit on the shopsmith the speed lowest speed is much too fast. you can add a speed reducer.

It looks to me as though you have a fine wood worker in training. The only problem that I can see is that you might need another Mark V. The demand for time on the machine may be on the rise.

Good Job, Love the photographs.

beeg

nickoleyt wroteI lost my whole wood shop in a fire. I am thinking about buying the mark V. Can you turn stuff as small as pens. Sounds like a dumb question*but i have never even seen the machine yet.

OH WOW. I think you just sent a shudder throughout the forum. Losing your shop has to devastating. Then add insult to injury with having to deal with the insurance company. We all feel for you.

BUT on a happier note. Now you get to rebuild your shop, the way you want it now. Buy all NEW equipment and set it up to use. You can browse around here, http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/index.htm .

And here for info on the MKV.

http://www.shopsmith.com/markvsite/index.htm

There's a DVD you can order. The service you get from ShopSmith is by far the BEST you will ever experience.

I do my woodworking in about a 100 square foot area, but the average around here seems to be about 200/300 sq feet.

* BTW. The ONLY "dumb" questions we have here are the UNASKED ones.

nickoleyt

Thanks for the replys, i have already ordered the DVD.

You wouldny believe the list of stuff i lost. some of the bigger items were an epilog laser engraver, unisaw with the full incra set up, RBI hawk 26" scroll saw, Jet 20" bandsaw, Jet mini lathe 2 yeras worth of pen inventory and supplies, dewalt 12" planer... the list goes on and on to depressing to keep going.:(

fjimp

Ouch It's hard to believe how deporessing your loss is. I shudder at thinking about replacing my shop and inventory of assembly items. One collects many treasures over the years.

If at some point your are able to tell us more about the cause perhaps we can all learn from you. I wouldn't dream of asking so as to embarass yourself. On the other hand I suspect many of us use practices that could easily cause a similar mishap. One advantage of this discussion group is our desire to learn from each other.

Pen tiruning on the 520 is thrilling. Teaching my daughter and grandchild to turn pens on it even more exciting.

The TSIII Is a favored fence for cutting exacting parts for any project. I am in process of building a dedicated router set up that will utilize a dedicated Incra fence rather than one mounted on my 520. I found my own personal limitations due to a shoulder that doesn't work right made reaching under the centered table to work with the router nearly impossible. Not enough clearance. I also didn't like having the TSIII extended so far off the unsupported end of the 520. I had a fear of damaging an expensive tool. As I say all of this please understand I am retirement age and sometimes a stumble bum. The notion of a fence that is sized for the table upon which it is mounted and is a dedicated router table/fence is very attractive to me.

Now if you ask how I like the Shopsmith 520 overall. It is the finest tool I have ever purchased. I find every function it was designed for works very well. Changes from one use to another are generally simple and quick. I wouldn't even consider trading it for any other tool, or even a shop full of tools. Good luck with creating the shop of your dreams. fjimp

tom_k/mo

nickoleyt wroteThanks for the replys, i have already ordered the DVD.

You wouldny believe the list of stuff i lost. some of the bigger items were an epilog laser engraver, unisaw with the full incra set up, RBI hawk 26" scroll saw, Jet 20" bandsaw, Jet mini lathe 2 yeras worth of pen inventory and supplies, dewalt 12" planer... the list goes on and on to depressing to keep going.:(

OUCH... That hurts, I've been looking at one of those. I do sandcarving / engraving and could use that for lasing sandcarving masks. Did you vector cut with yours, or only raster cut?

nickoleyt

Belive it or not the fire was started by a battery charger. Fire Department says that it most have been faulty.

I used my laser to raster and vector.

Here is a photo of the router set up I had. worked good for the small boxes that I liked to do. I did a lot of cremation urns. I also had the TSIII on the saw. Incra is about the best thing that there is IMHO🙂

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fjimp

A battery charger huh?! Everytime I plug in a battery charger I worry about it until it's finished it's work and unplugged.

I agree about incra. I love the TSII and I can't wait until I get my new free standing router table with the LS setup on it. Incra folks are as helpful as Shopsmith people are.

Hey I really like your router set up with the TSIII, good work I hope you get your new shop up and running in short order. fjimp

cincinnati

nickoleyt wroteBelive it or not the fire was started by a battery charger. Fire Department says that it most have been faulty.

I used my laser to raster and vector.

Here is a photo of the router set up I had. worked good for the small boxes that I liked to do. I did a lot of cremation urns. I also had the TSIII on the saw. Incra is about the best thing that there is IMHO:)

Was it a Dewalt charger? There was a recall some time ago on Dewalt chargers causing a fire.

http://www.dewalt.com/us/articles/press_release.asp?ID=230

jdramsey

I am currently in a polychromatic turning class at Cerritos College. We use the smaller Jet lathes in class (Which is one day a week). I bring my projects at home and turn my projects on my SS 510. Works just fine. My only problem is I need to set my SS up on blocks. It sits too low for me and it hurts my back to stoop over to turn. I'm 6'2".

a1gutterman

jdramsey wroteI am currently in a polychromatic turning class at Cerritos College. We use the smaller Jet lathes in class (Which is one day a week). I bring my projects at home and turn my projects on my SS 510. Works just fine. My only problem is I need to set my SS up on blocks. It sits too low for me and it hurts my back to stoop over to turn. I'm 6'2".

Hi J.D.,

That is a common complaint about the SS as a lathe; and also the light weightness of the Mark V. I think that Nick has touched upon it and Rick Davis (tall guy too) mentioned it when I took his Traveling Academy course. Getting it up on blocks and sandbagging seems to solve the situation. My height actually is comfortable, in front of the lathe, at 5'4".

dusty

jdramsey wroteI am currently in a polychromatic turning class at Cerritos College. We use the smaller Jet lathes in class (Which is one day a week). I bring my projects at home and turn my projects on my SS 510. Works just fine. My only problem is I need to set my SS up on blocks. It sits too low for me and it hurts my back to stoop over to turn. I'm 6'2".

I know several turners who have elevated their Mark Vs for this very reason. It seems to work but I just have to worry - with the center of gravity elevated it becomes more of a tipping hazard. If you elevate it very high, I would think you'd want to secure it somehow or elevate it onto a fairly large surface area (something significantly larger than the legs' footprint).

nickoleyt

it was actually a charger for a remote control airplane.

a1gutterman

dusty wroteI know several turners who have elevated their Mark Vs for this very reason. It seems to work but I just have to worry - with the center of gravity elevated it becomes more of a tipping hazard. If you elevate it very high, I would think you'd want to secure it somehow or elevate it onto a fairly large surface area (something significantly larger than the legs' footprint).

Hi dusty,

I know what you are saying sounds good, but after thinking about this, unless your Mark V is prone to "walking", just having the legs' foot prints raised is enough~and if you sandbag it too, it can knot "walk" around on it's own either. The Mark V will knot know that there is knot more floor around it's legs or knot. The real hazard is if the blocks under the legs will tip or move, knot the center of gravity of the Mark V. Sandbagging will prevent that.:)

charlese

dusty wroteI know several turners who have elevated their Mark Vs for this very reason. It seems to work but I just have to worry - with the center of gravity elevated it becomes more of a tipping hazard. If you elevate it very high, I would think you'd want to secure it somehow or elevate it onto a fairly large surface area (something significantly larger than the legs' footprint).

You could always fasten a 4"x4" post (about 3 feet long) under each end of the legs. If that's not high enough, you could fasten a couple of rail road ties to the bottom of the legs. Just don''t think you would have to worry about tipping in either case. If the ties are too high, you could mortise out a portion for the legs.

Nick once talked about putting a sand box under each leg (but I could'nt find the post) and burying the legs in sand as a means of stabilizing the lathe. Depending on the height of the box floor and depth of sand this could also be used to raise the lathe.

All in all, I'm glad that at 5'7" I don't have a height issue at all. (at least with the Mark V)