Extending Bed on Lathe...

robhix · Post by **robhix** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:42 pm

Hey all,

Has anyone here extended the bed for the lathe do is is able to do a little longer work. I need to extend about 12-16" so I can turn 48" chair legs.

Any good ideas on how to extend the bed? Pictures would help also if you have done something yourself.

Thanks in advance,
Rob Hix

drl · Post by **drl** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 2:38 pm

Rob,
I do not have an answer for extending the bed another foot or so. Though I'm saying it cannot be done with perhaps some custom made carriage tubes if price is not an object.
My answer to this problem is to turn each leg in two sections and dowel the two sections together to get your desired length. Splice done at a bead or other decorative cut would not be noticeable. I would say that this is the way it is done most of the time. A professional shop would have a lathe that can turn that length if they do a lot of that type of work.
I see Nova has a 24" lathe that has the ability to extend the bed in 20" increments. Lathe is $1,200.00 plus another $295.00 for an extension. Jet has a 42" lathe for $1,100.00.
All tools/equipment have their liminations.
Regards,
Dwight

edflorence · Post by **edflorence** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 3:33 pm

Rob...

I never have done it, but I have thought about it quite a bit since I have now built 3 kid-size ladderback chairs for various nephews and nieces, using the measured drawings in Ejner Handberg's books of Shaker furniture, and would like to make a few full-size chairs. The back posts on these small chairs were within the capacity of the SS lathe, but a full size back post would be too long. As I recall, not having the drawings right in front of me at the moment, I think I need about an extra 8 inches or so over what the lathe capacity is. As has been mentioned, you could break the turning into two pieces...in the case of a rear chair post, the finial is a natural place to make such a break. However, I would like to keep the posts as one piece, and I came up with two ideas for doing this.

The first one uses a tailstock holding attachment that mounts to the SS and the other idea uses one that mounts to something else. The advantage of a tailstock independent of the SS is that the lathe capacity becomes unlimited. Disadavantages are: hard to align, will need steady rest supports and will need some sort of free standing tool rest. My idea was to find an old tailstock on e-bay (which I did) and then mount it to a board which could be clamped firmly to a bench, or saw horses etc at the correct height. The SS itself would then be moved laterally to align correctly to the tailstock at the desired distance. If the SS bounces or moves during turning, however, the alignment is destroyed.

The other idea, which I like better, is to mount an auxiliary table on the right side of the SS and then clamp to the top of the table a 2x board wide enough to accept the tailstock and long enough to provide the lathe capacity. Drill a couple of holes in the 2x for the tailstock posts and maybe add a leg to the outboard end of it as well to be sure it stays horizontal. With the tailstock and center mounted, align everything and then clamp the board in place. I suppose that if you needed the extra lathe length often you could permanently bolt the board to the auxiliary table and put stop collars on the posts at the right height and have a dedicated jig. With this rig also you still are likely to find that you need to incorporate steady rests and of course you will need to figure out a way to extend the tool rest. When I get ready to make my next chair, this is the method I will try.

food for thought, anyway!

robhix wrote:Has anyone here extended the bed for the lathe Rob Hix

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 4:15 pm

Buying 6' tubes to use as way and bench tubes was beyond my budget when I priced 1 3/4" OD tubing. If you find any, please let us know where and how much.

A few years ago, I machined at piece of steel stock using my metal lathe to fit inside the tubes and cut it into 4 pieces. I had filed the end of each tube to remove the ridge made when they were cut originally. I then pressed (big hammer) the turned stock into one end of the tubes and then coupled two tubes together. I did not save any pictures when I sold the Shopsmith.

If you do not find any solution, I have a lot of 18" bench and way tubes from making SHORTY Shopsmiths. Let me know if interested in any of the 18" tubes. I am not sure I have any more 2" stock left to make more couplings.

robhix wrote:Hey all,

Has anyone here extended the bed for the lathe do is is able to do a little longer work. I need to extend about 12-16" so I can turn 48" chair legs.

Any good ideas on how to extend the bed? Pictures would help also if you have done something yourself.

Thanks in advance,
Rob Hix

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:55 pm

Although I have never extended the lathe either - I think Ed (from North Idaho) has the right idea. I remember Nick once saying the length of the lathe is only limited by how far away you can place your Mark V from the barn wall.

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:09 pm

charlese wrote:Although I have never extended the lathe either - I think Ed (from North Idaho) has the right idea. I remember Nick once saying the length of the lathe is only limited by how far away you can place your Mark V from the barn wall.

I agree with you Chuck; Nick did tell of a way to extend the lathe bed and it is posted on this forum somewhere. I currently do knot have the time to look, but it is here.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:31 am

here it is! http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showthr ... 4#post1484 All we need now is a barn with a substantial wall.

Foun the post by searching for the words "barn wall".

P.S. for those wanting to extend their lathe's length - read the postings above the #1484. Espically the 7th post.

etc92guy · Post by **etc92guy** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:03 am

I've never turned, so I don't know what really happens during this.

However, I seem to remember a Wood Magazine suggestion of a jig that used a big donut of plywood. Attached to that were three long pieces of plywood that slid back and forth to the center of the opening. At the end of each long piece a skateboard wheel was attached.

If the tailstock is for support only and doesn't apply pressure to the chuck, this would work with a little fiddling. Maybe.

Any feedback? And you don't have to make it polite.

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:36 pm

[quote="charlese"]here it is! https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?p=1484#post1484 All we need now is a barn with a substantial wall.]Hi Chuck,
I tried "barn" and got nothing. Tried a couple of other things too, without getting the right result. Then I had to do some other things, so gave up. Glad you found it for robhix!

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:11 pm

a1gutterman wrote:Hi Chuck,
I tried "barn" and got nothing. Tried a couple of other things too, without getting the right result. Then I had to do some other things, so gave up. Glad you found it for robhix!

If you did a search for "barn", you got a long list of threads one of which contained the object discussion.

If you did a search for "barn wall", that list was reduced to only four. None of which look like they would contain the object discussion.

Problem here is that you can't do a search for the character string "barn wall". Either "barn" or "wall" satisfy the search. This is a weakness in the search engine.

The object discussion, by the way, is contained in the thread "What Horsepower".