Adding indexer to Shorty for bowl inlay work

Mike

Been screwing around with this the past week and prototype worked out to be finished solution. I want to put small circles of various diameters, about 3/32 deep and flat bottomed, around top and sides of bowls. After this is done I will inlay various materials similar to bowl shown. I tried measuring and marking with limited success. Pretty sure this is going to work beautifully as it’s extremely solid and the Shopsmith has a huge vertical range. Please let me know your thoughts, comments or questions.

JPG

Index plate causes the chuck(s) to rotate?

NICE index plate!!!

Mike

JPG wrote Index plate causes the chuck(s) to rotate?

NICE index plate!!!

In both positions 360 and very accurate. Indexer was not best quality but does more than I needed it to. $260.00

Over 40 lbs. and comes with a tailstock I will never use.

Mophorn Dividing Head BS-0 5Inch 3 Jaw Chuck Dividing Head Set Precision Semi Universal Dividing Head for Milling Machine Rotary Table Tailstock Milling Set (5 Inch Chuck) https://a.co/d/fTsePCx

DLB

Very cool! First thing I thought of when I looked at the setup: that seems like a great use for a Mark-mounted Over Arm Router (OAR) setup.

Question: Are both lathe chucks necessary? Is the chuck nearest the indexer a metal lathe chuck and the other a wood lathe chuck?

- David

Mike

Question: Are both lathe chucks necessary? Is the chuck nearest the indexer a metal lathe chuck and the other a wood lathe chuck?

- David

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Yes and yes, for me, though somebody with better skills might find a way to modify.

RFGuy

Mike,

That is awesome. I like it. I am not to that point in my woodturning journey to try something this yet, but I have a question or two. I am a little familiar with indexing related to woodturning. So your picture, I believe, shows a standard drill bit mounted and you index the woodturning around the circumference drilling holes. How do you clean it up after this to make a continuous groove? My thought was perhaps you switched out the drill bit and used something like an end mill type cutter bit mounted in the drill chuck. Then you switched out of indexing and cleaned out the groove around the woodturning. Is this how you did it, or something else? Really like the end result.

BuckeyeDennis

Fantastic work, Mike! Mounting a dividing head on a Shopsmith is truly thinking outside of the box.

And the bowl is absolutely stunning. What's the inlay material? My first guess was some sort of crushed stone cast in epoxy, but on second thought I doubt that you'd want to be machining stone. Whatever it is, it looks fantastic with the chatoyance of the wooden bowl. And speaking of the wood, is that mahagony?

JPG

Softer jaws for the metal chuck = no wood chuck?

Mike

RFGuy- I used the lathe and carbide cut off tool to cut the groove. The indexer is to drill a round hole/circle approx 3/32 deep at specific spacing along the circumference at the top or side of a bowl. After I inlay stone, shell, copper shavings etc. I have 1/8” to 3/4” Dia. flat bottom drills. The indexer was not used on the bowl shown. I’m doing a little practice and then will post how it looks with circles.

Dennis- the side has red coral inlay (pretty east to sand/grind flat), the top is tourmaline tailings from a mine in Pala, CA (way harder and not gonna do that again) it took hours to get it right. They say to use stone between 3-7 on MOH scale- https://www.gem-society.org/article/select-gems-ordered-mohs-hardness/ -crush and grade material starting with bigger pieces and eventually fine. I use CA glue, thin, with an accelerator to speed up drying between each grade of material. Just takes practice and I’ve only done 8 bowls total and 4 with inlay so it’s not that hard to do if you have patience. I’m retired so I have nothing but time to enjoy the ride:-)

Lots of YouTube videos. I’ll attach a pic of one I did with copper shavings, tricky and you must protect yourself.

Dust protection and FULL FACE SHIELD an absolute must for all this type of work!!!

Tried copper ball bearings.. not gonna do that again either.

CA glue ventilation a must.

Wood is Sapele.

JPG- the front chuck is a wood chuck- https://www.pennstateind.com/store/CSCBARR4.html

Mike

Tried it today on a simple bowl and everything worked as designed. No complaints except need to figure out right speed for flat bottom hole drills/endmills. Has very slight tear out that will not be noticed when finished but bigger diameters may be an issue

nuhobby

I love it!!! Putting "old arn" to work with a bit of creativity....

Mike

There was some interest on the only process here are some pics. Inlay material is Big Sur Jade and red coral + something that is hidden for my hippy sis.

Spray bowl with lacquer or other sealer to prevent CA glue from staining bowl.
Protect areas not getting inlay as best you can.
Inlay largest size to smallest, see containers I label different grades.
Mount on lathe and sand 60 grit to 2000. It takes time

Mike

Did and done with a peace sign added if for my hippy sis

BuckeyeDennis

Sweet! I’d love to be a fly on the wall when your sister sees it!

The wood is sycamore?

I believe you said that you sand the inlaid stone flat/smooth. Any particular type of sandpaper? Sounds like a job for ceramic.

Mike

It is sycamore and I wish I had talked to you a couple weeks ago it might have saved me hours of sanding. I was using aluminum oxide and some others unknown. I spoke to Maverick Abrasives today and they recommended the same thing as you. I ordered 50 sheets of 60, 80 and 120. Hopefully it cuts down the sanding, we shall see. My sis is excited, thanks.

Mike

Couple pics one of my latest bowls. I let my wife pick colors and we ended up using the layout she made as shown. It was a wild ride getting everything smooth and silky where it was supposed to be:-) Sapele

nuhobby

That's very nice! I can well imagine the interlocked grain on that bowl is hard to get smooth.

Nice insertion of the 6 "Infinity Stones"! :)