Lathe Carriage Drive

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Mon May 24, 2010 5:16 am

Has anyone seen a design for a Shopsmith Carriage drive. I want to be able to move the Carriage with a hand crank smothly and wold prefer to not drill holes on my unit. I was thinking of using an Acme screw but the rest of the details I have not worked out. It looks like something could be done for less than $100.

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Mon May 24, 2010 8:31 am

Instead of moving the carriage, you could mount something like a milling machine table to the carriage and have two axis movement. Here's one for $99.00 -- http://grizzly.com/products/Compound-Slide-Table/G5757 or this one -- http://www.grizzly.com/products/6-x-18- ... able/G8750

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Mon May 24, 2010 11:45 am

Paul, I saved the following pics off a post about this topic but could not find it again. These may give you some ideas.
[ATTACH]9009[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]9010[/ATTACH]

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Mon May 24, 2010 7:25 pm

Peter that is exactly what I was looking for, now I need a few more details on how it was done.
Thanks.

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Mon May 24, 2010 7:27 pm

pennview wrote:Instead of moving the carriage, you could mount something like a milling machine table to the carriage and have two axis movement. Here's one for $99.00 -- http://grizzly.com/products/Compound-Slide-Table/G5757 or this one -- http://www.grizzly.com/products/6-x-18-1-2-Compound-Slide-Table/G8750

I actually have one but its travel to much to short for what I want to do. I will be using it to control depth of cut but not horizontal travel.

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Mon May 24, 2010 7:38 pm

Regarding the set-up on the 10E/10ER, the carriage will move as you want if the acme nut is attached to the carriage in some fashion and collars are attached to the acme screw on either side of the tail stock.

paulrussell · Post by **paulrussell** » Mon May 24, 2010 8:22 pm

prmindartmouth wrote:Paul, I saved the following pics off a post about this topic but could not find it again. These may give you some ideas.

I believe those pics were originally posted by sdsSmith

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Mon May 24, 2010 8:34 pm

Yes, this post found by scanning through his posts. Nice food for thought. Thanks to sdsSmith

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=5648

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Wed May 26, 2010 6:31 pm

Well after hunting all over Portland I found all the parts to make it for under $50 not including gas. Finding Acme rod has gotten a lot header since manufacturing has gone to China (a story I heard from every hardware an speciality store I went to).

3Ft of 1/2 Acme threaded rod $13.
2 Acme nuts $5
1 crank with 1/2" hole $12
2 pillow blocks $16
2 stop collars $2

Now I just have to get it put together. Picutres coming.