This is what's called a butt clencher.

[btboone]

Here's a picture of the lathe in the position where it cuts off the 1 1/4" x 3" base of the Spectra pen. Notice that there are drills above and below the chuck that are around 1/8" from the chuck. They also extend in to within around a half inch of hitting the lathe wall. You simply can't watch it rapid to that point without clenching those butt muscles. There's no way humanly possible to react quickly enough to stop it if something were to happen, so I had to handwheel it to this position to check it and when running the part, I have to simply press the button and look the other way.

 

[Paul in OKC]

Aww come on Bruce, there's plenty of room there. I like to watch people when they look in at mine here at the shop. Got a 15" chuck on it and the angle you see in at looks like the turret is going right up against the chuck. Their eyes get big and they look at me like.... I just say 'missed it by a mile'[]
(and then when they walk away I give the ole trousers a little tug in the back and say whew!)

 

[btboone]

Paul, I used to have a Swiss turn. That's how you machine on those things; about 1/32" from the collet. There's 3 tool slides so you could be working on the front of one part and the back of another all at the same time. That was a nasty thing to program and run. It was really tight in there too, so you really had to be careful when moving things around. I ended up just drawing the whole thing to scale in CAD so I could check clearances that way. Whatever works.[)]

 

[woodman928]

Its all about + and - and . being in the right place
Piece of pie. Try to keep up with it on a 4' X 9' table its fun fun fun [][][]

 

[alamocdc]

Bruce, that's not funny! It knotted my stomach up just to look at it! [:0]

 

[woodscavenger]

Wahhhhhhwahhhhhh! Poor me, I have a billion dollar high price precision machine to make some tail kicking pens with. Wahhhhhwahhhhhh![][][][]

 

[tipusnr]

Either Shane's jealous or he needs a nap!![8D]

 

[ctEaglesc]

Kind of have to wonder if this is a penturnig site or a machine shop site[]

 

[btboone]

Shane! You're killin me! [] Woodman, I assume you work with a CNC router with a table that big? I used to program a laser with a pretty big table. It would knock you down if you were standing in the wrong place![B)]

 

[btboone]

Eagle, I have a Jet Pen Lathe also, but this is the one I make pens on.

 

[Randy_]

Bruce: That may be some sort of a record...a $50 lathe and a $50,000 lathe??