Rifleman1776
Member
At my wood turners club meeting yesterday a member demonstrated his Beal buffing system. He was using a lathe belonging to a member that lets us use his professional wood working shop for meetings.
After the demo he couldn’t remove the shaft from the spindle. Finally, after much pounding on the end of the removal tool with a large mallet, I managed to dislodge it.
When it did come out we saw what the problem was. The shaft is a large all-thread (apx. ¾†dia.) and the end is simply machined down to fit a #2MT. But most of the threads remain.
The threads had cut into the interior of the spindle and locked in place. I don’t know how much damage was done to the spindle head.
But this is not good. The MT should have been made of smooth tool steel. Beal apparently took the short, quick and cheap fix in designing this set-up. For the money, one would expect them to do it right.
EDIT: For clarification: This is the three wheel system. The demonstrator said it was a Beal. The taper is nothing more than the shaft turned down to the shape of a #2MT. I believe the lathe spindle can be crocus clothed down to where damage is minimal. But it still should not have happened.
After the demo he couldn’t remove the shaft from the spindle. Finally, after much pounding on the end of the removal tool with a large mallet, I managed to dislodge it.
When it did come out we saw what the problem was. The shaft is a large all-thread (apx. ¾†dia.) and the end is simply machined down to fit a #2MT. But most of the threads remain.
The threads had cut into the interior of the spindle and locked in place. I don’t know how much damage was done to the spindle head.
But this is not good. The MT should have been made of smooth tool steel. Beal apparently took the short, quick and cheap fix in designing this set-up. For the money, one would expect them to do it right.
EDIT: For clarification: This is the three wheel system. The demonstrator said it was a Beal. The taper is nothing more than the shaft turned down to the shape of a #2MT. I believe the lathe spindle can be crocus clothed down to where damage is minimal. But it still should not have happened.