My Lathe, A Multi-Purpose Tool

[Tn-Steve]

Lets see, I got my Lathe in January, have turned a bunch of pens and some other stuff. I've gotten better and my lathe has learned a BUNCH of new skills too.

1. It's a pen press. I turned a couple of pieces to fit the head and tail stock, drilled a countersink in one to center the nib, and bada-bing bada-boom I've got the worlds best pen press. Excellent control, all the force you would ever want, and absolute control over it. Total Expense: NONE
2. It's a Buffer. I picked up a MT2 Chuck at good old HF, a couple of 6 inch buffing wheels and the gizmos to mount the wheel into a drill chuck. I got some tripoli and white diamond from a friend who could spare it, and now I've got a nice variable speed buffer. Total expense, about 20 bucks
3. It's a Drill. I KNOW that the correct way to do it is to mount the blank in a chuck, put the drill in the tail stock, and drill it that way. I recalled a vid that somebody posted a while back, holding the blank with a clamp, drill in the headstock, and then just slide the tail stock forward to move the blank into the drill. I put a small countersink on each end so that I can get it started easily, works like a charm. I slide the live center up so that it's about a 1/4 inch from the end of the drill bit, and use a clump of play-do to mark the how far the tail stock can go. When I get that far, I can just slip the blank the last bit by hand to finish it out. So Far. so good. Total Expense: None. (edit: I grip the blank with a clamp, no my hand)

So, my little lathe is now a drill press, pen press and a turning tool. I had one brief terrifying thought while at Lowe's today, looking at a small circular saw blade for my portable circular saw and thought "Hum.. could I mount that somehow to cut my blanks". The part of my brain that in charge of making sure that I don't find new and exotic ways to damage / kill myself said "ARE YOU FRICKING NUTS!!!!!". The fact that the new hospital is JUST across the street from me wasn't able to convince it that they could probably sew the parts back on again, so that's NOT a skill my lathe will learn.

Thanks for reading, no real point in this post, just wanted to share. (and by now the epoxy should be dry and I can go turn a pen for the cutie at the coffee shop)

Steve

 

[Pen Maker]

Steve, your a man of many tallents!!!

 

[kirkfranks]

Steve,
If you turn a drum and make a platform your lathe can also be a drum sander.

 

[Tn-Steve]

Steve,
If you turn a drum and make a platform your lathe can also be a drum sander.

Humm... A couple of stong magnets in the platform assembly to mount it quickly and securely to the ways and it could work. I could also make it a disk sander. I may just end up with a "Swiss Army Lathe".

Steve