Ornamental Lathe

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Aderhammer

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Joined
Dec 4, 2007
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541
Location
Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA.
Working on building an ornamental lathe to enhance my turnings (especially pens ;)) Felt like doing a build thread on the project, especially so others can use my ideas to make their own. The base unit of the lathe is built almost word to word to these planshttp://www.woodturner.org/products/aw/, but then it's also going to have options for 120 point indexing, and ornamental milling. First step is to model the original lathe in Inventor 2008 and after that modifications will be made. Instead of the called for 3/4" mdf for the table of the lathe, 1/2" corian has been substituted


633828_Lathe%20partway%20through%20being%20modeled.jpg
 
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Arthur,
I think the corian will be suitable for this. MDF and plywood may be specified because of cost and ease of working with it. A slab of corian of that size is going to cost a pretty penny. I seem to recall a price of $25 per square foot, which comes to $800 for a 4 x 8 sheet.

Andrew,
Good luck on your project, it is an ambitious one. Keep us posted on your progress.

Paul in AR
 
Seems I remember that MDF and plywood can take much more stress than corian. Corian counter-tops are usually glued down to plywood backing-boards, if'n I remember corectly as well. Maybe someone in a counter-top crew knows more and can answer this one.

Regardless, I would like to see how it goes when you finish the ornamental lathe.
 
Originally posted by pssherman

Arthur,
A slab of corian of that size is going to cost a pretty penny. I seem to recall a price of $25 per square foot, which comes to $800 for a 4 x 8 sheet.

Paul in AR
Click to expand...


I can buy 3/4" solid surface for $12-$15 a sq. ft. I get it direct from the manufacturer. I usually get the 1/4" though.
 
^Best part is I have all the corian and mdf I need at home, so that is a cost of zero, so i'll maybe spend another $100 on a x-y drilling vice, dremel and right angle attachment. My uncle is a supervisor I believe at a machine shop and he is able to make me parts and those will probably be free. By wednesday I should have the final design completed with overhead router for indexing. And the 4th will be my birthday so i'll have some money in to start and finish this machine!
 
The part thus far is a rose engine lathe, the head stock pivots, there will be a way to lock the headstock at 90 degrees and then there will be an over head router that will be matched to the spindle so it will move in relation to the turning of the spindle to perform actions such as spiraling.
 
Andrew,
I'm interested in those type of machines as well. Have you seen the AAW chapter site for ornamental turning? They call themselves OTI, ornamental turnering international. Their web site is ornamentalturners.org There a lot of guys on that site that made the MDF machine.

If you join you can go to their gallery and see a cutter made for a dremel. It uses two small triangular carbide inserts. I am working on my machine that uses a jet mini lathe for the body. It lets me use the standard pen mandrel.

I use the Proxon mini right angle grinder with the two tooth cutting disc for my machine, but it makes a pretty wide cut. I'm getting ready to post some pics of my machine.

I've also started another machine that will mainly have an osilating shaft. The shaft movement is parallel to the shaft. The work is done on the end grain and will cut patterns more closely to the spirograph patterns.

Good luck on your machine.
 
Actuall i just joined OTI. I did see about the cutter for the dremel and made an inquiry about it. I was going to use the dremel in a vice and use the right angle attachment to make the horizontal frame.
 
Parts have been outsourced, the over head router part is being built totally different but i'm a little too lazy too go back and model it, besides i work better making the solutions on the go. One of the changes that i made not evident in the screen shots is the fact that i have added a MT2 to the spindle with a knockout hole, hopefully my uncle gets the parts back soon, the only thing he's charging me for is to order in the 1.5" steel for the spindle, so $20 total in parts:D!
 
Not to sound stupid here... but, exactly what will this thing do to a pen?

I know what you can do with this for bowls, boxes etc. but not pens.

Please enlighten me....er uh us???

Thanks,
Steve
 
Originally posted by Aderhammer

Ok an update. This is a little bit of a teaser. Have the bed extended, the ways mounted, the milling table on there and the plate that the router is mounted to. Stay tuned for further updates!
Lathewithmillingbeginnings.jpg
Click to expand...
We await your developments with great interest.:):)[:X]
 
Originally posted by follow3

Not to sound stupid here... but, exactly what will this thing do to a pen?

I know what you can do with this for bowls, boxes etc. but not pens.

Please enlighten me....er uh us???

Thanks,
Steve
Click to expand...
I want to use it for closed end pens for doing a cool finish like a finial in the end, and mabye do some neat stuff to makes grips etc. for the pens. I'll find ways to do pens on it;)
 
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