Dan's Hobbies » lathe

Inserts wrap-up

Dan — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 01:33:07 +0000

Last night I finished up the inserts, by boring the through holes to the proper diameter. Since I had 3 blanks, I chose 1-1/2″, 2-1/4″, & 3″. After a few days of needing a jig to do everything, it was really nice to just throw the work piece in the 3 jaw, and start boring. It took about an hour to bore out the inserts, and chamfer all the edges. It was pleasurable, as nothing had to be precise.

This afternoon, I installed and leveled the 1-1/2″ insert, as it’s the one that I will probably use 95% of the time. and then as a test I cut a short sliding dovetail. It’s shoulder was perfect aside from some tear out. The plastic insert produced a wavy shoulder, because it would flex as the board passed over it.

lift inserts day two

Dan — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 05:17:53 +0000

It doesn’t look like much, but I made a lot of progress today, I was able to thickness all three of the insert blanks, as well as turn the mounting lip. It took about 2 hours to complete, and filled a 5 gallon bucket with chips, but it was a simple, an pleasurable task. I probably have two evenings worth of work left to do, and then one evening of unpleasantness (cleaning the shop). However when I’m done, I will have insert’s that last a life time, and that’s well worth the effort.

Custom Bench Dog lift inserts

Dan — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:05:14 +0000

I’ve had My Bench dog lift for a couple month now, and it has been a pleasure to use. The only disappointment, Ive had with the lift, is the quality of the inserts. I have a newer model lift, that was produced by bench dog after it was purchased by Rockler (can’t remember where I read this). The old version had stainless steel or aluminum inserts, that could be flushed with the top of the lift using set screws. The new inserts are made from some type of plastic, that doesn’t really seem stiff enough for the gap it spans.

Face plate centering jig.

Since my next project is going to involve working with some small boards, I decided now was the time to make some stout inserts. step one was to make a jig to fasten the blanks to the faceplate. To make the jig, I cut a piece of aluminum plate to size, and then taped it so it could be bolted to the faceplate. Next I faced 1/8″ off the surface, leaving a 1/2″ diameter nub in the center. The final step was to tap the nub for a 1/4-20 bold that would be used to hold the blanks to the jig.

Insert blanks turned to the proper diameter.

The blanks are exceptionally simple to make; all I had to do was cut some plate to slightly bigger than the diameter I needed, and then drill a 1/2″ hole threw the center. Then all that was left to do, was mount them to the jig and turn them to the proper diameter. Tomorrow night I’m going to turn the blanks to the proper thickness, and turn the lip on them.

It’s kind of a shame that I’m going to turn most of blanks into chips, but what the hell, the plate they’re made from was just taking up space in the shop anyway.

Finished lathe chip shield

Dan — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:06:42 +0000

The magnets I ordered of eBay arrived yesterday, so this morning I finished up the chip shield. The Neodymium magnets are stronger that I expected, so I decided to use two instead of four. They provide enough holding force, that you need to have a firm grip on the knob to move the shield.

Hopefully this set-up with minimize the number of hot chips launched my way, while still providing an unobstructed view of the cutter.

Lathe chip shield

Dan — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:48:01 +0000

I’ve decided it’s time to make some kind of chip shield, so I don’t get burned by flying chips anymore. My self imposed design requirements are as follows:

cheap
easy to install/remove
simple to build

The following renderings show what I came up with.

The design is pretty simple, it’s essentially a bent piece of Lexan, some scrap aluminum, and a few magnets. The Lexan will offer an un-obstructed view of the work, and the magnets will ensure the shield doesn’t move around. The magnets are in the mail, so I can’t start work on the aluminum block until later this week.

Since Lexan is available at most big box stores, I was able to knock out the shield Monday night. I found bending the Lexan to be pretty simple, all you need to do is make a mold to form it against. I used a scrap piece of maple with a 1/2″ radius on the edge as my mold. All you need to do is heat up the Lexan enough to make it malleable, then push it against the mold, and let it cool. The following pictures and video show how I did it. Once I get the magnets, I will post some shots of the finished product.

Ready to be bent

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Heating the Lexan

Cooling down

Ready to be mounted