off topic winter projects

peter1234 wrote: he only uses that to puff himself up to rip another non original comment to pieces

Wood lathes aren't judged by ACBS guidlines!!   

BTW, I've commented on it before but boat internal mods you can't see are ok!!

he only uses that to puff himself up to rip another non original comment to pieces

God help if he gets a woodchip on the floor

sort of a resto mod wouldnt you say?

Pete is see a few point deductions there for non originality
Put as usual very professional looking job.

We have the "winter project" thread on boats but I figured since this isn't a boat I'd start a new thread in the off topic section.

I've always wanted to add a woodworking lathe to my shop however since it's not something I would use a lot, I didn't want to spend too much. They can get up into the 6K range so to keep costs within reason, I started shopping for used. Always being a Rockwell Delta person, I keyed into them. I found lots of the heavy duty early lathes but always ran into a crating, loading and shipping problem. This one came up locally on Craig's list so I took a drive and ended up getting it pretty cheap. It's a 1948 when Rockwell Delta sold a lighter duty lathe aimed at the non-production homeowner market. It had the optional stand with the HD cast iron legs which was actually used on the heavier duty lathe. That sold me on the purchase.





I stripped and painted all the basic metal parts but when I stripped the wood top and bottom shelf I was disappointed. Even though they were beautiful clear old growth sugar pine, both were oil soaked at all the bolt holes. The bottom shelf also had about 4 sets of holes from PO's mounting different motors. So, I decided to make the Maple "butcher block" top and shelf. (the Maple for the job ended up costing more than the lathe!!)

I converted the headstock seals to modern rubber and got rid of the old leather/felt seals. It runs 90W gear oil and I feel that's where all the oil in the wood came from.

Next came the motor. The one that came with it was way under HP'd and wouldn't even turn the spindle in the higher speeds. Wanting the flexibility of more variable speeds, the easy way is with a VFC (variable frequency control) driving a standard 3 phase induction motor. A added bennifit to the VFD is they can run on a single phase power source 3HP and below.

Since the "Home Craft" Lathe would only swing a 11" diameter over the bed, I machined up 1" riser blocks for the head and tail stocks so it can now swing 13".



I found a old disconnect at work, stripped the guts out and hid the VFC in it. The on/off switch is actually the old surface mount switch that came with the lathe. Both mantain the old appearance of the late 40's.

The 3/4 HP older looking 3 phase motor came off ebay. The motor mount is actually a modified tractor trailer rear door hinge!