Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??

Lathe Mods

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websterz:
Bogs is right, the extra mass of a chuck over 4 or 5 inches alone, not counting the torque applied when cutting, would bring these little lathes to their knees. I upgraded to a 4" 3 jaw and it is about the biggest chuck I would try to run on my 7x12. You also have to consider that every inch you increase in work diameter you lose a half-inch of cross-slide travel. It's not worth the engineering headache to try and make these machines much bigger than they are. Just my 2 cents of course. I would pursue the other mods out there to improve the lathe's performance and move to a bigger one when the time comes.  Already, with less than 12 hours of actual work, my little lathe is 10 times the machine it was when I started and I haven't even begun to align the head and tail stocks to the bed yet.  :proj:

Brass_Machine:
Alright... you guys made a good point. I really don't turn anything over 2" anyway. Savings account will be started.

Eric

Darren:
Just to rub salt in the wound I'd have to agree. When you get to turning 3" dia you begin to realise you are pushing it....not just power wise but stability as well.

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