Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??

Numptie newbie questions

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AdeV:
I have a couple of Q's, one which just bugs me, and one is a question about making stuff...

Q1: Why aren't lathe dogs counterbalanced? Surely, you always want them to run in balance, so rather than having to counterweight the drive plate, surely it'd make more sense if the dog was properly balanced?


Now, making stuff..

Q2: My as-yet "not here" lathe has, according to the info on lathes.co.uk, an awkward and non-standard chuck mount:


--- Quote ---Unfortunately the spindle nose was not an industry standard type but formed with a bolt-on flange - three 17/32" holes on a 4.75-inch pitch-circle diameter - so making chuck replacement a slow and tedious business.
--- End quote ---

I'd like to convert it to use a D1-4 (or similar) camlock, because that looks like a nice way to change chucks/faceplates quickly, easily and accurately; and there should be a wide variety of options, wheras I bet trying to find an Edgwick chuck, faceplate or drive plate would be a tedious job.

Would the conversion simply be a case of machining up a suitable adapter to bolt to the Edgwick and a camlock backplate? Or is it even easier than that, requiring just the drilling & tapping of a machinable camlock? I've googled without much success for a suitable camlock "back", any ideas where I could get one from?

Sorry for the numpty Qs... but I'd rather ask idiot questions than remain an idiot.

bogstandard:
Ade,

What you are contemplating is surely feasible, but getting the bits might be a problem.

Unless you can find someone breaking a suitable mount lathe, then it would be a matter of making say a D1-4 mount yourself.

Bob Deere (deere_x475guy) has made one fairly recently for fitting onto his rotary table. I am sure he could give you the ins and outs of that exercise.

http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=1350.0

If that would be too much to attempt, then maybe one of the larger screw fixings would do you. Boxford springs to mind.

A few lathes use that standard and things such as ready made chuck backplates are very cheap, around 15 squid for a 6" one, whereas the last  one I bought for my D1-4 mount cost me over 40 squid. Making an adapter mount in Boxford standard would be a fairly easy affair, if you have the wherewithall to do it.


Bogs

AdeV:
Thanks Bogs, for the comprehensive reply. And the pointer to the thread, which didn't come up even when I searched ?

I think I could make the mount myself, if I understood how it actually worked. It would probably behoove me to go look at an actual camlock mount & chuck, so I get some idea of what I'm trying to achieve...

A screw adapter would certainly make sense, albeit (maybe?) at the cost of spindle capacity. Also, am I right in thinking that it's pretty unwise to run a screw-on-chuck lathe backwards? On account it may unscrew itself?

Thanks again, I will owe you  :beer: if you keep answering my questions  :bow:

bogstandard:
Ade,

It is not surprising, but I have never heard of the lathe you are about to receive, so I wouldn't know about spindle bores etc, or whether the lathe has reverse or not.

What you have to think about is that a threaded nose has been with us almost since the beginning of engineering lathe time, and has stood the test of time rather well.

My previous lathe was an Atlas, which had the same nose thread as a Boxford, and that stood me in good stead for many years, and it had a normal 3MT up the spout. The only time I needed to run in reverse was when screwcutting metric threads, and so it never had any speed on it, as I was using the back gears.

On the other hand, I am now using D1-4, and it is a true pleasure to use, less than a minute to change a chuck, and you can go from full wack fwds to full back without having to worry about the chuck coming loose. Also they remount very accurately if you have taken the trouble to mark up your chucks on the optimum location, plus of course, even on a smallish lathe like mine, it has a very useful large spindle bore size.

I am sure if you could wake Bob up from his hibernation, he could give you all the details you need to know.


Bogs

DeereGuy:
Hi all, I am at work and don't have much time to reply.  AdeV I will try to help you out as much as I can.

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