PeterE Makes Hand Turning Accessories for a C3 Lathe

[PeterE]

Some time ago I made a GHT graver to use to deburr holes and edges while still being in the lathe. The HSS tool holder was designed to fit an ordinary file handle, and it works very nicely.

Later when I paged through the MEW Digital Archive I found two articles concerning hand turning in both metal and wood. Interesting! This meant I could make my own handles and such as required and when I needed them. Brilliant! .... But ... I needed some sort of support for the gravers/wood bits and the original C3 variety did not appeal to me as the whole of the top slide including toolpost would still be there and be in the way so to say.

Some sketching, thinking and rummaging around in the scrap/will-be-useful-some-day box produced what I needed.

   - A piece of 100 mm thick steel plate barely large enough to make a 50 mm disc.
   - Some smaller round and rectangular off-cuts to make a standard and a lock to fit the
   - A spare wood turning lathe tool support I found cheap.

Here they are as bits before assembly.



The plate has a center 8 mm recess to fit the center peg in the C3 saddle.

The standard is made from two pieces glued together with Loctite.

A single cotter and a brass lock nut secures the support to the standard.

The standard is now glued using epoxi glue to the plate and secured just in case with a small screw from the front.
Together they make up a very compact seating which is locked using the normal top slide facilities and is of course rotatable as is the top slide. The assembly seen from the side.



Now in with the cotter and add the support, attachment complete!
A view from the user side



... and from the rear.



If it is tilted we can see the positioning hole and the fastening holes fitting the cross-slide.

In place on the lathe it replaces the top slide completely and makes very good room for turning.



It can be swung to face the spindle as well ...



... and this is the first handle for the upcoming metal turning tools.




The metal turning support is still to be made, so I will be back with these as the bits get ready.

BR

/Peter

[Chuck in E. TN]

Very nice, Peter. I'm in the middle of making wood patterns for Elmer's type M and Type F steam cylinders on my metal lathe. I have up to now, used regular lathe bits to turn wood. I have tried some cheap turning tools that have very short blades with out much sucess. I'm definitly interested in the tooling.
My tool rest has been a piece of key stock in the standard tool rest. As you say, it  gets in the way more than helps...
Another problem I have is a spur for driving wood blanks.
Chuck

[PeterE]

Thanks Chuck,
I made my spur as suggested in the articles as it seemed wise for a beginner like me. It is a stout peg in the middle and a circular "edged ring" that grips the job. This has the advantage that if the turning tool digs in, it will just stop the job spinning instead of something much worse. It works very well.



I made it from a worn down thingy I had in the good-to-have-box. I made it as short as I could to save the relatively short bed onn my lathe. When fitted into the spindle, this is how it looks.



The tools I used to turn the handles above are out of a cheap set I picked up at my local store. A couple of gouges, a parting tool, some scrapers, and two skewed cutting tools.



The GHT graver I mentioned above looks as follows.



The new handles will look somewhat different when it comes to secure the toolbit, but the principle will be exactly the same. The bit for the graver is an ordinary 5x5 mm HSS blank.

BR

/Peter

[Meldonmech]

Hi Peter
                That is a neat tool rest you have made, I have made wooden handles for all my woodworking tools designed to suit my hands, to ensure they don't  rub anywhere and cause blisters, especially when sawing. I have made a number of gravers having various forms which I use for decorative brass turning.
                  I have discovered that privet and laurel hedge trunk wood, make excellent  tool handles, they have a very fine grain and are similar to expensive box wood.
                                                                  Cheers David

[PeterE]

Thank  you for kind words David.

The project stalled a bit due to the need of some bits more than just scraper/graver handles. I have some wood/metal turning tools and support for my MJ189/U4 nachine to do as well.

And of course I got the idea to make my wife some gardening tools (Dibbler/Dibble of two sizes, a flower pot bruch (loose brushes are easily found as spares for toilet brushes), Flower bed marking line with pegs, and a news-paper pot maker) as I have the setup in place.

I got some offcuts from my neighbour as he removed a couple of fruit trees in his garden, cherry I believe, which also makes very nice handles and polishes nicely.

Have today ordered some more 5 mm square HSS blanks for scraper/graver tooling for hand turning metal.

I will show the lot as they are made.

BR

/Peter