Hi folks
I have the remains of a vertical slide which had been made to fit my previous lathe (a really unusual thing called a 'Wandess' - see lathes.co.uk if you are interested in oddities) and which went on instead of the top slide and was always vertical with its face perpendicular to the lathe spindle. Well, that was the idea.
I am wondering about fitting it to my Boxford (US - think South Bend 9") model A. It once (though not in my ownership) was meant to spin around a pin poking out of the original angle plate onto which it was mounted, and clamp at some desired angle to the vertical - I could replicate that, so the 'vertical' could become oblique.
Then I started to think that instead of replacing the top slide, it could mount on top of it (mine has a nice flat top surface and a big T slot to mount the tool post) - which would add another degree of freedom to where the thing could be persuaded to move. The face would no longer have to be perpendicular to the spindle, and it could advance along that angle with the top slide feed screw.
And the stupid question (to which the answer is, of course, 'it depends what you want to do with it') is: "is the loss of rigidity involved in mounting it on the top slide, worth the increased flexibility of moving it around with same - or is it better to ditch the top slide and mount hard on the cross slide".
I suppose I am hoping someone will pop up and say 'I did it this way and it was great / a real pain in the ass - do it that way'.
What might I do - a bit of milling, maybe try gear hobbing though mounting the blank would require thinking about. The main idea just now is to turn some scrap into a useful tool.
cheers
Mark
I have the remains of a vertical slide which had been made to fit my previous lathe (a really unusual thing called a 'Wandess' - see lathes.co.uk if you are interested in oddities) and which went on instead of the top slide and was always vertical with its face perpendicular to the lathe spindle. Well, that was the idea.
I am wondering about fitting it to my Boxford (US - think South Bend 9") model A. It once (though not in my ownership) was meant to spin around a pin poking out of the original angle plate onto which it was mounted, and clamp at some desired angle to the vertical - I could replicate that, so the 'vertical' could become oblique.
Then I started to think that instead of replacing the top slide, it could mount on top of it (mine has a nice flat top surface and a big T slot to mount the tool post) - which would add another degree of freedom to where the thing could be persuaded to move. The face would no longer have to be perpendicular to the spindle, and it could advance along that angle with the top slide feed screw.
And the stupid question (to which the answer is, of course, 'it depends what you want to do with it') is: "is the loss of rigidity involved in mounting it on the top slide, worth the increased flexibility of moving it around with same - or is it better to ditch the top slide and mount hard on the cross slide".
I suppose I am hoping someone will pop up and say 'I did it this way and it was great / a real pain in the ass - do it that way'.
What might I do - a bit of milling, maybe try gear hobbing though mounting the blank would require thinking about. The main idea just now is to turn some scrap into a useful tool.
cheers
Mark