I am building a Shakeresque sideboard for the house. The legs will have a turned
foot about eight inches tall and are 36 inches long (https://www.flickr
.com/photos/77280442@N.../33552252738/in/album-72157679454407778/">https://www.f
lickr.com/photos/77280442@N.../33552252738/in/album-72157679454407778/ ).
And I have to add to that an extension at the top to keep the mortices intact
while I work on them. In fact I am planning on 42 inches so that if I screw up a
foot I can turn it around and get a second chance. This means my stock exceeds
the length of my lathe bed by several inches. Therefore, I need an extension. I
have created the extension, but before trying this I wanted to get
input/opinion/cautions from anyone who cares to advise, especially anyone who
has tried this already.
My lathe is an old Delta, c. 1951. I just happened to have a second old Delta
lathe of the same model, c.1962, sitting in the corner of the shop. I have
butted the two lathes end-to-end, added blocking and clamps, shaped a piece to
sit in the slot in the bed of each to maintain alignment, and shimmed one of
them the get the beds into the same horizontal plane. The tailstock base is long
enough to span the gap between beds and can slide freely between them, so
alignment is good.
Pics are here and if you zoom you can see the clamping rather well:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/77280442@N.../albums/72157679454407778
In the pics the stock that is mounted is not yet square and is over long at
about 52 inches. It spun nicely at 1400 RPM which ought to be a good enough
speed to do the turning. With the stock a bit shorter, squared and width reduced
by another 1/4 inch, it seems to me it will be safe. Last week I had one of the
decrepitudes of life corrected and the surgeon says no shop time for a while, so
I have time to consider your suggestions.
Bill
P.S.,
I know some of you will question why two lathes? Of course, if you do that also
means you don’t truly belong in this group!
Getting parts for these old lathes is ebay only and the parts can be quite
expensive. A few years ago it occurred to me to haunt Craig’s List for a lathe
to use for spare parts. After all, these are not things one can ship readily and
parting them out takes a while. One man’s inconvienence is another’s
opportunity. So I bought one cheap. It was functional, but turned out may of the
parts were non-standard-backyard-machinist made. So I sold most of the tooling
that came w/ it, stole the base to make myself a tool-table for behind my bench,
sold the lathe as a bench top model and got my money back. The legs give my tool
table a classic look and the table collects all the junk that normally
accumulates on a bench and keeps many things in easy reach.Here is the tool
table:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/77280442@N.../albums/72157704152892922/wi
th/46514086855/">https://www.flickr.com/photos/77280442@N.../albums/721577041528
92922/with/46514086855/
A few months later at an estate sale, for the Amazon.com price of a four jaw
chuck that I wanted, I bought the chuck and lathe plus “lathe cutting tools”.
The “lathe cutting tools” turned out to be vintage chisels and Addis carving
tools. Selling just those covered half my costs. My plan was to dismantle the
lathe to make a small package of spare parts, sell off a few more of the
unnecessary parts and stick it into storage. Then I saw a way to make space for
it up against a wall and there it remains, w/ a selection of wire and buffing
wheels ready to mount. What the heck, I only have one #5.
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