Teaching a lathe new tricks.

[Kenneth George]

Hello, this is my first post here even though I have been lurking this forum for quite some time now. I have become quite the woodturning fanatic to the point that I now own 4 lathes. I turn mostly smaller things and mainly boxes (Dang that Raffan and his tapes). I am really into detail in my turnings. I see some names here that I recognize so I though I would jump in. Thought I would start out by telling you about my lathe modification obsession.

I have been on a quest to improve my lathe. I upgraded from an old Craftsmen to a Grizzly G5979. Now I know a lot of people are thinking that was not much of an upgrade but I really like the Grizzly and have learned a lot using it. There are things about it that I don’t like and instead of spending $1000 plus on a new lathe and hope it does what I want I decided to rebuild mine. Also I have a shop built on block with a wood floor so weight is an issue with tools also. So I started with the tool rest base that I hated. It did not lock very well nor did it slide very well. I replaced it with a Delta replacement tool rest base that I rebuilt and now I have an easy sliding base with a ¼ turn lock. My next quest was to remove vibration from this machine and to change from the adjustable pulley system to true variable speed.

As of yesterday I am 90% finished with this endeavor. All I have left to do is some cosmetic stuff and mounting the controller on the headstock on a swivel. I now have a ¾ horse DC PM motor and controller that runs at 220V AC/180V DC. The lathe has a full range of speeds starting at 0. I need to replace the motor pulley as right now my max RPM is 2200 and I want a max of 3000. After much tuning, tweaking and manufacturing I have achieved almost no vibration.

This picture was taken with the lathe running at about 1800 RPM but my camera takes a picture so quick you can’t see the motion blur. I have a Nickel resting on its end and was able to not disturb it by turning the power on and cycling through the speeds.



If anyone is interested in doing anything similar I would be happy to share my resources for parts or what not.

I wonder if I voided my warranty?

[Tyler Howell]

Welcome Ken!

We are all looking forward to seeing some of your fine work. The creek is a great place to wade around.

[Michael Stafford]

Welcome Ken,
There is a wealth of info to be gained at the Creek. There are some fine wood turners and wood workers here. Look forward to seeing some of your work and sharing your knowledge. Good ol' Tyler didn't happen to mention that he is one of the duly authorized and self appointed " picture police " so don't even think about about talking about new equipment or projects without posting a picture or you will get a citation...

[Ted Shrader]

Hi Kenneth -

Welcome to the Creek. A great place to hang out and exchange ideas. But you had that figured out already, since you stepped up from "lurker" status. Glad to have you aboard.

You have made that lathe a much improved piece of machinery. Well done.

Welcome,
Ted

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

I'll bet it cost a lot less than $1000.00, Too!!!!!!!!!

Very inventive. Don't forget the pictures of some projects!

Bruce

[Jason Roehl]

I'm curious to know what some of the "tweaks" were that helped reduce vibration. I would think there are quite a few things that could be done on other brands as well, or at least knowing what you did could get folks looking in the right direction on their own lathes. I like the conversion to a DC motor--I believe Mark Kauder did that on his Jet Mini before they came out with their own VS version. Thanks for sharing!