Originally Posted by
Pete Staehling
Just a quick update...
I made a table and a little sled for the lathe mounted disk that is essentially a miter gauge fixed at 90 degrees. I have used it a little to shape some tiny parts (bridges and nuts for dulcimers) and some larger parts and am delighted with it. It works with my existing jigs just fine only much better than with the high speed grinder.
The table is mounted on the rails of the lathe and attaches and removes very quickly. The top of the table is cut from an aluminum table from an abandoned router table that already had a miter slot. The support for it is essentially a plywood box.
The disk part is plywood and has a plywood backer plate with an aluminum ring that quickly mounts it on the lathe chuck. The whole thing can come on and off the lathe in seconds.
Running at a little under 500 rpm it is a joy to use. No burning and much more control for detailed precise work.
I did almost the exact same thing. But I haven't used it very much primarily because of the setup and teardown time. It certainly takes me more than "seconds" to set up - heck, even getting the stuff out of storage takes a fair amount of time. If I had it set up all the time I'm sure I'd use it more but I can't tie up my lathe with that.
If I had the room, I'd get a dedicated machine, maybe a 3-phase and then add a VFD.
Mike
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