2016 POTD Thread Archive

[Downunder Bob]

Am starting to get the hang of drilling using the small lathe (Hercus 9") - go steady - clear the hole regularly - use cutting oil.

Needed to drill a 1/4" hole through 13.5" of black bar - had to go half way from each end and was absolutely chuffed when they met in the middle. Am able to slide a 1/4" rod all the way through and not feel any "step"

Got the rough bar between centres initially to turn it parallel and cylindrical.

Wrapped one end in kitchen paper and stuffed it through the headstock so that the loose end wouldnt rattle around inside the headstock bore - and gripped the other end in the chuck.

Centre drill - then 1/8" x 2"- then 3/16" x 2"- then 1/4" x 6 3/4" - lucky I happened to have an extra long 1/4" drill - approx 1/4" "pecks" and clear the flutes each time - didnt take very long - was quite surprised.

After a few inches of drilling, loosened the chuck and advanced the workpiece so that the drill was always drilling through the part gripped in the chuck jaws.

After 6 3/4" turn the workpiece end for end.

Gently honed the 1/4" drill by hand with a diamond plate before using it.

Am truly astonished that it was possible to do this - I guess in 5 years time I will take it for granted, I dont think I could have done that with a piece of wood when I was interested in woodwork.

Is it simply the nature of the lathe that the holes drill straight down the middle without deviating ?


Bill

You also need to have the drill sharpened correctly, and use a good technique which you have done.

 

[John Hasler]

POTD was for my wife. Last year she gave me the clearance to buy a Grizzly G0709 14” x 40” lathe. Well, she wanted a lathe of her own and bought one off eBay. She does a different Christmas ornament every year for family and friends, this year’s ornament will be a decorated egg. Her lathe will be used to draw evenly spaced circles on the egg for the various patterns. Probably double as a holder as she paints them to.

Go figure, her lathe didn’t work as well as she hoped straight out of the box. One base is adjustable (we’ll call it the tailstock), the other base is fixed. There isn’t enough friction on either the headstock or tailstock to rotate the egg without it moving laterally a little bit. She was hoping to hold a pencil in one hand and rotate the egg with the other. So, she asked if I’d make her a pencil holder so she could turn the headstock and tailstock at the same time which keeps the egg from shifting laterally. What, go in my shop and make something!

I used a 1” aluminum round drilled and reamed to a few thousandths over the pencil diameter. Made a base plate from 3/16” aluminum and tacked them together with my TIG welder. The 1” round had a ½” diameter shoulder turned to fit into a ½” hole drilled into the base for locating during the welding.

I didn’t show the operation, but milled a window on one side of the pencil holder for better visibility of where the pencil is hitting the egg. Should work out well for her.

Bruce

Now you need to make a cam-driven slide so that she can make lines that are sine waves, zig-zags, etc. Or maybe make an egg chuck for your lathe.

 

[rwm]

POTD was for my wife. Last year she gave me the clearance to buy a Grizzly G0709 14” x 40” lathe. Well, she wanted a lathe of her own and bought one off eBay. She does a different Christmas ornament every year for family and friends, this year’s ornament will be a decorated egg. Her lathe will be used to draw evenly spaced circles on the egg for the various patterns. Probably double as a holder as she paints them to.

Go figure, her lathe didn’t work as well as she hoped straight out of the box. One base is adjustable (we’ll call it the tailstock), the other base is fixed. There isn’t enough friction on either the headstock or tailstock to rotate the egg without it moving laterally a little bit. She was hoping to hold a pencil in one hand and rotate the egg with the other. So, she asked if I’d make her a pencil holder so she could turn the headstock and tailstock at the same time which keeps the egg from shifting laterally. What, go in my shop and make something!

I used a 1” aluminum round drilled and reamed to a few thousandths over the pencil diameter. Made a base plate from 3/16” aluminum and tacked them together with my TIG welder. The 1” round had a ½” diameter shoulder turned to fit into a ½” hole drilled into the base for locating during the welding.

I didn’t show the operation, but milled a window on one side of the pencil holder for better visibility of where the pencil is hitting the egg. Should work out well for her.

Bruce

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This is a very eggciting project but I have found that eggs don't machine well. I would recommend you take the raw egg and microwave it for at least 1 minute before you attempt working with it.
Robert

 

[savarin]

Hmmmmmm, microwaved eggs! Definitely eggciting. Nearly as good as microwaving a CD.

 

[silence dogood]

I have some friends whom raise emus. Now those eggs are huge. In fact, Bruce you would have to mount them on your Grizzly. Those eggs are from what I understand are in layers of different blues and people use them for carving. Hmm, that actually might be worth trying.

 

[turnitupper]

Hmmmmmm, microwaved eggs! Definitely eggciting. Nearly as good as microwaving a CD.

Or attaching a 18650 li-ion battery to a 12v automotive battery charger. Puff of smoke, pall of smoke, flash of fire 4 ft. glad to hear of another (extreme) expiremener.
John.

 

[savarin]

Oh Yeah!
Such as this

Microwave transformer, lethal but mega cool.

 

[Downunder Bob]

I have some friends whom raise emus. Now those eggs are huge. In fact, Bruce you would have to mount them on your Grizzly. Those eggs are from what I understand are in layers of different blues and people use them for carving. Hmm, that actually might be worth trying.

1 Emu egg = omelette for 5 to 6 people they are good eating.

 

[Subwayrocket]

I have some friends whom raise emus. Now those eggs are huge.

since you brought up Emu's ...i've got an interesting story . We have a remote cabin, upstate NY, top of a mountain, 10 miles from the nearest small town, 4 miles to the last power line... My buddy was up there turkey hunting, this guy lives about a mile up the logging road from me, completely off the grid...he's sitting there a while then he can't believe what he's seeing. Some kind of genetically mutated huge turkey ?
He shot and ate it ...figured it was an ostrich and no clue why it was there ...2 years later we hear about a guy that raises Emu's about 5 miles from out cabins ...Ooops !

 

[FOMOGO]

since you brought up Emu's ...i've got an interesting story . We have a remote cabin, upstate NY, top of a mountain, 10 miles from the nearest small town, 4 miles to the last power line... My buddy was up there turkey hunting, this guy lives about a mile up the logging road from me, completely off the grid...he's sitting there a while then he can't believe what he's seeing. Some kind of genetically mutated huge turkey ?
He shot and ate it ...figured it was an ostrich and no clue why it was there ...2 years later we hear about a guy that raises Emu's about 5 miles from out cabins ...Ooops !

Had a similar thing happen. The wife and I were driving home from town in a snow storm, and shortly after turning onto our county road we encountered an Emu running down the middle of the road. One of the odder and more impressive sights I've seen. Found out later that it belonged to one of places close by. Not sure if it survived the coyotes or not. Mike