G0602 Bed

itsjustme

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Nov 29, 2018
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To start I bought this lathe to do some metal work but also some wood work primarily to try my hand at making some pool cues, I could have gone with a wood lathe but thought that even though that the 0602 is a little short that it would still be a better selection than a wood lathe. But here is one of the issues with the 0602, it is a little short for what I want to do! So I have put a lot of thought into the idea of trying to extend the bed! I know that with the mini lathes that the beds can be bought at little machine shop and have some success, so I am wondering if I could have some success by buying the replacement bed from Grizzly? Not sure if anyone can answer my question or not but I would like to hear back if it would be worth the extra 600.00 to go that route. to answer some questions before hand, I do not care for the Tagg lathes that people are building and selling as cue making lathes and I could not afford one of those or a bigger machine lathe, so I am hoping I can make this work.
 
I'm not sure what you are thinking of doing here. Are you thinking about placing a second bed end to end with the original? If so, you will have a bunch of potential problems. Something would have to be done with the lead screw and the carriage rack to extend the travel of the carriage. The ends of the bed are as cast and about 1 cm thick and the tailstock end of the V ways are beveled. There isn't enough meat on the end of the bed to machine past the bevel so you would have to jump over these with the carriage and tailstock.

If you intend to just use the tailstock on the extension and limit all your carriage travel to the original bed, things become simpler. You could fabricate a woodworking tool rest to fit the ways. and clamp it to the bed. You will not need the precision required for metal working.
The original lathe would still be usable for metal working and it would be possible to use the extension for the tailstock to support longer metal turning.
 
Yes I don't recall the actual distance from chuck to the tail stock but it is to short, so by placing the tail stock on the extended bed that would provide the 6 to 10inches needed to be able turn the wood inn the work area with out the need for the carriage to travel beyond the length of the original lead screw capability!
 
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