Lathe Hack and old school tool use.

[Fusion_power]

Have you ever worked with a blade dampener?

Yes, I have one and use it. I also have a micro kerf blade with built in dampener and alignment disks. This noise was caused by motor vibration which was hitting a harmonic at which the insert vibrated.

My next order of business is to modify one of the inserts - I have extras - so that I can turn it backward and cut a slot barely wider than the blade. The intent is to make a steel zero clearance insert. It won't actually be zero clearance, I want to cut the slot just a tad wider than 1/8 inch so the blade can't contact the steel insert. This is one of the things I never understood about Craftsman inserts. They could easily have cut two slots at the factory and made the insert reversible. Then the user could choose which slot to use.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Yes, I have one and use it. I also have a micro kerf blade with built in dampener and alignment disks. This noise was caused by motor vibration which was hitting a harmonic at which the insert vibrated.

My next order of business is to modify one of the inserts - I have extras - so that I can turn it backward and cut a slot barely wider than the blade. The intent is to make a steel zero clearance insert. It won't actually be zero clearance, I want to cut the slot just a tad wider than 1/8 inch so the blade can't contact the steel insert. This is one of the things I never understood about Craftsman inserts. They could easily have cut two slots at the factory and made the insert reversible. Then the user could choose which slot to use.

If a thin saw blade gets hot it will crawl all over the place.

[MrSalvage]

Man that's a lot of gear changing and stuff. I don't know jack about Lathe's. I wonder does it have a reversible variable speed motor in it?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by MrSalvage

Man that's a lot of gear changing and stuff. I don't know jack about Lathe's. I wonder does it have a reversible variable speed motor in it?

No the speeds are through a transmission.
The lathe has three transmissions with levers and another one with change gears you have to do by hand but not all of the time just for metric and other wild things.
The motor is reversible.


Worth

[MrSalvage]

I ran across this conversion while studying up for my 72x2 belt sander build. I have my treadmill all broken down and ready to go. Here is a smithy conversion I found pretty neat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDItLgwDrwo

I want to get an old band saw & drill press. I will convert them over to a variable DC motor. I think I will go get another treadmill today.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by MrSalvage

I ran across this conversion while studying up for my 72x2 belt sander build. I have my treadmill all broken down and ready to go. Here is a smithy conversion I found pretty neat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDItLgwDrwo

I want to get an old band saw & drill press. I will convert them over to a variable DC motor. I think I will go get another treadmill today.

Never could get these guys wearing those rubber gloves working on stuff.
Another thing is you never spin up a lathe with the jaws not tightened down.

Next is the HP ratings of these treadmill motors are a little bogus.
Don't think for a minute you can run one at slow speed and get the full powder out of it.
Nor is that motor the same as the one I have in my lathe that runs 3450 rpm. constantly at 2 HP.
The motor is huge and heavy as all get out.
How would I convert miles per hour to rpm so I could convert that to feet per minute?
I need to do this so I can decide has fast to run the lathe given a diameter of stock.
All this aside the treadmill motor is a good idea if you can find one in the salvage for almost nothing.
Back later on more observations.

Worth

[Fusion_power]

How would I convert miles per hour to rpm so I could convert that to feet per minute?

A couple of formulas would work, but a lookup chart would probably be more helpful.

C = 2 times PI times Radius
5280 / circumference gives Revolutions required to equal a mile.


Correction: did the math wrong.

For a piece of stock 6 inches diameter, radius is 3 inches, pi is 3.14 (close enough for this work), so 2 * 3 * 3.14 gives 18.84 inches. (5280 X 12) divided by 18.84 gives about 3500 Revolutions to equal 1 mile. Your lathe spinning stock 6 inches in diameter at 3250 RPM is doing nearly 1 mile a minute. That's not bad for a cantankerous geriatric junkyard reject.