Can a wood lathe be used effectively for plastics?

onetime

Alright, I got a small wood lathe as a gift (in laws like to get me stuff for my "hobbies" and the wife knew I was looking at lathes so...) and haven't set it up yet. It's a Jet 10x14 variable speed indexing lathe. Is this a decent starter lathe by chance?

Jet 10 in. x 14 in. Variable Speed Indexing Mini Lathe - Model 708375VS at Sears.com

What do I need to do to properly set it up? What tools, jaws, etc would those with experience recommend?

I, hopefully, will be using it to make some bits for rebreathers but if not there's plenty of woodworking that I do as well.

Thanks.

--Paul

Skipbreather

Hi Paul-

In a word, no. I’ve spent many hours at a wood lathe in the past. It’s very enjoyable, but also very free form.

There are basic elements in any metal lathe- from the cheapest small hobby lathe to the one w/ a 15 foot long bed I worked at during summers when I was in college- that realistically cannot be duplicated in a wood lathe. Chief among them are the carriage & cross slide and the rack and lead screw they engage. Those allow the tool bit to be *precisely* maneuvered in three dimensions relative to the rotating work. In addition, the lead screw allows some of the motors power to be delivered to the carriage. This allows powered forward motion of the rigidly held tool bit in an exact ratio to the work’s rotation. In all but the cheapest of lathes this ratio is adjustable to permit the cutting of screw threads.

Interestingly, the opposite was once done. At one time South Bend sold an accessory for their smaller lathes that approximated the tool rest used on wood lathes to allow owners to turn wood on their metal lathes.

There are countless books on metal turning, but the best reference for the newcomer that I’ve ever seen is the classic ‘How To Run a Lathe’ from the South Bend Lathe works. It’s an 80+ year old classic that is still reproduced, sold, & read today. Free on line: http://www.wswells.com/data/htral/htral_index.html This is an older version that can at best be called “antique”. It has since grown to 128 pages in the 1966 printing of the 56th edition I bought from South Bend directly about 15 years ago. It was constantly updated for decades.

Ken

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Dave Sutton

Agreed 100%. Read this and understand it, and you will save years of trial and error. I have a grease stained one in my toolbox and refer to it regularly. They are available thru many sources, Ebay among them. The originals are well bound paperbacks that hold up well to "lathe-side" use.

Ditto opinion on the wood lathe. Get the right tools. Used lathes are cheap: Buy the largest one you can get into your shop. 9 inch South Bend Model C's are available for well under $1000. That and a hundred bucks worth of tooling and you can do almost anything you'll ever want to do.


Dave

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