woodturning on a metal lathe

[Flutern]

I have a metal lathe and do a bit of hobbyist metal turning (the key word is hobbyist ), and lately I've had a couple of flute related projects in mind. For the first project (a delrin stopper and a wooden crown for an antique flute I'm fixing up), I'm using my HSS metal working tool bits and it's working well so far. But I remember reading on this board that some people use a metal lathe to do all their wood turning, and I'm curious how one would go about using hand-held tools on the metal lathe.

I suppose I'd need a banjo and tool rest, but I wonder if I'd need a banjo specifically designed for metal lathe, or any banjo (for the appriate swing) would do. I also wonder about the kind of chuck people use: I have a 3-jaw and a 4-jaw chuck, but I'm concerned it might make marks on the wood piece if I tighten it too much. I'm aware that collet chucks exist, but I've never used one and I'm not sure they would be worth the investment (the ones I saw looked quite pricey ).

My lathe is 10x30, with a 1″ spindle bore.

[Terry McGee]

I'd imagine it would get too cluttered if you added a tool rest and tool rest holder to your 30" machine (metal) lathe, as the normal carriage would still be in the gap between headstock and tailstock. Could you come up with a horizontal tool rest that lives on and takes advantage of the carriage?

In regard to chucks, I try to avoid using chucks on my woodlathe wherever possible. Getting your hand-directed tool caught in a whirling chuck could be life-threatening! I prefer to work "between centres". So, if roughing out, I'd have a roughing centre in the headstock. After boring and reaming (which would use the chuck), I'd do any exterior profiling with the work being driven by a wooden cone in the headstock. It can be readily refaced if scored during operations like end facing.

In all of this, the tailstock would house a "live centre".

Hope that helps, come back if you have more questions!

[Flutern]

Thanks for your reply, Terry, I very much appreciate it.

I'd imagine it would get too cluttered if you added a tool rest and tool rest holder to your 30" machine (metal) lathe, as the normal carriage would still be in the gap between headstock and tailstock. Could you come up with a horizontal tool rest that lives on and takes advantage of the carriage?

Yeah, I thought it would get really cramped with the carriage in the way, but I hadn't thought about the possibility of mounting a tool rest on the carriage. Now that you mention it, I see that such a thing exists:

https://littlemachineshop.com/products/ ... 1963256894


I'll check to see if that would be compatible with my tool post. In any case, I now know what to look for

In regard to chucks, I try to avoid using chucks on my woodlathe wherever possible. Getting your hand-directed tool caught in a whirling chuck could be life-threatening! I prefer to work "between centres". So, if roughing out, I'd have a roughing centre in the headstock. After boring and reaming (which would use the chuck), I'd do any exterior profiling with the work being driven by a wooden cone in the headstock. It can be readily refaced if scored during operations like end facing.

In all of this, the tailstock would house a "live centre".

I will try that, thanks!

Hope that helps, come back if you have more questions!

It will probably takes a few weeks before I can get to it, but I will report on my success... or lack thereof

Julien

[kkrell]

It will probably takes a few weeks before I can get to it, but I will report on my success... or lack thereof

Watch out for flying hand tools.

[Terry McGee]

Or worse, flying hands! That could be a slap in the face!

Thought I should just mention it could be wise to see what you'd need to make your machine lathe double as a wood lathe, add up the prices and then compare that to the price of a cheap or second-hand wood lathe. (Assuming of course you have room for two!) Wood lathes tend to run faster than machine lathes which is great when sanding and polishing, but not good when boring and reaming! I love having both!

And don't forget you're going to need some dust extraction, even if it's just the family vacuum cleaner pressed into service. The dust from the woods we love is really dangerous. "Giving your all to your art" might be noteworthy, but you're going to need well-functioning lungs to play these things! To illustrate what level of paranoia I've found appropriate, I have three dust extraction systems, and every machine that can make dust is serviced by one of them. And the machines live in a little room with door seals so the dust can't sneak around back behind me. The little room is vented to the outside.

[Flutern]

Thanks Kevin and Terry, I agree you can't be too careful. The person I learned machining from has one phalanx missing, so the very first thing I learned was that these machines really are dangerous...

Terry > Although I'd like to see how far I can go with just metal lathe, getting a second-hand/affordable wood lathe could be an option. I'll have to carefully assess the costs/benefits of each option, and I'll keep my eyes open in case a good opportunity arises. And thanks for reminding me about the importance of a dust extractor!