Ornamental turning accessory

billzweig · Jul 4, 2015

I must confess; rather than working hard and earning a honest dollar, I often waste too much time on fun projects. For many years one was ornamental turning. Since I could not afford to buy a Holtzapffel ornamental turning lathe, I decided to build a humble machine with some of the capabilities. I bough a used EMCO Maximat 7 (just about the right size for small work and actually a very decent small lathe) as the starting step, and continued for the next 40 years adapting it to ornamental turning and making many of the accessories needed for this embarrassing hobby.
One often required feature is a long, slow, multiple start helix; way beyond the range of regular thread cutting. For this I replaced one of the change gears with a rotary gearbox. This can be engaged in 12 positions on its periphery, giving 12 ratios of up to 1:42,000. For this type of steep helix, the normal order of things is reversed and the headstock is rotated through the gearbox by a handle on the lead-screw.

apt403 · Jul 4, 2015

Nice work, is that an original design? Have you ever used the 1:42,000 setting?

After seeing those pictures you posted earlier of the Breguet watch I was looking into Holtzapffel turning lathes - I remembered finding out about them a few years ago. Do they have different capabilities than a standard metal lathe?

L Vanice · Jul 4, 2015

Very nice, Your Highness. I admire the hobby of royalty, but never aspired to try it myself. I did, 40 years ago, own a nice handwritten illustrated instruction manual by Holtzapfel with a bookplate from Sir David Lionel Solomon, Bart.* That is as close as I came to owning a Holtz. I passed the book on to a British owner of two Holtz lathes.

Larry

*Solomon was a famous British engineer, watch collector, electrical engineer and, from 1895, automobile enthusiast. Generally cool guy. "The workshops were said to contain some 60,000 tools, which could manufacture anything from a watch to a steam engine..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lionel_Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons His magnificent home is open, but I don't think the workshop still exists. http://www.salomons-estate.com/about-salomons-estate/museum

EPAIII · Jul 4, 2015

Wow, that is an interesting mechanism. Love all those gears.

I do not see any levers or other controls. How are the different settings made? Do you have to disassemble it and change gears around? Or is there an invisible control?

billzweig · Jul 5, 2015

apt403 said:
Nice work, is that an original design? Have you ever used the 1:42,000 setting?

After seeing those pictures you posted earlier of the Breguet watch I was looking into Holtzapffel turning lathes - I remembered finding out about them a few years ago. Do they have different capabilities than a standard metal lathe?

Holtzapffel was making various lathes, but their top of the line ornamental turning lathe was specially designed to perform the many operation requiered in this discipline. A great 19th century book written by John Jacob Holtzapffel "Principles & Practice of Ornamental or Complex Turning" describes some of this. Every machinist should read it

And no, I did not use the 1:42,000 setting yet, but I did use some of the lower ratios.

Principles & Practice of Ornamental or Complex Turning (Dover Woodworking): John Jacob Holtzapffel: 9780486229652: Amazon.com: Books

billzweig · Jul 5, 2015

EPAIII said:
Wow, that is an interesting mechanism. Love all those gears.

I do not see any levers or other controls. How are the different settings made? Do you have to disassemble it and change gears around? Or is there an invisible control?

The changing of speed ratios is done simply by rotating the whole gear cluster by 1/12 of a turn to engage a different gear on the periphery with the gear on the arm. All the gears are concentric and mesh with the central pinion. Here is an example of a moderate 5 start helix (a nib pen).

apt403 · Jul 5, 2015

billzweig said:
Holtzapffel was making various lathes, but their top of the line ornamental turning lathe was specially designed to perform the many operation requiered in this discipline. A great 19th century book written by John Jacob Holtzapffel "Principles & Practice of Ornamental or Complex Turning" describes some of this. Every machinist should read it
And no, I did not use the 1:42,000 setting yet, but I did use some of the lower ratios.

Principles & Practice of Ornamental or Complex Turning (Dover Woodworking): John Jacob Holtzapffel: 9780486229652: Amazon.com: Books

Thanks for the recommendation - I've been on a machining book acquisition kick lately - I'm sure it'll be a fun read, coming from the man himself. Some of the pieces that come out of these machines would be a trick for a 5 axis CNC lathe to pull off.

billzweig · Jul 5, 2015

Here are three more accessories I have designed and made over the years. The first is a kind of "rose engine" where the work-piece can follow the pattern of the discs and at the same time the angle can be changed a bit between each "rose" to create a scallop like effect.
The second is a top slide cutter. It runs from overhead drive and can be tilted to ant angle with a verity of form cutters.
The last item is a follower for the cross slide. One cam make accurate tapers (with micrometer adjustment), as well as following a template or duplicating a turned piece.
Today some of this can be done on a CNC, but when I started 40 years ago this was not the option. And while today I do have CNC machines, there is some ease and directness in using those old gadgets. And a pleasant sense of following the steps of masters of the past.

GregSY · Jul 5, 2015

As a rule I dislike 'wankers' and the things they create. But I gotta admit that is impressive.

Ray Behner · Jul 5, 2015

That rotary gear box (as well as your work) is too cool. The minute I saw it, I thought of my Sheldon lathe quick change. I had that thing in every piece it would come in. Oh boy, the gears. Enough for 80 feeds. Every shaft had a needle bearing. Where did you ever find that thing?
100_1841_zpsgplqfhod.jpg Photo by rbehner | Photobucket

billzweig · Jul 5, 2015

GregSY said:
As a rule I dislike 'wankers' and the things they create. But I gotta admit that is impressive.

Unfortunately I still did not have much time to do any serious "wanking" with all this equipment. And if I really must confess, the sad truth is that with time I got more interested in making the tools than in using them. I guess it is even a more serious case of wanking

Still, everybody needs to waste some time in one way or another, and since I do not like to travel, do not care about fancy restaurants, clothing or cars, this form of indulgence cost me so far only a few pounds of metal cut-offs.

billzweig · Jul 5, 2015

Ray Behner said:
That rotary gear box (as well as your work) is too cool. The minute I saw it, I thought of my Sheldon lathe quick change. I had that thing in every piece it would come in. Oh boy, the gears. Enough for 80 feeds. Every shaft had a needle bearing. Where did you ever find that thing?
100_1841_zpsgplqfhod.jpg Photo by rbehner | Photobucket

Indeed this is a similar gearbox idea - though I did not know about the Sheldon design. A nice lathe in your photo. What model is it? I have seen Sheldon 13" and an old 9" or 10", but not this one.
The gears for my gearbox came from a scraped instrument I found. I think it was some kind of very old chart recorder. The gearbox is light duty, but totally adequete with the light forces encountered in this type of work.

Ray Behner · Jul 6, 2015

billzweig said:
Indeed this is a similar gearbox idea - though I did not know about the Sheldon design. A nice lathe in your photo. What model is it? I have seen Sheldon 13" and an old 9" or 10", but not this one.
The gears for my gearbox came from a scraped instrument I found. I think it was some kind of very old chart recorder. The gearbox is light duty, but totally adequete with the light forces encountered in this type of work.

I guess you could say that this series is somewhat rare. It's a 1971 "VR 13-5". In other words: Model R w/variable speed (to 3000rpm) She's a honey! Long and cross feeds will kick out automatically with preset stops.

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