I finished a bunch of parts for my Thread Dial Kit project. (see the thread = Thread dial kits any interest) A couple of kits are already on there way to people who responded. Gary P. Hansen

I managed to scrap three gears for my thread dial kit project. One of the scraped ones has already found a new home as a bushing for the pull cord hole on this old outboard motor. Gary P. Hansen

I don't know how to post a picture, but after wondering where in the heck to get the proper MT3 to MT2 spindle adapter for my 10K, I decided to make an MT3 center of the correct length. The MT3 center I already had stuck out so far from the spindle that my lathe dogs wouldn't engage the driver plate when clamped to the work, and I was worried that the adapters I saw advertised would have the same problem. I have to say that after struggling to make tapers with my previous Chinese lathe with only 1-5/8" of compound travel, making the MT3 center with the taper attachment was a great satisfaction and easy to do, even for a person who has never used a taper attachment before. The more I get to know this lathe, the better I like it! The taper attachment was surprisingly easy to set up and use - thank you South Bend Lathe, RIP. And thanks to the person on this forum who explained that my taper attachment is not telescopic, possibly saving me from a ruinous mistake.

Bob M

These are millwork rosetts for triming doors or windows. They add a little class to the corners of door or window trim. They have the added advantage of being much easier to work with than mitering the trim. I just mounted the square blocks in my four jaw chuck and turned a whole bunch of them in about a half hour. I had the steped jaws of my four jaw chuck turned around at the time. Once I centered the first block, I just loosened jaws 1, and 2 to chuck the remaining blocks. Gary P. Hansen

In 1980 I bought a K&E Paragon Engineers Transit from an old Engineer just down the road. The transit had been used by the Engineer he had bought from to put the Tippy and Hardy Dams in Michigan. Anyway the transit came with this tripod and it did not fit. I found that a PVC pipe fitting fit the threads of the transit and so I chucked the PVC in the lathe and cut my first inside threads. I think they were 3 1/4"-11 1/2 threads per inch. Got them right on my very first try.(It is not as hard as a lot of people think.) That is one of the things I love about my South Bend, the QC gear box will cut most any thread per inch that you are likely to come across. Gary P. Hansen

Yes, and after trying to use a Chinese lathe with a 16TPI lead screw to thread, struggling to use the thread dial and failing half the time, I think the South Bend lathe makes threading a pleasure, rather than a nightmare. You could hardly goof it up if you tried! I no longer dread having to cut single point threads; as a matter of fact, I look forward to it!! Forgive my excess enthusiasm, but I'm still getting used to the capabilities of this quality lathe .

Bob M

Saturday I needed the head of a screw to fit through a hole in some plug mold. I could have drilled the hole biger but there were electrical wires behind the hole that I could have run into. So, I just chucked the screw in my lathe and turned the head down.

When I started this thread, I thought I would soon be seeing hundreds of photos of amazing thing averyone has made in their lathe. Come on people, let's see your photos! Gary P. Hansen

Gary,
If I said I sharpened a pencil with mine.
Would you slap me silly?

I might add a question......

Simple shaft diameter turning:

What is the smallest diameter you have turned?

I need to turn a tip for my leroy lettering pen and the smallest dia. I recall was .009"
I need to be in the range of .004"-.006" x 1/2"

Can anyone here do that on their lathe?

What are you wnting to do, make the little wire that gos inside the tip? Wires are drawn though a die. you might try buying what you want on Ebay. I think i paid about $150 for my Leroy Lettering Set back in the 1970's, and sold it on Ebay for about $9.00. Gary P. Hansen

Mine are from the 40s and 50s.
Drawn through a die, you say?

Don't know if the 70's vintage appear much the same as earlier units as these K+E sets belonged to my Grandfather.

The pin itself is shaped with a head, reduced neck, body with tapered point and finally, the wire itself. I "think" it is a size C per stamp on the well. The other one is identified by a number, we are looking at sizes 000, 00, 0, and possibly 1 or 2 - these are the fragile ones.

I was hoping I could make a replacement.

Being drawn through a die obviously means tooling and due to this being a specific application design I figured ebay would be one place to look.
Otherwise, it would be wait on it...
Not that it is an absolutely critical thing, but I wanted to try.
Any DIY suggestions?

Stuff made on my 10L recently, sometimes with a little help from my mill (sorry, no photos):

Bigger lantern TP so I could use some rather large HS tool bits and an antique set of hand(??) forged carbon steel tool bits (those are fun). Used 400 series stainless salvaged from an old pump shaft. Machines nicely.

Bored a couple of 2-1/2 inch diameter holes in 1 inch thick A-36 steel plates. Lots of chips! Those were parts for a 10 ton hydraulic press I restored. Could have used a bigger boring bar than the wimpy 1/2 inch diameter one I have. There are occasional hard spots in A-36. The feeds and speed were maxed out to the point of stalling the presently installed 1/2 horse motor. Too wimpy, need bigger motor, or preferably a bigger lathe!

Steel retaining ring internally threaded 2"-12. My first single point internal thread job. Ran the chuck in reverse for that one so I was cutting away from the chuck. No problem with threaded spindle chuck getting loose.

New arbor for my slotter saws with 5/8 bore. Used a cut-off galvanized bolt shank with head and a totally unknown piece of rusted scrap steel bar salvaged from a muddy parking lot. Kinda proud of the "recycling" effort there.

Extension rods (some steel, some aluminum) for the buttplates on various smallbore free rifles and air rifles (competition rifles). Mine and the junior team I coach.

4 castor sockets for an old swivel chair. Made from salvaged 303 stainless pump shaft. Castor parts no longer available, so, made new. The 303 stainless overwhelmed an ancient #2 MT carbon steel twist drill and made short work of some grades of HS drill bits, too. Did not seem that hard, but it sure broke down the cutting edge. Lots of cutting oil, slow speed, heavy feed, and lots of smoke. The carbon steel drill bit, resharpened, is honorably "retired" to aluminum drilling duty now.

A few collets for my Black Diamond drill sharpener.

Wood dowels for furniture repair. 4-1/2" diameter plywood plug to close off old hole in floor from dryer vent. Not afraid of turning wood on the metal lathe. Use a shop vac and hold the hose next to the cutting tool. Use the same trick on my mill.

An unconventional use: spun pieces of copper water pipe to remove old solder from used sections (coarse file/rasp) and also to polish up (wire brush) the ends of pipe and couplings prior to soldering up my new compressed air header in the garage.

Various adapters, knobs, spacers, wheels, plus modifications to innumerable parts, bolts, and such. Too numerous to remember. Goes on all the time. Sharpened a pencil tonight just for laughs. The 3-jaw was already mounted. Quick, and worked fine (file).

I bought a table saw from a guy at church and it came with the miter guage at the right in the photo. It had the wimpy little plastic handel to the left of the ash handle that is installed now. I made handle out of a tree that died in my yard. I drilled the handle in the lathe and threaded a 1/4-20 set screw into it to use as a stud. Gary P. Hansen

Jim, I think your picture links are incomplete -- usually there is a ".jpg" extension on the end of the image title. Otherwise, the URL looks good, and you're using the [img] tags correctly.

Let me know if I can help.

Paula

Thanks Paula:





Here are the pictures as they should be.
On "Flicker" It seems that the URL for the picture is not the picture. I had to right click on the picture, copy the URL and then past it into the post.
It seemed to work.

As you can see I am almost entirely reconstruction the horizontal drive on this old (circa 1895) Shaper.
Wait untill I get to the drive. Its a circa 1912 repulsion start induction run 1 hp motor that litterly weighs over 100 lbs.

Jim B.

Off topic and not in the same league with the above, but what do you do if your lathe is still a work in progress and you need to do a little lathe job? My truck's cooling system sprung a small leak and my pressure tester is for the old large neck radiators. My dinky little Craftsman drill press to the rescue.
The vise is clamped to the table with a drill bit and then a tap centered under a brass rod in the chuck. Then a tool bit is clamped in the vise and the sloppy #&!!% quill is brought down to make the cut as shown.


the finished product:



I've done this lots of times in a Bridgeport, but never thought this POS drill press could do it. It just shows what can be done in a pinch.
Chaz

i am building a screw poll for work. i am an auto tech at a lexus dealer. got an axle out of a GX470 and threaded 4 threads per inch acme and the flange end of the crank shaft out of and IS300, still have to get the pipe for stand and a base plate. then make handles to go on the nut/crank end.

Ron: Was that axle hard to thread? What size lathe did you use, and did you thread the nut? Gary P. Hansen

hi gary, i used an SB9A. yes the axle was very hard to turn. it was hardened, could not even get a cutter to scratch it at first. used a propane torch with mapp gas and while turning slow in the lathe with all the lights out i could just get a very dull red to appear in the shaft. took about an hour to work my way down the shaft. even then had a few hard spots in the shaft. when i got about .075" in to the thread the half nuts striped. after replacing the half nuts was able to finish the shaft. probly about 100-120 passes.
the nut is the flange end of a crank shaft that i parted off in the lathe and then bored a whole through, the threading was easy ( that is the metal cut easy ), i had never cut acme internal threads before. when i got to the cutting depth and tried to thread the shaft into the nut it would bind. i cut the thread deeper and same result. i rotated the nut slightly in the jaws of the chuck to try and get the cut wider. same result. finaly i got a glimmer of a clue and bored anothe .020" out of the center and wahlah the nut fit the shaft.
all this took a long time but it was a great lesson.
i made a boring bar out of a 5/8" shaft from and old floor jack, cross drilled the end with 1/4" drill and used a set screw to hold the bit. had to heat 1/4" drill shank bright red and douse in cold water to get it hard enough to cut.
i may make a back plate or a face plate out of the left over axle flange.

ya know i could have bought one of these screw poles for about a hundred bucks. after replacing the half nuts and propane it will cost me over three hundred bucks with the material being free.
but why have a lathe if you don't want to do this stuff yourself, right?

Nice work Rod!!! Post pictures when it's finished!