On Jan 1, 6:44*pm, "Ed Edelenbos" wrote:
"Michael Faurot" wrote in message

...



nhurst wrote:
I have a "Professional Woodworker" 4 speed lathe that someone gave to
me after the motor capacitor died. I got it replaced and working again
and I got the HSS turning set from Harbor Freight.

Does your lathe look essentially like this model from Harbor Freight?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38515

This variety seems to be sold by various vendors, but the up-shot
is if you have one that looks like this--you're going to have
difficulties getting accessories for it since it doesn't have Morris
Taper fittings on either the head or tail stock.

I've been doing practice type projects, but the lathe only came with
the parts for spindle work. I don't have a manual or anything, and
Google has only turned up other people in my situation.

If your lathe does look like the one from Harbor Freight, the manual
for the Harbor Freight lathe can be downloaded in PDF format. *My
first lathe looked like that, but was branded as made by Cummins. *The
manuals for my Cummins and the Harbor Freight lathe are very similar
with only obvious things like vendor names and addresses being
changed.

I'd like to try a bowl, but I don't know where to go to find the right
parts. How can I figure out the threading on the spindle so I can
either fabricate or purchase a faceplate?

Both the chuck and the live center are screw-on type, so I can't use
morse-tapered accessories, I believe.

This sounds like the first lathe I got, which looks like the
aforementioned Harbor Freight model. *It came with a face plate the
manual called a "chuck" and a drive center. *Both were threaded to
fit the head stock. *I don't know if all the lathes that look like
this are the same, but the one I had uses a fairly odd size metric
pattern of M18x2.5. *An easy way to determine if this is the same
for you is to take the drive center off the lathe and then go to a
hardware store that has a good selection of SAE and Metric nuts and
bolts. *Experiment with the different bolts and see what fits into
the threads of the drive center. *Be sure to check all of these
3/4"x8, 3/4"x16 and M18x2.5.

If it turns out that the head stock is M18x2.5, you do have one
option for getting a chuck, which you need for turning bowls. *The
Nova brand of chucks from Teknatool use adapters such that you buy
the chuck and then get the appropriate adapter to fit your head
stock. *What you'd need is the IKNS adapter which provides the correct
threading:

http://www.teknatool.com/products/La...aptor_page.htm

You can buy the chuck from any number of different vendors, but you'll
have a bit more of a challenge getting the IKNS adapter. *I wound up
buying the G3 chuck from Woodcraft and then ordering the IKNS adapter
directly from Teknatool. *After I did that, I found out this vendor
can sell you both:

http://www.woodworkerspecialties.com/Pages/turning.htm

I've not actually used this vendor, so I'd suggest contacting him
first to verify he can provide the parts you need.

Something else to consider is to get another lathe. *That's ultimately
what I did when I started hitting the limitation of no Morris Taper
fittings. *Rockler currently has a special for a Wilton mini lathe for
$99 and free shipping:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...r=mini%20lathe

I have no experience with this particular lathe, but for the price it
seems like a reasonable gamble. *You can also view the manual for it
on-line he

http://images.rockler.com/tech/RTD10000595AA.pdf

Based on the manual, it looks like both the head stock and tail stock
use a #1 Morris Taper. *The head stock is also threaded at 3/4"x16
which is fairly standard.

If you opt to get another lathe and you're wondering what to do with
the first one . . . *I'm planning on turning my first one into a disc
sander or a buffing station.

Just for easy reference (it'll matter if the OP tries to search for stuff),
it's Morse Taper, usually abbreviated mt or mt1 (for duh, Morse taper 1) or
mt2 (again, duh, Morse taper 2).

If he's lucky, it's 3/4X16TPI. *Not the best option but easy places like
Sears has attachments.

Ed

Excellent advice everyone! I haven't had time to unscrew the chuck and
take it to the store, but I appreciate the time taken to help me out.
I should be able to do the work needed to check everything out this
week.

Thanks again,
Nathan