On Mar 27, 8:42 am, (Arch) wrote:
Of course, that there were some cheaply made older lathes in the past
before the woodturning revolution with it's multiple facets and wide
popularity. However when labor & materials were cheaper, the major
manufacturers at the time seemed to over build their better quality
smaller swing lathes. These lathes were essentially for turning spindles
(not much large face work being done then), but they were made of fine
grained quality cast iron with rugged bearings, castings and decent
machining, yet often limited to a 6" throw and less than that at the
tool rest.
There are a lot of these fine old timers around and reasonably priced at
that. I suppose they could be easily and safely converted to a much
larger swing and many have been, either outboard or inboard with raising
blocks. I realize that how much larger the swing allowed depends on the
lathe and its supports, the timber, the balance of the blank, the
turner's ablility, the grimness of his facial expression and the
decibels of his grunting and swearing.
What can you do to improve on the old machine's specs. for larger face
turning?
Are there any rules of thumb or warning signs and symptoms that you use
to predict a particular face turning you can safely swing or for that
matter that you've gone too far? (ie. before the catastrophe) 
Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter
http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings
Hello Arch,
Welcome back to the group. I don't have any actual specifications on
riser blocks, but I think that most of the time they are limited to 2"
to 4", which increased the swing by 4 or 8 inches. It is not very
practical to place a riser block under the tool rest banjo, so part of
the limiting factor would be the strength of the tool post; i.e., I
think on the smaller swing lathes, they generally had smaller tool
rest posts, like 5/8" or maybe 3/4" at the most. Boosting an 8" swing
lathe to 16" with the 5/8" tool post might bring on disaster is
turning a 16" bowl blank at the furtherest edge of the tool rest. It
will be interesting to see what other say.
Fred Holder
http://www.morewoodturning.net