In article ,
"Steve B" wrote:
I want to build a specialty lathe to work on pool cues. Rather than having
a chuck and tailpiece, I want to use some ball bearing wheel trucks that go
on the bottom of sliding glass doors. They have neoprene wheels, and the
spacing is perfect. There would be two of them to support the work, and
then in the middle, there would be a sewing machine motor with O ring type
drive pulley bearing down and holding it on the wheels. This would be to
sand, and with another device, trim off old tips and leave a perpendicular
cut.
It would look basically like a six foot long box, about a foot square, with
a rod along the front side where the last board is omitted. The rod would
be superoverkill 3/4" cold rolled steel, making it essentially a very strong
straight support to rest any tool on.
Since pool shafts are tapered, how would I get them to go in there so that
they would be precise? The trucks would have machine screws into steel
bases to fine adjust up and down, and be drilled on the 90 for perfect
vertical.
I need a measuring device to check the cue's proper positioning sometimes.
I'm thinking of a long piece of oak or hardwood that is cut on a precise
taper that can be laid on top of the cue, and the taper would make the top
of the measurement tool exactly level. I do have one of those pendulum
degree finder things that would help in measuring. Is there a device that
is adjustable for setting these long slim wedge shaped cut out lines, or
maybe just have a pivot point, and a level so I could get it pretty close?
Steve
They are called a steady rest, do some Google searching on home-brew
ones and see what you find. For what you want they should be
adjustable, not fixed.
PS, people have found that the trucks from skates work, I've never heard
of someone using those door wheel, they are not designed for high speed
movement, while the ones from skates are
Good luck, you would be better off buying a lathe and modifying it
--
--------------------------------------------------------
Personal e-mail is the n7bsn but at amsat.org
This posting address is a spam-trap and seldom read
RV and Camping FAQ can be found at
http://www.ralphandellen.us/rv