wrote:
I need a smaller lathe for doing a project. Or I could use some help.

I am trying to turn down some hardwood square stock mounted on a soft
wood dowel. The turning has to be somewhat close, much moreso then on
a wood lathe.

I was told of some guys mounting a trim router up in the tool post of a
larger lathe and he recommended I use a 14" or larger lathe. Then
running the shaft through the through hole, you take the foot down to
the finished dowel diameter (the shaft itself is already at final
dimensions).

I had thought about making a jig for a 12" disc sander (which I would
have to buy also), to take the hole foot down at once. I do have a
4x36" belt sander with a disc attachment and was going to try a
miniture on that.

I could really use some experts help here, this is not a typical wood
working issue as the tolerances need to be fairly close or the arrow
wont be straight or round.

If you are tooling up for some kind of production, I'd find a small
cheap wood lathe with a spindle thru-hole big enough to take the arrow.

If the arrows are 3/8" or smaller, no problem--a Jet mini lathe would be
a good choice, or even a Harbor Freight cheepie--but you need to make
sure the tailstock is accurately aligned, or you could fabricate a
dedicated tailstock for the job from hardwood.

Then I'd try a trim router mounted on a heavy base that slides across
the lathe bed, guided by the center gap. I say heavy, I mean made up of
solid, beefy chunks of steel for stability--gravity holds it down, and
you manually move it across the bed or rig up a cable drive or lead screw.

Maybe a beading cutter in the trimmer, with a size just a bit bigger
than the shaft size, would be best--with the shaft rotating under the
lathe's power. I wouldn't try this in one pass, the router's base should
have some type of cross-bed adjustment.

The whole idea is to let high speed do the work, and minimize the
cutting forces which would spring the arrow shaft.

Ken Grunke

--
take da "ma" offa dot com fer eemayl


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