Help: bed casting
 

Anyone out there who could cast an extended bed for one of the
7x10,12,14 Chinise lathes for me?

I would like to get to a capacity of 36 in between centers.

yes, I know they are crap, but one could work fine for me.

I once had a link for someone who did bed castings for very
modest prices, but they seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth.

FWIW, you can buy a bed extension for a comp. small wood lathe,
but even LittleMachineShop doesn't have anything past 14 inches.

Any and all leads, tips, advises would be greatly appreciated.

I live in soutern Ohio

TIA
Otto

ottomatic wrote:

Anyone out there who could cast an extended bed for one of the
7x10,12,14 Chinise lathes for me?

I would like to get to a capacity of 36 in between centers.

yes, I know they are crap, but one could work fine for me.

I once had a link for someone who did bed castings for very
modest prices, but they seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth.

FWIW, you can buy a bed extension for a comp. small wood lathe,
but even LittleMachineShop doesn't have anything past 14 inches.

Any and all leads, tips, advises would be greatly appreciated.

I live in soutern Ohio

TIA
Otto

What are you planning to do about the rack and leadscrew?

Likely the most practical way to do this is to get a second one of the
lathes and use it to provide the additional bed and rack components.
You'd get extra length past it's stated size since you can include the
tailstock area and possibly some of the head area.

You could probably machine and dowel pin the bed sections together for
alignment and then mount the entire assembly onto a big piece of steel
channel stock to provide a new base plate and additional support. You'd
still have to figure out the leadscrew issue. You'd also have extra
parts for anything you broke later at less cost than purchasing
replacement parts.

You could of course find a suitably sized used lathe with a larger swing
and more rigidity for a similar price.

Pete C.

How about a weldment? Use an I beam as a base?



On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 12:49:22 GMT, "ottomatic"
wrote:

Anyone out there who could cast an extended bed for one of the
7x10,12,14 Chinise lathes for me?

I would like to get to a capacity of 36 in between centers.

yes, I know they are crap, but one could work fine for me.

I once had a link for someone who did bed castings for very
modest prices, but they seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth.

FWIW, you can buy a bed extension for a comp. small wood lathe,
but even LittleMachineShop doesn't have anything past 14 inches.

Any and all leads, tips, advises would be greatly appreciated.

I live in soutern Ohio

TIA
Otto

"ottomatic" wrote in message
...
Anyone out there who could cast an extended bed for one of the
7x10,12,14 Chinise lathes for me?

I would like to get to a capacity of 36 in between centers.

yes, I know they are crap, but one could work fine for me.

I once had a link for someone who did bed castings for very
modest prices, but they seem to have fallen off the face of the
Earth.

FWIW, you can buy a bed extension for a comp. small wood lathe,
but even LittleMachineShop doesn't have anything past 14 inches.

Any and all leads, tips, advises would be greatly appreciated.

I live in soutern Ohio

TIA
Otto

Have you checked any of the Yahoo mini lathe groups? I believe there's
one dedicated just to that...

"ottomatic" wrote in message
...
Anyone out there who could cast an extended bed for one of the
7x10,12,14 Chinise lathes for me?

I would like to get to a capacity of 36 in between centers.

yes, I know they are crap, but one could work fine for me.

I once had a link for someone who did bed castings for very
modest prices, but they seem to have fallen off the face of the
Earth.

FWIW, you can buy a bed extension for a comp. small wood lathe,
but even LittleMachineShop doesn't have anything past 14 inches.

Any and all leads, tips, advises would be greatly appreciated.

I live in soutern Ohio

TIA
Otto

Here's a few you might want to look at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/7x12minilathe/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mlathemods/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/7x24Mini-LatheCNC/

Rick wrote:

"ottomatic" wrote in message
...
Anyone out there who could cast an extended bed for one of the
7x10,12,14 Chinise lathes for me?

I would like to get to a capacity of 36 in between centers.

yes, I know they are crap, but one could work fine for me.

I once had a link for someone who did bed castings for very
modest prices, but they seem to have fallen off the face of the
Earth.

FWIW, you can buy a bed extension for a comp. small wood lathe,
but even LittleMachineShop doesn't have anything past 14 inches.

Any and all leads, tips, advises would be greatly appreciated.

I live in soutern Ohio

TIA
Otto

Here's a few you might want to look at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/7x12minilathe/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mlathemods/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/7x24Mini-LatheCNC/

Interesting, the picture on the home page of that last group seems to be
exactly what I suggested in my previous reply. I might actually have a
clue ;)

Pete C.