Sitting at the lathe.
 

In church, some of us kneel to pray, sit to learn and stand to praise
and for some, salvaging nature's trees can be a sort of religious
experience. Whatever, now all of us can sit and stand at the lathe. Two
out of three ain't bad. Actually, we do kneel to search for lost chuck
keys. :)


The Oneway 'sitting down" lathe has likely been considered ad nauseum on
other forums, but not here. We have however, discussed lathes for the
disabled on many past threads. The Oneway picture won't stay still long
enough for me to visualize it and think about it, but maybe my cognitive
challenge is a variation on Yogi's tv ad:
"If I don't have it, that's why I need it". :) Anyway, sitting down to
turn might have advantages for many of us who actually can stand at the
lathe.


Other than being able to sit, are there any advantages to mounting a
traditional lathe sideways? As I look at that jumping picture, I think
sideways removes one bed rail from in front of the turner, but I'm not
sure it does or if it helps. Have any of you mounted a regular bed
lathe sideways?


I did put a carbatec on an old style 'schoolboy desk' once. The kind
that the left arm extends from the seat into a small round desk top
slanted slightly upward. That was BSS&S (before spinal stenosis &
senility), so I didn't need to sit so much in those days and I didn't
use it enough to make a judgment.

Have any of you made a Japanese style turning set up with a flat table
bed instead of rails and an open space or slot below the head spindle
followed by a seat; all in one frame? (sorry for the poor description,
hope you "knowatImsa'n") What other variations on sitting down to turn
or unorthodox lathe mounting geometry have you made or thought about
making?


Mercifully, we will omit the drillpress set up (vertilathe) for now,
although I have turned wood on an Atlas horizontal mill.
I've seen pole lathes with a belt for the turner to lean back on while
he pedals. What are your variations? Did they work?


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

Sitting at the lathe.
 

"Arch" wrote: (clip) We have however, discussed lathes for the disabled on
many past threads. (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I have seen the suggestion that tipping the lathe forward would be helpful
to any turner who has to sit. This seems very logical, because it is
spacially equivalent to standing over the lathe and leaning forward. Maybe
some of our wheelchair-bound turners can comment--it's certainly not a new
problem.

Sitting at the lathe.
 

On Thu, 9 Aug 2007 15:07:18 -0400, (Arch) wrote:

Arch... I helped build a wheelchair accessible stand for a Jet mini and it was
pretty cool..

Think one of those rolling table things that they put hospital food on...
My friend just wheels up and parks, then swings the lathe over to him... also
adjust in height and tilt because he also buffs bowls on it..

I don't think that the lathe table would tilt so that (If I'm picturing your
topic correctly) it would look like you were looking at the lathe from the top,
but it went about 30 or 45 degrees toward the chair, from what I remember..

What I'm having trouble visualizing is how the tool rest might work??



In church, some of us kneel to pray, sit to learn and stand to praise
and for some, salvaging nature's trees can be a sort of religious
experience. Whatever, now all of us can sit and stand at the lathe. Two
out of three ain't bad. Actually, we do kneel to search for lost chuck
keys. :)


The Oneway 'sitting down" lathe has likely been considered ad nauseum on
other forums, but not here. We have however, discussed lathes for the
disabled on many past threads. The Oneway picture won't stay still long
enough for me to visualize it and think about it, but maybe my cognitive
challenge is a variation on Yogi's tv ad:
"If I don't have it, that's why I need it". :) Anyway, sitting down to
turn might have advantages for many of us who actually can stand at the
lathe.


Other than being able to sit, are there any advantages to mounting a
traditional lathe sideways? As I look at that jumping picture, I think
sideways removes one bed rail from in front of the turner, but I'm not
sure it does or if it helps. Have any of you mounted a regular bed
lathe sideways?


I did put a carbatec on an old style 'schoolboy desk' once. The kind
that the left arm extends from the seat into a small round desk top
slanted slightly upward. That was BSS&S (before spinal stenosis &
senility), so I didn't need to sit so much in those days and I didn't
use it enough to make a judgment.

Have any of you made a Japanese style turning set up with a flat table
bed instead of rails and an open space or slot below the head spindle
followed by a seat; all in one frame? (sorry for the poor description,
hope you "knowatImsa'n") What other variations on sitting down to turn
or unorthodox lathe mounting geometry have you made or thought about
making?


Mercifully, we will omit the drillpress set up (vertilathe) for now,
although I have turned wood on an Atlas horizontal mill.
I've seen pole lathes with a belt for the turner to lean back on while
he pedals. What are your variations? Did they work?


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings




mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Sitting at the lathe.
 

On Thu, 9 Aug 2007 15:07:18 -0400, (Arch) wrote:

In church, some of us kneel to pray, sit to learn and stand to praise
and for some, salvaging nature's trees can be a sort of religious
experience. Whatever, now all of us can sit and stand at the lathe. Two
out of three ain't bad. Actually, we do kneel to search for lost chuck
keys. :)


The Oneway 'sitting down" lathe has likely been considered ad nauseum on
other forums, but not here. We have however, discussed lathes for the
disabled on many past threads. The Oneway picture won't stay still long
enough for me to visualize it and think about it, but maybe my cognitive
challenge is a variation on Yogi's tv ad:
"If I don't have it, that's why I need it". :) Anyway, sitting down to
turn might have advantages for many of us who actually can stand at the
lathe.


Other than being able to sit, are there any advantages to mounting a
traditional lathe sideways? As I look at that jumping picture, I think
sideways removes one bed rail from in front of the turner, but I'm not
sure it does or if it helps. Have any of you mounted a regular bed
lathe sideways?

What do you mean by "sideways"? If it's what I think you mean, where
the ways would be behind the work rather than underneith it, I could
see little benefit when compared to the risks it would entail.

While it may not matter as much if a guy was completely paralized and
couldn't feel it, I can't think of anything great that might come of a
spinning hunk of wood falling out of the lathe, and landing on your
knees. Like anything, there may be a case where the benefit outweighs
that risk, but I would think that for the average turner, there's not
much of a real advantage to be gained.

Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you've described...

Sitting at the lathe.
 

I can see one potential benefit to having the lathe bed - and
motor - behind the work rather than below it.

That puts more mass BEHIND the axis of rotation rather than
below the axis of rotation. That seems like it would provide
more resistance to wobblin' & walkin' when working with "out
of round" pieces.

As for turning while seated, I personally want all the spatial
options I can get should things go bad. Being spacially
constrained concerns me. Just the logistics would bug me
- stand up to put a chuck away and get a drill chuck, get up
to sharpen a tool, get up to pick up the whatever I dropped.
And having Swing and Sway movement restricted would be
a bit irritating very quickly.

I have to take my hat off to woodworkers in wheel chairs.
They often make the rest of us look like slouches.

Interesting set of questions - as usual.

charlie b