Jumbo Lathe

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The first project was to create a convex semisphear for a logo sign for my brother's company ,see the whole finised product and details at SignalysisLogoSign The machine may look scary but it is only turning at about 1 turn per second from a dryer motor that can bearly handle the torque . The shaping tool is a piece of an old wieght lifting bench press I found in the pile of stuff I got from the warehouse moveout .I have 4 inch X 2 inch steel C beam for a tool rest and coat the metal with alot of grease .It takes awhile working back and forth but the perforated aluminum is fairly plyable so it makes it easier .

= Fluted Column test piece =
This is the first test section of the fluted column .First I make the planks by ripping a bevel cut on each side ,followed by a dato groove on each side .Normaly I would glue up the assembly on the lathe and turn it till it was round and smooth to the outer dimention and then cut the flutes but for this test I just wanted to see how fast my ripping was going to take .I also wanted to get a sample of how deep the customer wanted to go with the flute so I cut the flutes before assembly with a 1 " inch half round cutter in several passes .Customers have a hard time seeing things in 3 dimentions looking at a picture so I hope this helps .

And several months later.......

I made the flute cutter blades out of steel from replacment leaf springs I got from the Tractor Supply. The flute starts just below the top of the column so I had to do a "drop in cut" which is kind of scary because at the moment the cutter tool depth adjustment is located about a foot behind the blades spinning at 1700 RPMs and 1HP. I have a screwjack actuator I will install before doing the next one making it controllable at a distance.

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