>I have an older Rockwell-Delta Homecraft lathe (the 46-111 14/11" gap bed lathe to be exact) and I want to try turning small bowls on it.
This beastie has 4 speeds, 990, 1475, 2200 and 3250 rpms and is powered by a whopping 1/3 hp motor.
I've been looking over the grizzly catalogue and have been thinking about their 40 dollar 4 jaw chuck--not too much money if the lathe is not up to bowl turning. Is this a bad idea?
The heastock spindle is threaded for a 1" x 8tpi and has a #2 morse taper.
>I ordered one of those $40 chucks about 18 months ago and I thought for that kind of money that it was OK until I found a couple of voids in the casting...big holes....so I called them up and told them about it. The option was to replace it or get my money back. I decided on the refund but had to pay the postage back which was close to $7.00. There may be some good ones in the bunch but I would never order one of them again myself. Maybe others have been luckier than I was but that is my story.
These older Rockwell/Delta lathes are actually pretty good lathes. My dad turned on one for over 50 years, and eventually put riser blocks on it to give it a 16" swing over the bed. Even if the bearings are shot, they can be easily replaced.
Since you have a real lathe, I'd recommend a real chuck. There are plenty of good ones like the Supernova2, the Talon, Axminster, or the Vicmarc. My dad's used a spring-loaded pin to lock the headstock spindle in one of the indexing holes in the outer rim of the biggest pulley -- it didn't work all that well. If you have a convenient means of locking the headstock (spindle), you can also consider the less expensive Nova Compact or other tommy bar-operated chucks. I would not recommend these for use on any lathe with cumbersome spindle lock.
Don't sell yourself, or your lathe short -- you can produce some very nice work on this machine !
>I turn on a similar old Delta/Rockwell except I don't have the gap. I'm a firm believer that my oneway talon made a huge difference in the performance of my lathe. My father has the Delta/Rockwell with the gap and a oneway talon. By adding the quality chuck you'll be surprised at what you can turn out on that lathe plus the chuck is something that you can take with you to your next lathe if you get hooked or resell if not.
Well worth it to pay a nickel more and go first class.
Glad to hear that people are getting good performance out of these lathes. My question is, did you upgrade the banjo (tool rest support in case I'm misusing the term)? On my 46-111, the banjo doesn't operate by a lever-locking mechanism so it's rather cumbersome to make adjustments. Or perhaps the inefficiency is in my technique (which I'd be glad to hear because fixing that should be cheaper!). TIA.
Regards,
Mike
p.s. thanks for the advice on chucks, I'm in the market for one of those too
>I have that exact same lathe and although it has it's drawbacks, it's still a very usable machine. I've also used the monster Jet and Powermatic lathes and the Oneway 1018, so I have a good point of reference between a really good lathe and the old Rockwell.
I've made a number of bowls and many pens and recently bought the axminster 4" chuck for it. It's a great chuck (I've used vicmarc and axminster chucks on the big lathes) and you won't be disappointed by using a good chuck with an ok lathe like the Rockwell.
>I assume so you can turn a larger platter. It's gotten me out of a bind in roughing a blank that was almost too big on one end when I've turned on my father's lathe. The taper of the trunk allowed me to go ahead and mount the blank for endgrain turning a vase.
Not a lot of use from my perspective. I have thought about trying to increase the capacity of my lathe by a few inches and have heard of people doing it but haven't figured out how to get the headstock/tailstock to line up correctly and think there may be some unwanted slop if I tried it. Great, now I'm thinking about that again.
>I added risers to SWMBO's Delta 2 years ago. Since the stock banjo was porly designed it was replaced with one for a Nova. Woodcraft stocks them. I think it was about $90.
>Been down that road. Bought the $40 Grizzley chuck. Threw 3 bowls from it over about 12 bowl projects. Recieved as a Christmas gift a Oneway chuck. Nearly 50 bowls later, not even a hint of a lost bowl. 10# of wood at 1000 rpm makes a big hole in your face. The cost of a good chuck is probably less than your medical deductable. Spend it now, or spend it later........
