3520b lathe is home

Re: 3520b lathe is home

John K Jordan

You are gonna love it!

As for posting photos, click on FAQs above for instructions. Assuming you are a registered user here: To upload a picture from your computer you need to make the file size 100k or less and use the "Choose File" button. To prepare the file, crop if possible, resize (600 or so pixels wide is a good size), and set the JPS compression to keep the file size small enough.

I use Photoshop for this but there are lots of other ways - some are described in the FAQs.

You can also paste a URL pointing to a photo hosted somewhere.

JKJ

Re: 3520b lathe is home

cameron

Finally figured out why I couldn't post pictures, apparently my profile name changed when I swapped computers a while back... Here is my lathe in the shop.

Re: 3520b lathe is home

Barry Irby

Congratulations! John is right, You are going to love it!

OTOH, Welcome to the slippery slope into the abyss. Soon you will find the lathe was the cheap part. There tools, face plates, chucks, wood, vacuum pump and on and on.

I had a bunch of face plates made. Not pretty, but effective. Went to an industrial junk yard and found nuts that fit the shaft. (Be careful, there are two common ones that are 1 1/4" but they have different threads and they are hard to tell apart.) Then I found "blind Plates". Round disks of steel meant to close off the ends of steam piping. some had bolt holes and some were blanks. I think I paid about a dollar for each nut and maybe a dollar or two for each plate. I took them to a back yard machinist who is semiretired and basically a hobbyist. He welded the up and "faced" them off to make them run true. He understood the process and end goal better than I did. I had ten made for less than a hundred bucks. I'm a cheapskate this was wonderful to me. Some of the plates have holes at the center to allow for vacuum. Incidentally, ten is NOT too many.

If you are not a machinist, find one you like. And find some industrial supply houses for things like bearings and Armaflex foam and on and on.

I mentioned before that you don't really need fifty chisels. Start with about six or maybe ten until you learn which part of turning you like and what you will actually use.

Re: Option for faceplates *LINK*

Dave Paine

The lathe looks good. I can appreciate the need to move machines around.

A local wood turning club member has a plastic curtain surrounding his 3520B. This helps to contain the chips and dust from turning. I thought my table saw created a lot of debris, but it is nothing compared to turning. Keeping the debris in a designated space will help a great deal to minimize cleanup.

In another post you mentioned wanting to get faceplate(s).

Someone mentioned the Beall tap. I have this, it is a good tap. I have mixed success in making wooden threaded faceplates due to the variations in the pieces of wood I used. The threads often tear even when I reinforce with CA glue.

I prefer to purchase 1 1/4in x 8 tpi nuts. I have a metal lathe so I can machine the faces flat round off part of the nut to fit in a smaller hole and most important is to machine a recess for the shoulder of the spindle.

A fellow called Bill Noble sells faceplates based on such nuts. He welds big washers to them. I cannot link to the faceplate due to his page design, but click on the Faceplates in the left of the page. You want the 1 1/4in x 8 selections and the option for thread relief, which is the machining of the recess. A 4in faceplate is only $20.


http://www.wbnoble.com/

Re: Option for faceplates

Stuart Johnson

I started off with some of Bill's faceplates and quickly replaced them. The problems I found are the nuts don't thread on tight and the flat washers were off center just a bit. Between the two problems they wobbled. A couple plastic washers took care of the threading issue but I was never able to get them to run true.

This was over ten years ago and could very well have changed how they are made.

Re: Option for faceplates

john lucas

1 1/4x8 nuts won't thread all the way to back of the spindle on Powermatics. This helps keep things lined up and also to stop them from unscrewing. There are lots of good faceplates out there. I have several from Bestwoodtools and like them. People fuss about aluminum faceplates but I have no problem with them.

Re: 3520b lathe is home

cameron

thanks guys, appreciate the help

The best investment you should make.........

JamieDonaldson

....would be for some competent instruction! Don't start buying tools until you have a good idea about what you want to turn, then an experienced mentor will help you avoid buying every gadget that comes along. Most of us made the error of buying tool after tool until we own about 50, then find with experience we are only using about 5. This excluded hollowing tools!

Re: The best investment you should make.........

Joe Bradshaw

I second Jamie's suggestion. A wise use of your $ would be to take Alan Lelands beginner class at John C. Campbell Folk School. This would certainly get you going.

Joe

Re: The best investment you should make.........

Lyle Jamieson

Ditto, including hollowing tool. Get some help and it will be a lot more fun.

Re: Option for faceplates

Bob Verne

For an additional $5, Bill Noble will make a relief cut in the threads at the spindle end of the nut of his adapter so it will seat directly on the face of the spindle. At the same time, he will true the face of the adapter washer to fix any wobble. He did this to mine and they work very well.

Bob Verne

Re: Option for faceplates

john lucas

The nuts I have are too short to go all the way back to the headstock spindle registration. The metal welded on the end bottoms out against the face of the threaded spindle and won't let it go back far enough to bottom out on the spindle registration area. I turned a recess in a nut that will bottom out all the way but it doesn't have a plate welded to the front. the threads of the spindle stick out through the nut when you do bottom it out. Maybe there are some nuts that are longer.

make one?

John K Jordan

Can you weld two nuts together for more thickness, then face off and recess the end on the metal lathe?

1 1/4 x 8 nuts on Powermatic 3520A

john lucas

Here are some photos showing how I use the standard 1 1/4x8 nuts on my Powermatic 3520A. I believe the B series has the same spindle length but could be wrong. I've demoed on the B and don't remember any differences.

Photo 1 shows the nut screwed all the way to the spindle face. This nut has a recess turned in it. The Photo 2 shows how I use the same nut with a recess and hole bored in the faceplate washer so the spindle sticks through. I have used wooden blanks on these where I've bored a hole in the blank so the spindle will stick through and the faceplate sits flat. Photo 3 shows how I use these nuts most frequently to make Vacuum chuck faceplates. On my vacuum chuck faceplates I leave the washers solid except for a 3/8" hole bored in the center to conduct the vacuum. I put a foam washer inside the faceplate that bottoms out on the very end of the spindle. This seals the vacuum. Yes it probably throws off the faceplate alignment very slightly but then the vacuum seal on the face of the chuck also throws of alignment of the bowl very slightly anyway so it really hasn't been a problem.

Re: 1 1/4 x 8 nuts on Powermatic 3520A

Chuck Engstrom

I've had good results making my own extension "washers" out of odd pieces of aluminum plate from a friend's machine shop. I cut a round piece of appropriate size on the bandsaw, screw it to a wooden block mounted on the lathe, and cut outer (first) and inner diameters with a diamond parting tools.

I put the "washer" between the spindle thread and whatever is too short to go all the way over it. The aluminum plate seems to be dead flat, unlike many store- bought washers, so these have never seemed to induce any misalignment or wobble.

Re: 1 1/4 x 8 nuts on Powermatic 3520A

Barry Irby

Just put an 1 1/4" hole in the face plate and weld around the outside of the nut. If the steel of the faceplate is thick enough the problem is solved. Or the machinist can true up the back of the plate inside the nut and it will register off the end of the shaft rather than the shoulder. And, if you use the hole in the faceplate method, the hole does not have to penetrate the face plate, just a recess for the shaft will do..

Re: 3520b lathe is home

RP

The most important tool to get, if you don't have one already, is a grinder and maybe a wolverine jig. Turning is no fun with dull tools. Don't get wrapped around the axle about CBN wheels. The advocates for CBN used to use regular wheels a few years ago, and I don't think their turning improved that much after they got CBN.

RP

Re: 3520b lathe is home

Jim Barbour

I agree with the advice given, especially the instruction. About CBN, I use a CBN wheel and find it to be very convenient, but I don't think one is worth the extra cost unless you are doing a LOT of turning. Maybe after you wear out your first two regular wheels you should consider CBN, not before. A Wolverine jig, however, is in my opinion an excellent investment. Freehand sharpening is overrated (I know ... there is no need to correct me ... )

Re: 3520b lathe is home

Bill Blasic

Any jig that helps one to sharpen their tools is an advantage. The CBN wheel is one of the best things I have ever added, it will increase your tool life a ton.