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10-29-2016, 09:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-29-2016, 10:03 PM by gear jammer.
Edit Reason: The window is on my left, sorry
)
I used to have my lathe against the wall with a lot of the tools and supplies in racks/ holders on the wall. I do not keep heat on in the shop so I start out with a coat on until it warms a bit. I reached for tool,I could feel the coat wanting to wrap on the piece I was making into sawdust. Decent fitting coat not loose or unzipped. I turned my lathe 90 deg. to the wall and have loved it since. Cleanup takes a bit longer but I made the mess I can clean it up. I have a window to my
left when I face the lathe. Always though I wanted it to be front of me is why I had it against the wall. Figured out it makes nodifference. I can step back and still look out.
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(10-27-2016, 09:09 PM)iclark Wrote: Unless you are using a very steep grind on your bowl gouge, I cannot picture why your handle would go much past the safety cage.
What type of lathe are we taking here? For a Jet 1642 or smaller, you can just pivot the tailstock end out away from the wall when you need a bit more room.
late 70s/Early 80s Delta. Nothing fancy. From experience it works much better (and I feel safer) when it's bolted to the floor. It doesn't move nearly as much.
It doesn't have a safety cage. So it's probably combination of technique and possibly the grind on my bowl gouges.
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Wanting to bolt it down certainly eliminates my approach of moving it around a bit as needed.
I have seen Glenn Lucas have bit of bother with the end of his bowl gouge hitting the safety shield. this only happened, though, when he was using one of his steep angle grinds that he uses for the bottom of the bowl and trying to use it to do a finishing cut all the way from the lip to the center.
Assuming that you do not need to stand behind the lathe, you can figure out your minimum distance from the wall by:
taking your longest gouge with the steepest grind and
laying the steel on the ways with the cutting bevel parallel to the ways and
with the tip even with the smallest bowl diameter that you would use it on.
If it will not mess with your perspective when turning, you might also put the headstock end of the lathe a bit closer to the wall than the tailstock end.
I have a floor-standing dual-head LED work light sitting behind my lathe that helps a lot for lighting. When they are not on sale, they run ~$100 at Lowes or at ACE.
"the most important safety feature on any tool is the one between your ears." - Ken Vick
A wish for you all: May you keep buying green bananas.
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No that won't mess with my perspective to do it that way to have a bit more room.
The lathe isn't that heavy, as these things go. the base is steel and not CI. Right after I got it I took a turning class at one of the community colleges here they had monsters of various sizes, all cast iron beasts. The same size out of round blank that didn't budge those made mine move more than I wanted it to, until I bolted it down. I tried some sandbags first but that didn't seem to help much.
