calblacksmith Posted October 29, 2013 Report Share Posted October 29, 2013 Saturday, I could not take it any longer and as I had bought a fair size green chunk of Maple (so I was told) I cut it into blanks on the band saw, cut off the corners and turned 4 green wood maple natural edge bowls. These are the first I ever have turned so I think they came out OK. They are still extra thick and sealed in Rockler green wood sealer so they can dry out and in a few months, be turned to final shape. I am still working on replacing the motor and controller for the lathe and I have purchased a digital tach so the RPM can be set more accurately but none of that was on it, I just used it as I had bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick A McQuay Posted October 30, 2013 Report Share Posted October 30, 2013 You might consider turning them down thinner while green. They will dry faster and you'll have less work ahead. Congrats on getting up and running! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted October 30, 2013 Report Share Posted October 30, 2013 make shure you put it some where warm and dry. glad your jumping in feed forward. if you have any questions let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calblacksmith Posted October 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2013 Thank you guys. As a first project, I used a video as a guide, Richard Rafian (something like that) in the video said to leave the walls 10% the thickness of the OD of the project, thus a 10" dia bowl will have a wall thickness of 1" and a 7" bowl 3/4" and that is what I did having never done this before. He said to allow 3 months for thinner walled bowls and more for thicker ones so that is what I went by. Instead of a tennon on the bottom of the bowl, I cut a recess so I will need to reshape the bottom to account for that. I went that way as it seemed that it would be a stronger way to go. I suppose it does not matter but again, a noob here LOL! Mr duckkisser, ;D thanks, I will bring them inside the house, that is the most consistently warm and even tempered place I have. As I am in SoCal winter does not get REAL cold like it does in the midwest (wife is from S.D. and have been there a few winters, also, I was born in Detroit) I mentioned in the tech advice page that I have now ordered the drive and a new motor to go with it. I am staying with 1 hp, what came on the lathe and the new drive system will update the old girl to modern, twist a knob speed adjustment with digital readout. The biggest thing that will need to be done for the conversion is to make a new motor mount but I can't start that until the motor gets here. I really need to work on my turning tools. All I have are for a mini lathe and have an over all size of about 12" or so, not a good thing with the larger lathe. I do have the OneWay sharpening jig setup and a low speed grinder (my avatar) but I can see that I REALLY need to work on learning how to sharpen. Most of the work I did here was done with a carbide tool, mostly as it was the only turning tool that was long enough to be safe to use on a bigger lathe. I can see that I am going to need a bigger chuck too. I am using a Super Nova from Teknatool. The spindle of the PM is 1.5 / 8t I think, anyway, it is the same size as the hole in the chuck for it to accept adapters. It seemed that it should work but the spindle is too long and I had to make a bushing so that the chuck could index on the spindle. Unfortunately this left the chuck to only ride on the threaded portion of the spindle, not the index nose. The spindle checks out to being true within 0.0005" tir on a dial indicator but I get about 0.015 wobble on the chuck, enough to see when it turns. I am going to need to work on that, I do not want to shorten the spindle, it has survived 56 years and is still running true. Thanks guys for the advice, I need all I can get with this wood stuff, a medium I am just starting to learn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick A McQuay Posted November 1, 2013 Report Share Posted November 1, 2013 Ah, I always thought they meant 10% over final wall thickness. Maybe I've been doing it wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles11we Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 I have the same lathe as you. What exactly are you getting to update the drive system? I realizes the starting speed is a little too fast for some of the gnarly off balanced thigs i like to throw up there. As with the turning tools- (i did this) get a really cheap set of hss turning tools from grizzly or HF, i normally never condone buying cheap tools but they are nice to practice new grinds (side grinds, elsworth grind etc) and because cheap hss isnt terribly bad compared to the nice stuff like it is with normal steels. Plus its so nice to have different tools for different purposes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calblacksmith Posted November 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 I purchased a new motor, still 1 hp though I guess I could have gone bigger. It is a motor designed for the use of a Variable Speed Drive. The motor is designed to go 10:1 with constant torque to 10% of the name plate speed of 1200 rpm. So the motor can go to 120 rpm and still have full torque. It can also over speed to 2700 max rpm but as you go over the rated speed, you start to loose torque. The drive I purchased is the one I linked to. It will allow electronic control of the motor for speed, direction, start, stop, jog etc. It also has 10 programmable speeds that you can setup and select. It runs on 220v single phase power (or 3 phase if you wish) and electronically generates the 3 phase power for the motor at the various speeds and voltages need to keep the motor operating as it should. http://www.automationdirect.com/adc/Shopping/Catalog/Drives/DURApulse_-_GS3_%28230_-z-_460_VAC_Sensorless_Vector_Control%29/DURApulse_-_GS3_Drive_Units_%28230_-z-_460_VAC_SLV%29/GS3-21P0 This drive has vecorless sensing so it can provide the proper parameters for the motor to operate to spec over the full range of the motors abilities. Cheaper controls can not take advantage of the abilities of the motor. I still need to work out the step pulley setup but at the moment I am thinking of going with a 1.5:1, this will give a speed range of 180 rpm to about 1800 rpm (and faster with reduced torque, 2,000 rpm should be OK) useable speed on the first step then change pulleys to pick up the higher speed ranges, a 3:1 pulley will then go 360 to 3,600 rpm at full torque. The motor, I bought new from Ebay, for about 1/3 MSRP. It was overstock on a shelf for about 10 years by the mfg date code on the motor. It is a C FACE mount so I will need to make a complete new way to hold the motor in the lathe but at the moment I have other more pressing issues to take care of like adding in a new breaker box and running all new power lines on the W side of the shop. My main breaker box is on the E side of the shop and I am tired of using extension cords for everything so until I finish this "project" the lathe project needs to be on the back burner as everything has been pulled away from the wall to build an interior wall in the shop (metal building with insulation) to mount the panel and the need power runs on. I do need to connect the motor and the VSD ASAP to each other to make sure they work. I only have 30 days to return the drive and it has been nearly two weeks. I also bought a Tach to mount on the spindle to give a true readout of the spindle RPM, it came as a kit and need to be assembled, it has been completed and I only need to mount the sensor to the lathe (after the motor and drive are done) to finish the tach. I went with this tach over a completed one because there are several sensor options available for it while most other tachs only have the reflective sensor. The company is http://www.machtach.com/ The price is pretty good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calblacksmith Posted January 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 OK, I could not wait any longer and I finished the largest of the bowls. It turned out OK considering that I did everything wrong step by step! I had mounted the worm screw to the wrong side of the log for this one bowl, thus I had a small hole thrugh the bottom, I deided to open it up and make it a feature, not a mistake. It still sort of looks like a mistake but in my own mind, the cover up looks OK, I turned a foot for the maple bowl from Padauk and bored the hole bigger then made a plug for the hole in the Padauk. The other ones are still waiting to be finished and I hope to get to them soon, I do lik the contrasting foot, even if it did not go through the bottom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted January 3, 2014 Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 Nicely done! Your recovery from a "mistake" was great! The experience you gained is even better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted January 3, 2014 Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 i have done that exact same thing several times. well similar where i blew throught the bottom on a few and had to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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