Author Topic: Living with a house lathe  (Read 24270 times)

Online Jo

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15292
  • Hampshire, england.
Living with a house lathe
« on: October 12, 2012, 09:03:08 AM »
One of my friends introduced me to the idea of a house lathe about 20 years ago. Having a lathe in the house rather than outside in the workshop has many advantages including: it is warm in the house, so you don?t have to wait for the workshop to warm up, when you get bored with tv you can go and knock up something without wandering outside and there are no rust problems. On the down side you get swarf in the house. But that is a small price to pay.

So my lathe: Earlier this year after three years of harassment I finally managed to get one of the other members of Guildford model engineers to sell me a very well equipped early Cowells lathe that he had picked up about 10 years ago and never used. On receiving her I set about doing a few improvements, in this thread I am going to detail them:



The first job was to remount her, this was necessary as on her original mounting (a metal tray) the primary belt was only tensioned by the weight of the motor, which meant that she "hunted" during cuts which had an adverse effect on the finish, I was unhappy with reaching across her to get at the switch, the two bars that the lathe and motor were mounted on made an unsightly gouge on my kitchen table and I just did not like that green drawer.

Having enquired to Cowells on the price of an original cast base and discovered that it was going to cost more than I had paid for the lathe, she is now sporting a very nice gloss white kitchen door front:



The motor has been turned 180 degrees to enable the swarf tray to fit (which is one of these silly modern paper trays that come with these titchy modern desks to try to give you more room) and to enable the switch to be put on the left hand side. I kept the original motor mount and did nothing more than add an adjustment bolt to keep the tension, the result was something of a transformation in her machining!
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Online Jo

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15292
  • Hampshire, england.
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2012, 09:22:39 AM »
When I mounted her on the door front I also raised her up on a block of aluminium. This was to improve the machining height and give me enough space to comfortably turn the handles:



If you look a bit closer you will see that I have chosen to fit dial gauges, this is because the original dials are not adjustable and having dials fitted means that I do not have to worry about backlash. The first dial gauge mount is simply a piece of 3/8? dia stainless that has been mounted at the back of the aluminium mounting block.



The second is simply bolted into the hole for the travelling steady on top of the saddle:



Jo
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Online Jo

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15292
  • Hampshire, england.
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2012, 09:36:14 AM »
A necessity for any small lathe is a mandrel handle, for my Cowells handle I borrowed the idea of using a dog fitted to the end of the lathe spindle, from my Hobbymat/Prazimat one:



This shows the mandrel handle's dog fitted using the 3/8 * 32 thread on the end of the spindle. Into which is slotted the handle.



The handle is simply a piece of flat plate with two holes drilled the handle is mounted on a spindle to allow it to rotate, the other end has a piece of ?? BMS with a pin through it. Which you may be able to see has the same 1/4" hole through the centre which means that I can still use it with long pieces of rod ( accepting that I am likely to catch my knuckles on them).

Jo
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Online Jo

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15292
  • Hampshire, england.
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2012, 09:46:22 AM »
One of those tools you cannot do without, once you have owned one, is a four jaw self centring chuck and sadly Cowells do not do one. But Sherline does and in comparison with the cost of Cowells chucks it is very cheap. Luckily with my Cowells came an old backplate, so it was a simple job of, mounting the spare plate:



Cutting a ?? * 16 thread (Sorry I forgot to take a photo of cutting the 3/4" * 16 thread) using the Cowells threading gears and the mandrel handle. The Sherline chuck is now fitted and ready for use:



If you have not got a four jaw self centring chuck I can recomend them. They are much more versitile than a three jaw as you can hold round, square and hex 8)

Jo
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Online Jo

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15292
  • Hampshire, england.
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2012, 09:54:51 AM »
When the Cowells arrive she had only four tool holders for the quick change tool post so high on my list of things to do was to make some more. This is the drawing for the QCTP and holders that I have:



The tool holders are simply machined from 20mm square steel:



Mainly making these is a simple job on the mill however, my bevel cutter was the wrong angle so an old friend the hand shaper came to the rescue:



Here is a shot of the half way stage:



You can see that there is one extended tool holder in the photo, there is also one of the opposite hand but at the point I took this picture but my arm was aching too much to finish it. The last job was a simple turning exercise for 14 height adjusters.All of the new tool holders are now finished, including the other extended holder ;D:



So I now have 18 tool holders for my Cowells. This means that I can dedicate a tool holder to each tool and don?t have to fuss around trying to get the height right each time I want a different tool. :whoohoo:

Jo
« Last Edit: October 12, 2012, 06:47:19 PM by Jo »
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Arbalest

  • Guest
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2012, 09:56:43 AM »
Thats a very nice looking little lathe Jo. Thanks for the write up and pictures.

Online Jo

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15292
  • Hampshire, england.
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #6 on: October 12, 2012, 10:12:25 AM »
When I brought the lathe it came with a very sad copy of the Cowells 90 handbook which was falling apart. I found that they are still available new from Tee Publishing for ?6.95 inc P&P (you will pay a fortune on Fleabay for a used copy :disappointed:). So with nothing to lose I gave the original to a friend who works in a print room, he cut off the spine, added clear plastic covers and fitted a wire spiral binding.



He also took the opportunity of whilst it was apart running it through the scanner so I now have a pdf version, which has proved to be very useful.

I have also replaced the tailstock lock which was originally an Allen screw, with a lever. I had intended on making more collets but between the 4 jaw SC chuck and putting a standard drill chuck in the spindle nose I have not found that I need them.
---------
This little house lathe has been an absolute god send , she has helped me make umpteen studs, nuts and bolts. With a lathe in the house it is possible to have a quick fix at any time of the day or night :insane:. I would recommend having a small lathe in the house to everyone.

Next I need to start looking at what I can do with her dividing head and indexing head. Longer term it is my intention that she will have a friend to keep her company a "house mill" 8).

Jo
« Last Edit: October 12, 2012, 05:18:28 PM by Jo »
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Online Jo

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15292
  • Hampshire, england.
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2012, 10:14:03 AM »
Thats a very nice looking little lathe Jo. Thanks for the write up and pictures.

You are welcome. I had meant to do it some time ago, it was when Dan mentioned the toolholders on one of his threads that I remembered :old:

Jo
« Last Edit: October 12, 2012, 05:18:58 PM by Jo »
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Offline ProdEng

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 78
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #8 on: October 12, 2012, 11:07:00 AM »
Thanks for introducing the concept of a house lathe and sharing the mods on your machine.  In Oz heat is the enemy and less so the cold.  From 10C to 30 C I have no problem but above 30C I suffer too much to make it any fun at all.  Most of the summer is above 30C so activity is limited to the early hours of the day when I would rather be asleep!.  A lathe in the house would certainly help to keep things moving along.  The smallest of the Sherline range is small, light and inexpensive.
Jan in Perth

Offline Dan Rowe

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1170
  • Dripping Springs TX USA
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2012, 02:10:43 PM »
Jo,
Thanks for starting this thread on your Cowells lathe mods. I plan to borrow a few of the ideas for mine.

I never heard the term house lathe but I am familiar with the concept as for most of the time I was sailing all I had was house lathes on the beach. My first lathe was a Unimat SL that I bought with money I earned as an engine cadet. It lived with me at the Academy and all was fine until they replaced the linoleum floor with carpet. I spent a bit of time pulling swarf out of the carpet before formal inspections. The Unimat made a few trips to sea with me and I used it to make some tiny bushings for a water meter which would have been a bunch harder on a 22" Leblond.

I should have spotted that your QTCP is the Cowells accessory, but with so many holders I thought it must be shop made. Thanks the close up shots. It looks like I have the first thing on my Christmas list for this year.

I have to admit that my Cowells has been down for a while because I was needing a belt. They are not listed on the Cowells site and only one of the belts is listed in the book. I made several trips to sewing machine repair shops and never found a replacement belt and could not find the proper number.

The belts are lug belts and the numbers are MB 350 and MB 400 for the one not in the book. On this side of the pond that type of belt has a number that is the OD of the belt in inches. The MB 350 is a 1534 or 15-3/4" and the MB 400 is a 1600 or a 16" belt.

My copy of the book is getting a bit dog eared also I will have to think about a spiral binding soon.

Dan
« Last Edit: October 12, 2012, 02:50:02 PM by Dan Rowe »
ShaylocoDan

Offline gerritv

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 734
  • St Catharines, ON
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2012, 02:13:20 PM »
Very nice setup, I will adapt some of those ideas to my Unimat.
I do all my machining in a condo/apartment so keeping my work space tidy is important, we have 2 cats and I don't want metal bits getting into their paws.

My solution to swarf came about after I made a fly cutter and learned, as others have before me, that this tool likes to spread its love around your room! The Unimat can operate as a mill or a lathe. Even with normal lathe work the swarf gets around.

I bought some plexiglass off cuts and made a 'box'. The front piece drops in place for easy access to setup etc. To clean up the swarf I use a battery operated vacuum cleaner, its nozzle gets into most of the hiding spots. I still need to make a few brackets but the concept works for me.

Gerrit
Don't confuse activity with progress

Online Jo

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15292
  • Hampshire, england.
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #11 on: October 13, 2012, 08:34:47 AM »
I also have plans to make a perspex cover for the Cowells which I hope will catch more of the swarf. I am still looking into the design as I have foolishly offered to give turning demonstrations at my club's ME rally next year so it will also have to act as a safety cover to protect onlooker's eyes and a security screen to stop light fingered people walking off with things.

I have a little dirt devil vacuum cleaner that lives with the Cowells that I use every time I use her. I also have purchased an industrial rubber backed cotton entrance mat that I have placed under where I sit (http://www.therughouse.co.uk/rugs/brown-cotton-machine-washable-absorbent-kitchen-rubber-mats.html) , the swarf doesn't catch in the cotton like it does in normal carpet, so can be vacuumed off 8).

Jo
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Offline Speedy

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 10
  • Hampshire UK
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2012, 04:14:48 PM »
Thanks for taking the trouble to post words and photos, Jo. You have some useful ideas and alterations there. I too have a house lathe, more because of lack of space in the workshop than anything else, although it is much warmer and comfier working inside as the autumn evenings draw in.



It's not fully commissioned yet, but there's enough of it there to get an idea. I'll post some more details and pictures in a separate Perris thread.

Pete
Nullius in verba

Offline smfr

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1203
  • San Francisco Bay Area, California
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2012, 03:42:20 PM »
Speaking of house lathes, here's a beautiful German one:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1bvyFG3hWM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1bvyFG3hWM</a>

The video itself is quite soporific.

Simon

Offline Peewee

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 28
  • Peterborough UK
    • PSME
Re: Living with a house lathe
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2012, 04:33:53 PM »
Its Soo clean, i must be doing something wrong looking at the state of mine  :embarassed:
Ian
Still sane?  definitely not but enjoying life more

 

SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal