Before I had actually bought my lathe I picked up a some blanks at an estate sale. One was really large that was rough cut approx 12 round by 11 deep. My lathe is the nova comet II which says it is a 12" lathe so I thought OK lets try this and see what happens. I guess the distance from the center of the drive shaft to the bed is 6" but unless you have an exactly round 12" blank there is no way it will turn.
I hacked bits off the blank at the band saw and mounted a faceplate. I got it to clear the bed by about 1/4 so the blank at this point must have been ~11.5" and the open end must have been bark at some point and was very uneven. I started the lathe on slow and OMG it felt like an earthquake! 1st time I have tried anything with this much mass and to the Novas credit the motor was coping fine it was just the mass of the lathe vs the spinning blank. This coupled with the fact that this lathe is designed with feet and is not bolted to the stand made it even more scary as the lathe began hopping across the stand. I knew that I had to get it roughed round and the shake would stop but I wasnt sure how best to do so safely. In the end I clamped the lathe to the stand which helped somewhat. I turned the lathe on for maybe 30 seconds at a time while I attacked it with a large bowl gouge. Eventually the shaking diminished as the bowl's profile evened out. An interesting learning experience and I now have a few extra todos.
1. Pick up a couple of bags of sand from the borg to add some mass to the stand.
2. Make sure stand is in full contact with floor at all 4 corners
3. Consider options to fix lathe to stand.
Here are a couple of pics of the blank before and after. The roughed exterior is now approx 10.5 x 7 , not sure what the final profile should be, all input appreciated.
I hacked bits off the blank at the band saw and mounted a faceplate. I got it to clear the bed by about 1/4 so the blank at this point must have been ~11.5" and the open end must have been bark at some point and was very uneven. I started the lathe on slow and OMG it felt like an earthquake! 1st time I have tried anything with this much mass and to the Novas credit the motor was coping fine it was just the mass of the lathe vs the spinning blank. This coupled with the fact that this lathe is designed with feet and is not bolted to the stand made it even more scary as the lathe began hopping across the stand. I knew that I had to get it roughed round and the shake would stop but I wasnt sure how best to do so safely. In the end I clamped the lathe to the stand which helped somewhat. I turned the lathe on for maybe 30 seconds at a time while I attacked it with a large bowl gouge. Eventually the shaking diminished as the bowl's profile evened out. An interesting learning experience and I now have a few extra todos.
1. Pick up a couple of bags of sand from the borg to add some mass to the stand.
2. Make sure stand is in full contact with floor at all 4 corners
3. Consider options to fix lathe to stand.
Here are a couple of pics of the blank before and after. The roughed exterior is now approx 10.5 x 7 , not sure what the final profile should be, all input appreciated.
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