Mini lathe carriage feed

[threesixesinarow]

Thanks, PJs,

I learned a lot starting out reading through Varmint Al’s site, along with stuff from Frank Hoose, J. W. Early and others I can’t remember now. I wonder how many of us they’ve inspired to squeeze more out of these little lathes.

I’m not sure this feed does that but it makes it really easy to switch between turning and threading.

The noise is mostly from the cheap gear motor I wanted to try first before buying something less familiar like a small stepper. The home made extra gears are about the same size as mini lathe change gears but with some extra details - the bigger one is part of the clutch.

I made the bottom extension from a left over rectangular piece of cast iron bar stock. The working parts are packed in tight but drilling and boring the interior was pretty simple, and the outside texture that seems to help with painting is just from a carbide burr in a moto-tool with a loose front bearing. It’s attached with three bolts, which you should be able to see in blue on the side view if you click on the drawing when it’s displayed in the lightbox.

- Clark