had to clean my shop before I could post a picture of my new toy

Putting together the vacuum chuck and camera set-up for my hollowing system still but I thought I'd take a picture of my new toy while my shop was clean and neat.

Grizzly 0766; minor annoyances but the price is right and it didn't whine at all when I put a fifty to seventy-five pound chunk of wet oak on to whittle into a bowl blank. So far, so good!

Hu
 

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Nice! That'll do a few bowls of moderate size :)

What did you end up with for the vacuum compressor?



I went with the Thomas 2600 series pump. Cost me a hundred dollars to my door. Runs and pumps a lot of air, don't know about vacuum as my vacuum gauge ain't known for accuracy. The Thomas pumps have a full top end rebuild kit for 25-30 dollars if I need it.

You do have to be careful getting them on the surplus market. Some have very little vacuum in perfect shape, only about ten inches of mercury or whatever scale they rate them with. The CE pumps have higher vacuum. In perfect shape they should pull 92% of atmospheric pressure, in reality you might get as high as 26-27 inches of mercury. One thing, despite some sellers airily claiming all 2600's are the same, aside from the totally different function some of the pumps have longer strokes than others and substantially greater CFM. Talking from just over three to over four and a half CFM, could easily be the difference between a turning staying put or not.

Here is a starting point for researching the pumps. While I was looking for a capacitor for mine I found I could have got one to my door for sixty or seventy dollars. Probably need a rebuild but the guy at frugal vacuum pumps says the bottom ends are bulletproof, rebuild the top and you are good to go. Speaking of which, I couldn't get in touch with him when I wanted to but Frugal Vacuum Chucks would have sold me a complete rig for less than I will have in mine and been a very simple deal. Mine will be prettier, I used a lot of brass!

http://www.gd-thomas.com/woblpiston/gas/ This is the oilless system so you don't have to worry about oil in your lines and a fine mist of oil in your shop air to be breathing. The connecting rod and piston are a one piece unit so the piston does wobble in the bore, a lot! It works though, all that counts. These same units are often used in the coin operated on demand air pumps. Have to be pretty tough to serve that duty plus be able to run 24/7 for five years or more without maintenance in hospitals and such.

Hu
 
Finally someone got the motor out from under the ways and chips. It has to run cooler out there. That is the size lathe Ted wished I had this summer when he turned a bowl at our Family Gathering.
 
Thanks Carol and Guys! This is a pretty decent sized chunk of iron, thick castings in the bed and legs. I think it weighs 450+ pounds. When I stick the last five half-pads in place the lathe with ballast should top 1100 pounds by a little bit. With just a face plate on it I spun it wide open on the low range, 1220RPM, and couldn't feel it running with a hand on the bed with the ballast I have now. Another 175 pounds should make it seem like it is bolted down. Another nice feature, this machine is quiet!

Going to spend a day roughing blanks soon and I should have some opinions after that. Found a very ragged old blank to second turn and couldn't resist. It is on the lathe now. I don't think it will move around overnight, been laying in the barn for months. It had some red spidery looking growth on it in a couple of places. Had me thinking about the old Steve McQueen high school movie The Blob. Decided I didn't want to touch it bare handed. If nobody hears from me after tomorrow call the National Guard and tell them to bring flame throwers!

Hu

Edit: About that "clean shop" deal, I figure anytime I can get to most of my shop without climbing it is clean! The only time it is really pretty clean is when I lose something very valuable or must have and it takes awhile to find it.
 
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I'm jealous, Hu! My shop is never that clean. Goes with the territory I guess. Grizzlies are good lathes in my opinion! Run one myself! Strong as all get out!



Dave,

I have to confess there is nothing like trying to horse around 450 pounds of iron by myself to encourage me to clean at least enough to get solid footing! Small wheels on the jacks and furniture dollies too. The floor really was almost clean during the move. One of the trash scoops on the end of a waist high handle instead of an old grain scoop encourages my clean-ups too, I hate bending over! I'll be buying another one or two of those to have one each place I need it.


Ted,

Funny you say spinning, I'm fascinated by metal spinning and hope to get around to doing a little someday. This lathe should be up to the task if I don't get too carried away.


A big thanks to everyone! Been a long time since I bought anything of any significant size new so this new toy is very pleasing. Not quite to the point of just going out to the barn to pet it now and then but close! As I get closer to having all my ducks in a row I enjoy it more. I have three or four dry logs, need to make some blanks and cut some green wood too, I do like the long soft shavings piling up.

Hu
 
Hu, my shop is a 3 car garage converted into a turning shop. My floor is dirt and shavings so my cleanup is a bit different. Rakes instead of brooms and so on. But, my lathe is set up on a 8X12' wood platform so my wiring can run under it in conduit and the lathe is bolted to it. The deck is 1 1/8" plywood. I made sure I my lathe (I call it Beulah as is Beulah the Mule) where I wanted her and set it in place. Don't have to worry about her walking around. I do leave some piles of shavings strategically located in the shop so my rough back lizards and my rat and bull snakes have a place to burrow into. I'm on 35 acres and my house and shop are right in the middle of it. Have to watch out because deer like to come near the shop and watch me while I work sometimes. I feed them breakfast and dinner so they kind of love me I guess. Either that or they want me to start serving lunch!
 
Hu, my shop is a 3 car garage converted into a turning shop. My floor is dirt and shavings so my cleanup is a bit different. Rakes instead of brooms and so on. But, my lathe is set up on a 8X12' wood platform so my wiring can run under it in conduit and the lathe is bolted to it. The deck is 1 1/8" plywood. I made sure I my lathe (I call it Beulah as is Beulah the Mule) where I wanted her and set it in place. Don't have to worry about her walking around. I do leave some piles of shavings strategically located in the shop so my rough back lizards and my rat and bull snakes have a place to burrow into. I'm on 35 acres and my house and shop are right in the middle of it. Have to watch out because deer like to come near the shop and watch me while I work sometimes. I feed them breakfast and dinner so they kind of love me I guess. Either that or they want me to start serving lunch!



Dave,

I could go with the route of building a platform of course. Planned on doing that when I had in mind to put a 4400 pound metal lathe on a wooden floor a few years back. Never put my engineering to the test on that one! Considering how big and nasty a piece of wood is needed to cause rock and roll issues now I figure limiting myself a little bit is a good idea. I tend to be a bigger is better kind of guy. I have a gorgeous pear stump with the most symmetrical flute shaped roots I have ever seen on anything but a cypress. For better or worse I gave it to a friend with a VB-36 before I had this lathe. I need to get it to him before temptation overwhelms me, I hate reneging on a promise!

I am not in the middle of a hundred acres here but central enough I can see only a glimpse of one neighbor's house from my front yard when all of the leaves fall. I can hear them mow when I am in the front yard once or twice a year too. My deer are very nocturnal due to pressure. I have only seen them in daylight twice in maybe four years. On the other hand with three fairly large chinese(sawtooth) oaks filling my little fenced in area of back yard where dogs and grandchildren can play, I find signs that deer almost had their heads looking in my bedroom window. Tempting to feed them and add them to the creatures I see around the pond next to the house or out back in the river bottom but I don't want to make them easy pickings for the hunters. Not that I have a thing against deer meat prepared right, I just feel the hunt should be fair chase.

Hu
 
Carol said, " Nice lathe and clean shops are always nice."

And you are correct Carol. I had a clean shop once. It was about 32 years ago, back when we mistakenly thought automobiles should go in garages and several power tools had not been purchased yet.

It is a nice thought though.

That is a great looking lathe. I hope you bowl everybody over with your production.

Enjoy,
JimB

Enjoy,
JimB
 
Hu, my deer don't care what time of day or night it is! They just come on around and graze even if I don't have corn out right then. I have a watering trough set up for them several years ago when the drought got real bad and the stock tanks were empty. I figgered everybody and everything is entitled to a drink of water here and there so I set that up. And, then of course I had to feed them. But it is enjoyable to sit out on my back deck and watch them eat and run around knowing they are safe on my land. Civilization in steadily encroaching on me and I guess I will just have to put up with it for the time being. I guess as long as they stay there I'll be fine. From the looks of what I have seen they are mostly city yuppies anyway. Oh, well. The raised platform for my wood lathe has been a really great idea. Gotta go sharpen up some chains as I start logging again tomorrow.
 
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