Started to put this in "Shop Made Tools..." but it's more of a mod to my wood lathe then a tool so here it is.
Like most folks that turn bowls on occasion and probably even some of the more professional bowel turners, I have experienced having the tailstock live center find its way into my elbow. Have been looking at "Swing-aways" for my Jet 1642 but the near $300 price tag always put me off. Then I recently ran across a couple shop-made units and I decided that I could make my own also. I have at most $20 invested in this one and half of that was the large hinge. Take a look and see what you think.
I think it looks pretty good and it does work great.
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Started with some scrap aluminum, the purchased hinge, some scrap phenolic and a 3/4" plywood stack(about 6")
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Will eventually fill and clear-coat the plywood and will also replace the retaining nuts with some star knobs. I only had 5/16-18 onhand but need 3/8-16. Found some on eBay so they were ordered a few minutes ago. They pushed my total cost to about $28.
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The swingaway is locked in place with two pieces of 3/8-16 all-thread that go all the way through the block of Plywood and engage the existing holes in the end of the lathe bed.
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All comments appreciated.
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Originally Posted by John Keeton
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Well that may not be exactly true, I have a small grizzly I was looking at earlier today to see how one would work on it.
