Screws for Brian Buckner

[Johnny Kleso]

Rockwell made an X-Y attacment for wood lathe so you have a carrage feed and cross feed for its wood lathes and see them now and then at ebay..

I am guessing you could buy an X-Y table @Enco and mount a tool post to it for use on a bigger wood lathe..
You would need a strong motor and maybe a smaller pully to reduce the RPMs for steel cutting..

My lathe is 9" Southbend and eBay sells 100s of parts for them every week.. The also sell whole lathes, two or three a week for about $1000 -$1500 loaded..

I bought mine from eBay and was missing motor section called the counter shaft and a bunch of other little stuff that adds up but it was only $310 and $130 shipping..
I spent maybe another $200-$300 to tool it all up and buy missing parts like a motor

Lots of people buy they local to part them out on eBay they are so popular..

I was looking at a Grizzy at the IWF, I think 13-15" that looked and felt awesome and the size I wish I had room for..

I have not seen Grizzlys 9"-10" model but if anything like the bigger one I would be happy...

Jet also makes and OK lathe..

[John Schreiber]

That's a beautiful job. After I get this woodworking thing figured out, maybe I'll try metal working. Of course, I think I could work for a hundred years and not have woodworking figured out.

[Johnny Kleso]

John S. said
"I think I could work for a hundred years and not have woodworking figured out."

I think working metal is the same..
Thats why I enjoyed my job so much, most of the time
There was always something new to learn every day and you get to hold and show people what you made and get their feedback on it..

Now if I could just get myself to finish my chest of drawers I'd be a woodworker...

[Doug Shepard]

Just out of curiousity, what's the benefit of doing a lever cap screw with Acme threads vs the standard threads?

[Kevin Brenton]

Apologies John I don't mean to hijack your thread.

Nice work on the screw ,been along time since I machined an acme thread also ,have done buttress and square threads also but many years in the past .
My trade is a Fitter and Turner ,but I don't work at my trade these days ,but I do have a metal working lathe in my workshop ,a Myford Super 7,very handy for making parts when restoring woodworking tools.

Doug ,

Acme thread is a lot beefier and will take a lot more pressure ,that's why they are used in vices and machine feed screws where a lot of pressure is applied to the sides of the thread form.
A vee form thread would wear out much faster and the peaks would end up leaning over one way from the constant pressure on one side.
In the case of a machine feed screw the nut is usually made from brass or bronze ,so that it wears out and not the screw itself ,much cheaper to replace a nut than a whole screw shaft.

Kev.

[Doug Shepard]

Kevin
That's kinda what I thought, but since this is going on a handplane lever cap I thought there might be another reason. All the handplane docs I've seen come in the box warn against overtightening at the risk of damaging the plane, and that's without Acme threaded screws. Seems like the extra beef is way more than you'd want to use???

[Johnny Kleso]

Hi Doug,

Acme threads are more often more coarse then standard thread so they offer less of a mechanical advantage..

IE: 1/2-10 acme is the fine version
and 1/2-13 is the standard NC version

The finer the thread the eaiser it is to make tighter then a coarse thread..

When hand planes used to earn a living 50-70 hours a week you could wear screws out in a lifetime or two but these days I think acme screws are more of a status symbol as not many small cottage industry tool makers can afford to use acme screws.. Cutting standard threads on a lathe is harder to learn and could take a few years till you feel able..

Plus acme screws adds a good hour or two of extra labor to the price of a hand plane and not many would want to pay it I think.. I changed Brian $30 for this screw that means with a added cost of $100 for a tap I would guess it could raise the price of a plane $50 easily....

PS:
I hope to take some images of write a Tutorial on Tapping Holes for my website and I add the text and pics here in a post.. Its really not to hard to do and really comes in handy when making Jigs or Fixtures

(Jig= Guildes the cutting tool like a drill bushing) (Fixture= Holds a work piece)..

[Doug Shepard]

OK. Starting to wake up and smell the coffee now.
Thanks