So, as some of you may know, I have recently set up my lathe. To recap, I already had a mini lathe that can hold pieces up to 13 inches. I normally have a sanding disc mounted on that, though, which I use mostly for sharpening chisels. The main problem with the mini lathe is the fact that the motor lacks power for rough gouging a work piece. It spins the wood, the chisel touches the wood, the wood stops turning.

Anyway, I found a bigger lathe on one of my trips to one of my favourite second-hand stores. That store is the same place I found my radial arm saw, which grandly adorns one corner of my shop. It does that because it’s hardly ever used. However, I recently started making some cabinet doors for my kitchen and have been using it for many of the cuts. But, back to the lathe.

I bought the lathe a few years ago, now. I carried it down to the basement and dumped it on the floor just inside the entrance to my workshop. There it sat for a great long time while I ignored it unless tripping over it. It came with a set of chisels that was taped to it. After perhaps a year, I pulled those off and used them with the mini lathe.

The lathe only moved when my basement flooded. It somehow did not get wet.

My recent interest in using a lathe sparked my building a stand. As you can see from the picture, it is quite fancy. I made it from 3 2×6 studs and a bit of hardboard. The ends are rectangular and can, at some point, get chisel holders installed. I may even put doors on it (actually, I can say right now that will never happen). It took a little more than ten minutes to build.

You may recognize this photo from my previous article, Old Chisel New Handle.

I decided to get a chuck for it. They are useful for making things like Russian dolls, if I ever needed to make one of those. Not terribly likely I ever will make one of those, though. However, a chuck is a useful attachment, even if I cannot offhand think of anything to do with it. Many things are like that. Frankly, if you only bought tools you could think of a good necessary reason to have, most people would only own a broom.

I ordered a chuck and it arrived. It was quite nice, too. It operated very smoothly. It should have screwed on to the spindle of the lathe but it refused to do it. I had based the thread size on a measurement I took, so I assumed that the spindle may have been metric. It would be better if there was a standard but the standard seems to be every manufacturer wants to sell only their own stuff.

So, I brought it back to a retail location of the store where I bought it. A tall guy who reminded me a bit of an ostrich helped me with my return. I had brought in the threaded part of the tail piece (same threading as the head) to show it would not work. He tried it. Then he took the piece I brought in and tried to find something that would screw onto it. He strode back after a while and declared it must be metric and I could order a chuck, but it would cost some outlandish amount.

First, you have to know the thread, he said. You can look online.

I tried that, I said. This lathe is too old to have any information online.

His head retracted and his eyes opened like I’d told him something truly inconceivable. It makes me wonder what the world will be like when today’s teenagers are themselves middle aged ostriches working at a tool store.

It should say in the manual, he said.

I got it used, I said. It didn’t come with a manual.

I completed my return and went home. I ordered a chuck from India that mounts in the #1 Morse taper. That arrived within a couple of days, somehow. My original purchase took a week and a half to arrive from 100 km away. This thing came around the globe over the weekend.

It was a frustrating experience, to be sure. And the chuck I ended up with is not as good as the one I originally had. I could have brought it to a machine shop and had it rethreaded, I guess, but some things are only worth so much trouble.

Anyway, much to my delight and chagrin (a word I’ve always wanted to use but never had any reason to, much like a lathe chuck), I came across a treasure in my workshop. The lathe had been sitting on the floor in front of a closed cabinet for three years. I knew there was nothing useful in the cabinet all that time because there was a lathe on the floor in front of it blocking the door, so I never opened it in all that time. Well, a few days ago I opened it to see if something specific was in there and noticed, on a shelf, two faceplates, a long toolrest, and the manual for the lathe.

You forget you have such things when so much time passes.

I cracked open the manual and discovered the threading of the lathe is 3/4-16. I had originally measured 3/4-12. I used to be able to count, oddly enough, although I expect I counted the threading over 3/4 of an inch. You see, I used calipers to measure the diameter and then used them to mark off a length of an inch, but likely didn’t adjust them from the diameter measurement.

Just part of the cavalcade of errors that is life….

On a side note, last week was Halloween. John and I collaborated on a little video called The Disappearance Of Mary Sue McKleven. It features images taken by John during a trip we took a few weeks ago and a story written and read by yours truly.