Saturday 9 Feb and the first thing I did today was snow blow out all the snow we had over the last 24hrs. Then cleaned out a few neighbours as well since the plow had been by and they had some infill on the driveways. After that went to work in the shop. Over the last week I finished off the Two collet trays by turning all the dowels down and gluing them into the trays. Here's two shots of these trays one with them waiting for the glue to dry and the other showing one of the trays with a coat of stain. The second tray I'll leave unfinished so that if anybody wants it they can finish it themselves with what ever colour they want.

 The stained tray will get a few coats of either shellac or varnish haven't decided which yet. Then will need to buy some material to make the band and the centre shims that go around the mounting hole. After that was done decided that I had plenty of time to adapt the Collet drawbar I had purchased a while ago to fit into these lathes as I did not have an original draw bar. Bought a drawbar that came from a either Hardinge TL or T-5 lathe still not 100% sure. This draw bar was 3/4" to long to fit inside the headstock and draw the collet tight. You can see that here in this picture.

Therefore I needed to remove that 3/4" so chucked up the drawbar in the lathe and proceeded to make two cuts in the tube 3/4 of an inch apart. The two photos below will show the tube in the lathe and the start of the two cuts.



I then cut out the extra length went back to the lathe and chamfered the two edges and carefully fitted them up in preparation for welding. I then Tig welded them together as carefully as I could. Once done I placed it back in the lathe and removed the extra weld. After a little polishing with fine sandpaper it was time to check them out. Inserted the drawbar and snugged up a collet all works as it should. When I have a little more time down the road will chuck up some metal in the collet and really give the draw bar a work out. Here are a few more pictures showing the tube ready for welding and then snugged up in the lathe.

 

 

You can see by the last shot that even though this is not the correct draw bar for my lathe it still works as it should. Lots of clearance from anything else allowing easy usage. Once the other drawbar shows up will modify that one as well for the second lathe that I have.

All the best and enjoy the coming week.

Harold