# How to make your big lathe little



## wareagle (Feb 4, 2011)

I had a project that required a small pin to be turned down slightly and polished. My Grizzly lathe (13x40) was a bit oversized for the job, and with a max spindle speed of 2000RPM, a bit slow for the task. Not having a micro lathe (or mini for that matter), I had to improvise.

To accomplish the goal, I set up my Dremel tool with the flex cord, and chucked up the flex cord in the three jaw. The cord was long enough to extend from the rear of the spindle with enough left that I could set the Dremel on the lathe and have easy reach of the switch. The pin was taken down carefully to tolerance with a file, and subsequently polished successfully.

While this arrangement won't allow machining to a tolerance due to slop in the flex cord bearings, it did suffice in achieving my goal.







It isn't the only way to skin the cat, but it might give someone an idea when faced with a similar issue.


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 4, 2011)

That's a neat trick. Good thinking on your part "wareagle" I have run into that problem on occasion and chucked up my "Pencil Die Grinder. Well done.

 "Bill Gruby"


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## miker (Feb 4, 2011)

Another good trick to tuck away!! :bow:

Thanks for sharing.


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## 1hand (Feb 4, 2011)

My little air pencil grinder would work for that too!!!! 

Thanks for sharing that Idea Thm:



Matt


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## Tin Falcon (Feb 4, 2011)

I have been know to put that same thing in my tool post for a bit of live tooling. 
Machining is about thinking outside the box. while still understanding what is in the box. 
Tin


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## krv3000 (Feb 4, 2011)

a good post :bow:


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## Lew Hartswick (Feb 5, 2011)

As long as you dont reach for the lathe switch to turn it on / off . 
  ...lew...


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## steamer (Feb 5, 2011)

Actually I am thinking of mounting my high speed milling attachment in my lathe chuck for small stuff.

Goodonya W/E

Dave


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## Paulsv (Feb 5, 2011)

Good trick! 

Now, we need a way to make our little lathes big.


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## wareagle (Feb 5, 2011)

Thanks for the kind words! Hopefully this will help someone out of a jamb someday.



			
				Lew Hartswick  said:
			
		

> As long as you dont reach for the lathe switch to turn it on / off .
> ...lew...



Excellent point! Disconnect the power before mounting your tool of choice in the chuck! I did!!



			
				Paulsv  said:
			
		

> Now, we need a way to make our little lathes big.



Paul, I have been trying to figure that out myself. If you put water on a plant, it grows. I tried that, and my machine just rusted.  Rof}


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