Makeshift Lathe Dog

[gunboatbay]

A neat trick from a 1948 issue of Popular Science

 

[phlegmatic]

In my world disused bicycle spokes and hose claps are the most practical items of all to have around! They can fix most problems! ;D

 

[starbolin]

Thanks gunboat, love those old PopSci issues:

I've used that but not as often as one would think. Problem is, it requires the faceplate to be mounted. Most often, when I need a quick and dirty, I don't want to take the three-jaw off. So I need something with a long stud to engage the jaws on the chuck. Haven't really stumbled on the ideal solution yet.

Here are some home-made dogs for the mini-lathe. Don't have a faceplate for my mini-lathe and the dogs in my kennel are too large so I have to make my own. These are easy, no mill work, just pop some scrap on the DP and run a tap through them.

 

[mklotz]

I found some ground wire clamps in the local OSH store that work just great for this application. Clamp a 5/16 rod where the ground wire would normally go and, voila, an adjustable dog to drive the work from the chuck jaw.

 

[stevehuckss396]

Depending on what you are driving, I found that a 45 or 90 degree bracket works very well. I used the same bracket to drive my cam fixture.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Marv I like that Idea
Tin

 

[starbolin]

I found some ground wire clamps in the local OSH store that work just great for this application.
...

That's an awesome idea! I always got a couple of those laying around. Never thought of it.

 

[mklotz]

I neglected to mention it but, on the clamp style I showed, the loose jaw can be reversed to grip smaller diameter work. That's something to keep in mind if you decide to make a similar clamp.

Of course, on many jobs it's even easier to drill the face of the stock facing the chuck to take an offset pin that contacts the chuck jaw. Lock the pin in place with superglue or Loctite.