Benefits of having a Lathe

[Parm]

Plastic hose pipe connector is goosed, so I bought a proper brass jobbie, only to find the ID of the hose pipe is much bigger than the barbed end on the fitting

So a quick rummage in the parts bin gives me a slug of brass. Turned the barbed fitting to a uniform diameter. turned the outside diameters for slug to suit and added some barbs, bored a hole to make an interference on the spigot, pressed it on. Job jobbed, no leaks.

Forgot to take pictures of the interesting stuff

 

[8ob]

Forgot to take pictures of the interesting stuff

It didn't happen then Parmster

Bob

 

[Onthespotwelding]

I “could do” with a lathe but no real use for one.

 

[Parm]

It didn't happen then Parmster

Bob

I needed to get on with food related stuff

 

[8ob]

I “could do” with a lathe but no real use for one.

I think that's how we all started off, they then become an essential.Cant imagine how I would cope without one, especially now as most of the engineering companies around here have gone.

Bob

 

[roofman]

Plastic hose pipe connector is goosed, so I bought a proper brass jobbie, only to find the ID of the hose pipe is much bigger than the barbed end on the fitting

View attachment 346583

So a quick rummage in the parts bin gives me a slug of brass. Turned the barbed fitting to a uniform diameter. turned the outside diameters for slug to suit and added some barbs, bored a hole to make an interference on the spigot, pressed it on. Job jobbed, no leaks.

Forgot to take pictures of the interesting stuff

If that's one of Aldis finest then knock out that stupid one way poppet valve in the center to increase water flow...put it on bench and just drift it out with a punch

 

[Barking Mat]

Lathes, until you get one, you never know how you managed without one.

 

[Parm]

If that's one of Aldis finest then knock out that stupid one way poppet valve in the center to increase water flow...put it on bench and just drift it out with a punch

It’s one I’ve bought of the internet a while ago, dunno where from though ?

 

[optima21]

its not just lathes though

wives, until you get one, you never know how you managed without one.

I've heard that said on this forum a few times.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I “could do” with a lathe but no real use for one.

Bet it wouldn't take you long to find one though - and it just snowballs from there.

 

[waddycall]

I’ve regretted selling mine since the day I waved goodbye to it.

 

[Parm]

Bet it wouldn't take you long to find one though - and it just snowballs from there.

Now that I have a lathe I don’t understand how I coped without one

 

[Cheesie]

I want one every now and then I need something done, i have no space ATM they are so expensive here too if something came up at the right money I'd probably buy one anyway,

 

[bourbon]

where I used to work had a toolroom and obviously guys in it. So I hadn't turned on a metalwork lathe since school. Then I took redundancy and realised that option wasn't open to me anymore. That's when I got the small lathe, Wouldn't be without it now

 

[DAPPH]

Those cheap Chinese brass connectors are a PIA , the tollerances are bad so bad they fly apart a lot of the time. and they won't fit any other type of fitting properly that looks similar .

I had to bin a dozen or more of them & get the more precision Hozelock 's . Started off with Hozelock plastic ones but over time they died , cracked or the one way vale in some refused to free off . so I ended up with the more expensive Hozelock metal & plastic ..most are now in their 9 th year so paying extra price has worked out well for me.

 

[DAPPH]

Strangely I was going to post some of the things I've made on my antique lathe to day but this thread is perhaps even better for those who might want to get their mancupboard better used.


From the left
300 x 75 mm faced both ends bottomless 42 mm ( used kitchen sinks waste pipe off Freecycle ) seed tubes and not shown a wad cutter that fits my drill press to cut the removable foam bases out of a ( Freecycle ) gym mat . It took ages and ages had to make a simple mandrel to cut them to length & face the ends precisely so all are the same height for stacking away in trays of 30 when not in use .

The plunger with the white ball on the end is a rammer , at the other end a piston to stuff the tubes with foam insert bottom in place with " B & Q Verve " soil less compost .

The double end pointy thing . is a turned prod to poke holes in things .. most of my square foot gardens ( 250 sq ft of them ) are sown with me using a thick polyethene masking sheet with either 16, 12 or 9 x17 mm holes in it in a nicely laid out grid so all seeds can be station sowed easily at optimum spacings ( have frost bite damage to my hands so picking up small seeds is a nightmare ) .


The funny thing I made in brass today with clear plastic sleeving on it is a hole poker that can be set to different depths by adding or removing clear tube at either end .
The black ring to its right is used to push down & twist on a filled tube , the plunger puts a hole centrally in the compost .

The stainless steel tray ( old dish washer inside wall ) is so I can pour out some seeds in it and easily pour back the unused ones in to the labeled airtight screw top sample containers ( in the top right corner ).

This bottom picture is a clip over lidded food box , at the rear is a sealed in stress relief where the mains cable enters the box . At the front are two lathe modified 12 mm drilled through bolts , one with a turned spigot on the end to take the plastic tube . This is my cheap & simple way of making a low volume seed sucker vacuum pump .

Inside the box is a small ( Freecycle ) fish tank air pump , it's packed around with rubber mat off cuts to stop it being too noisy and dropping off the exhaust ( pumped air out ) tube , it's all sealed up in red Hematite gasket seal ( car boot sale bargain @ 50 p )

In the end of the plastic beer/ wine syphon tube is the home made vacuum seed sucker device . It's just a simple venturi with a large bleed of hole in the middle . Turned as stepped and coned so it is easy to hold when my hands are not working well .
There is enough vacuum generated to allow me to pick up a single radish seed on the microbore brass tube . Anything bigger I can at present pick up with numb-ish fingertips .

The brass tube is small enough for me to pick up individual carrot or lettuce seeds and once my sealing finger is lifted off the large hole , drop the seed in a ready prepared seed tube via the black round that is bored through in a trumpet bell shaped hole that acts as a simple funnel to guide the seed to the central hole in the compost

Most carrots & long rooted veg don't do well in the seed tubes as they hate even the slightest disturbance , but the small ball rooted carrots & beet roots seem to work well so long as they are transplanted out in time .

The plastic mask / matrix devices I use ... made from the same material as the black bench covering in the top picture , because I made them out of 2.5 mm industrial smooth WPM . I can pour a few seeds in to the stainless tray then trickle a few on to the solid plastic parts of the mask then use my finger tip to slip/slide a single seed down each premade hole made through the masks hole using the double ended pointed aluminium dibber .
It's easy to calculate how many carrots you need for the year by saying six carrots a week for the two of us & multiply that by 52 .. sow one carrot seed at 300 seed stations. Do it in one square foot 14 day successional sowings for each part of the growing seasons types so you don't get 300 Early Nantes carrots all through in the same week & suffer a glut when they are just right sized to use . Then find you really needed main crop , autumn & overwintering ones as well .

Same with onions use a mask set the onions 3 inches apart and away you go 300 onions for the year . Right now we have about 10 pounds of our own home grown onions left . All the unused carrots got pressure canned a few weeks ago .

This has been a hobby of mine for 45 years of being disabled . ( I'm now 71 ) , planning on how to keep mentally active & growing our own food as I get older and to use my head to workout viable for me solutions as I'm 80 % disabled , can't bend over or reach forward with my left arm .

This old lathe of mine has been a truly wonderful addition to my electro mechanical skills & interests . It's always allowed me to plan ahead and have a long to do list on the go . Without it I reckon I'd have turned up my toes years ago .

 

[Morris]

I “could do” with a lathe but no real use for one.

Heresy!

 

[droopsnoot]

I also really want one, I keep thinking of things I could make with one, but I also have never used one. While that might shout out "learning opportunity" to some, I suspect it is more sensible to not buy one.

 

[Parm]

I also really want one, I keep thinking of things I could make with one, but I also have never used one. While that might shout out "learning opportunity" to some, I suspect it is more sensible to not buy one.

Do it, I had never used a lathe before. I now have one, I probably only use to 5% of its potential but that’s good enough for me

 

[Maker]

I don't seem to be able to make anything without at least some lathe work. How anybody lives without one is beyond me.