To fill the hole in my lathe chip guard. Its about a third or half of a 300mm sphere/dome shape to have clearance for the motor. I did make a cardboard mockup last year but it has not survived. Basic tools, welder/hammer/etc. I think the dome part will need to be bolted onto the guard rather than welding to it, it needs some contorting to get back under the shelf.
300mm is about the size of a metal 25litre drum, white spirit/gunwash/thinners are sold in them. Also veg oil. Thin metal, but pre formed.
Thin material will form easily by hand over anything you have to hand that's round. Edit: on actually reading it this time what about an old steel saucepan?
Yes that would get me half way with a cylinder shape but needs to be a ball shape for cross slide clearance. Could start with the cylinder, cut wedges and weld. I was thinking cut lots of small circles and dome them, weld on like a football is made of patches, but it would look a mess with my welding. Does not need to be a smooth curve but would look better if it was. I do have an empty gas cylinder to cut up, that would be a lot thicker but I was not planning to do it soon. I'd like to get this done before I use the lathe again.
Perfect. I knew this was the place to ask. I'll cut something like 50mm strips, bend them as a cones and weld up.
Cut them as a tapered octagonal cone? Bend on the red weld on the black although if you have a suitable piece of sheet you could just weld on the tapered parts
Mixing bowls even better idea. I think they have some stainless ones in poundland. I will get a couple to try.
The mixing bowls too thin and very hard on the tin snips. Had a closer look and cut the sticky-outy part of the guard off. Much easier to refit, and means I can do it with flat sheet and have better clearance. So next question, Ive got a vice, hammers etc but no proper bending tools. Id like to make some short (but long) lips for bolting it up and a 90 degree bend about 300mm long. I could cut and weld it at 90 degrees, but my welds are not great either. Any tools I should buy that are reasonably small and cheap? I also want to do something with the chip tray, it only has a small lip. I should have ordersd some 10mm angle.
For a one off, grip the sheet with two stout bit of angle iron held in the vice, slowly hammer sheet round to form lip. Take sheet out of angle irons and dress with hammer and one of the bit of angle iron.
Couldnt wait for my new steel sheets on monday, I had this old bit of galv sheet. I bent around my propane bottle and then in the new vice Should have got a bigger motor, plenty of space
