Back in the Machine(ist Chest) Shop

[nuhobby]

Just rambling on....

Every chest I've seen with a solid-paneled back has failed. So as I put on new back pieces, I lap them with some intentional gaps. I glue the piece, then add some small brads, then trim and surface it with hand tools. The planes here are just to weigh things down during glue-curing:

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On this chest, the bottom-drawer's bottom edge had repeatedly hit the lock which stood a little proud on the stowed front-panel. On my rebuild I won't have a key lock, just some good latches on the sides. So the front panel when stowed below won't have any protrusions to hit on. Here, I am using the OPR to shave the bottom of the bottom-drawer's front, and replacing that wood with a new strip:

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[joshh]

Good stuff! Please keep posting updates

[nuhobby]

A nephew is staying over tonight. He brought me a gift from an old building his dad bought lately, downstate. I will have an opportunity to try some real machining one day! (No tool is worthless, to this Forum's folks.)


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[holsgo]

That looks like an old craftsman. If you plan to escape from it do it now, before it's too late. Once you get started on it your woodworking will become quite scarce. The metal lathe will lead to a new addiction, followed by the need for more metal working machines, followed by welding to make those machines work better and lastly you'll be making parts for cars. It really is downhill fast, worse than a hand plane addiction.
If you don't want this to happen find it a new home. Mine comes to mind.

[billmayo]

A nephew is staying over tonight. He brought me a gift from an old building his dad bought lately, downstate. I will have an opportunity to try some real machining one day! (No tool is worthless, to this Forum's folks.)


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These small metal lathes can be very habit forming. They may look like toys but can do functional work. I let the couple of these lathes I had go with the 10ERs when I sold them. I could never find the time to rebuild them. I have a HF metal lathe that I use now. There are lots of parts for this lathe available on Ebay and several Yahoo Groups dedicated to this lathe. This lathe will appear under several different names as the manufacture sold to different companies. The headstock spindle is where most problems occur as it is less than 1" in diameter. It is excellant for machining alluminum and plastic, you have to be very patient and slow if doing any steel type machining.

[newportcycle]

Very nice work on the chest, please keep the photos coming.

That lathe is sweet. I sold off my machine tools 5 years ago and have regreted it since.

[nuhobby]

Hey, thanks for all the camaraderie on the small metal-lathe sentiments. I do plan to keep it and use it "just a little"....

As if to pay for my good fortune, my "shop camera" just failed today. It's as though the photodetectors don't function at all.

So... tonight I hauled the computer in the shop and tried using the "web" "cam" for a progress picture. Of the 7 drawers, 4 are almost identical and therefore there were about 4*3*2*1 ways to put them together. No way resulted in a pleasing alignment of the knob-holes. So I'm boring out better-aligned 1/2"-diameter places on all drawers, which I will fill with plugs. Then the plugs will be center-drilled for final knob placements. This "webcam" picture shows the fresh bores (using a Forstner bit), some of which show the old odd-placed original small holes inside.

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[skou]

Chris, I'm agreeing with the rest of the guys here. That metal lathe will corrupt you in just SO MANY ways. (And, I'm not talking lathe ways, either.)

So, I'm offering you some salvation from temptation. Find out just how much shipping to Arizona will be, and save that amount. PM me, and I'll send you my address. It's the least I can do, to help a fellow woodworker out.

Seriously, in high school, I took a machine shop class. Mostly South Bend metal lathes. I found out just HOW EASY wood works in a metal lathe!

steve

[nuhobby]

I use an obsolete, chubby camera in the shop, easy to handle. So I got another one cheap, and I'm back in service.

For the old chest, I had drilled out a total of 45 rusty holes.... now all are plugged. Using the SS in horizontal boring mode created all those plugs:

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For the ol' Craftsman 109 lathe, I just innocuously took a few pieces off for an Evaporust bath. I promise I won't get carried away....

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[holsgo]

Nu, it has begun. Just watch. I was perfectly content in my furniture building world. I believe I even posted my last piece before I got my South Bend 9. From there it was downhill fast. It's a fun ride though, and I can make a ton of stuff now, but you guys haven't seen me post one furniture piece since...maybe I made a small box for my mom, but that was it. Become a member at Machinist Web, there are experts on Atlas craftsman on there. I'll see you over there.