Adding indexer to Shorty for bowl inlay work

[Mike]

Been screwing around with this the past week and prototype worked out to be finished solution. I want to put small circles of various diameters, about 3/32 deep and flat bottomed, around top and sides of bowls. After this is done I will inlay various materials similar to bowl shown. I tried measuring and marking with limited success. Pretty sure this is going to work beautifully as it’s extremely solid and the Shopsmith has a huge vertical range. Please let me know your thoughts, comments or questions.

[JPG]

Index plate causes the chuck(s) to rotate?


NICE index plate!!!

[Mike]

Index plate causes the chuck(s) to rotate?


NICE index plate!!!

In both positions 360 and very accurate. Indexer was not best quality but does more than I needed it to. $260.00
Over 40 lbs. and comes with a tailstock I will never use.
Mophorn Dividing Head BS-0 5Inch 3 Jaw Chuck Dividing Head Set Precision Semi Universal Dividing Head for Milling Machine Rotary Table Tailstock Milling Set (5 Inch Chuck) https://a.co/d/fTsePCx

[DLB]

Very cool! First thing I thought of when I looked at the setup: that seems like a great use for a Mark-mounted Over Arm Router (OAR) setup.

Question: Are both lathe chucks necessary? Is the chuck nearest the indexer a metal lathe chuck and the other a wood lathe chuck?

- David

[Mike]

Question: Are both lathe chucks necessary? Is the chuck nearest the indexer a metal lathe chuck and the other a wood lathe chuck?

- David
[/quote]

Yes and yes, for me, though somebody with better skills might find a way to modify.

[RFGuy]

Mike,

That is awesome. I like it. I am not to that point in my woodturning journey to try something this yet, but I have a question or two. I am a little familiar with indexing related to woodturning. So your picture, I believe, shows a standard drill bit mounted and you index the woodturning around the circumference drilling holes. How do you clean it up after this to make a continuous groove? My thought was perhaps you switched out the drill bit and used something like an end mill type cutter bit mounted in the drill chuck. Then you switched out of indexing and cleaned out the groove around the woodturning. Is this how you did it, or something else? Really like the end result.

[BuckeyeDennis]

Fantastic work, Mike! Mounting a dividing head on a Shopsmith is truly thinking outside of the box.

And the bowl is absolutely stunning. What's the inlay material? My first guess was some sort of crushed stone cast in epoxy, but on second thought I doubt that you'd want to be machining stone. Whatever it is, it looks fantastic with the chatoyance of the wooden bowl. And speaking of the wood, is that mahagony?

[JPG]

Softer jaws for the metal chuck = no wood chuck?

[Mike]

RFGuy- I used the lathe and carbide cut off tool to cut the groove. The indexer is to drill a round hole/circle approx 3/32 deep at specific spacing along the circumference at the top or side of a bowl. After I inlay stone, shell, copper shavings etc. I have 1/8” to 3/4” Dia. flat bottom drills. The indexer was not used on the bowl shown. I’m doing a little practice and then will post how it looks with circles.

Dennis- the side has red coral inlay (pretty east to sand/grind flat), the top is tourmaline tailings from a mine in Pala, CA (way harder and not gonna do that again) it took hours to get it right. They say to use stone between 3-7 on MOH scale- https://www.gem-society.org/article/sel ... -hardness/ -crush and grade material starting with bigger pieces and eventually fine. I use CA glue, thin, with an accelerator to speed up drying between each grade of material. Just takes practice and I’ve only done 8 bowls total and 4 with inlay so it’s not that hard to do if you have patience. I’m retired so I have nothing but time to enjoy the ride:-)
Lots of YouTube videos. I’ll attach a pic of one I did with copper shavings, tricky and you must protect yourself.
Dust protection and FULL FACE SHIELD an absolute must for all this type of work!!!
Tried copper ball bearings.. not gonna do that again either.
CA glue ventilation a must.
Wood is Sapele.

JPG- the front chuck is a wood chuck- https://www.pennstateind.com/store/CSCBARR4.html

[Mike]

Tried it today on a simple bowl and everything worked as designed. No complaints except need to figure out right speed for flat bottom hole drills/endmills. Has very slight tear out that will not be noticed when finished but bigger diameters may be an issue