Indexing for midi-lathe?

[spankme]

I'm about to try turning some legs for furniture and I'm thinking of buying a Jet JML-1014 lathe for this limited use. However, I would like a lathe with index holes on the headstock. From what I can tell lathes in this size don't come with index holes, however. Ideas I've had include (1) obtaining an aftermarket headstock (2) drilling some index holes myself (well, getting a machinist to do it) or (3) getting a real full-size lathe, however budget and shop space limitations will probably preclude this.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions? Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Mark Mandell]

Spanky,

You need to talk to Fred (in NC). Start by looking at his thread and the pics he posted at http://www.woodturner.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=769

Mark

 

[Fred in NC]

Thank you Mark. About a dozen plates were made in all. It made sense, since the setup is the expensive part of the job. Members of the penturners group grabbed every last one of them! I shipped the last one to Australia yesterday.

I guess I will ask my machinist friend to make another batch. I will post in the classifieds when they are ready.

 

[crashgtr]

Indexing

Thank you Mark. About a dozen plates were made in all. It made sense, since the setup is the expensive part of the job. Members of the penturners group grabbed every last one of them! I shipped the last one to Australia yesterday.

I guess I will ask my machinist friend to make another batch. I will post in the classifieds when they are ready.

Hi Fred,

I am a newbie and was wondering what these are used for. I looked at your post with the photo but was not sure.

Thanks,
Liz

 

[john lucas]

There have been some good posts on making indexing attachments to a lathe. Most go between the faceplate, or chuck and then you rig up a pin to index on the plate. The first one I made was a plexiglass circle. I just cut notches at the right places with a handsaw.
Vicmarc 120 chucks have index holes in the back. You would agian have to rig up some sort of pin to catch the holes.

Liz Indexing is most commonly used with the lathe off. You can move the turning a certain number of degrees and then lock it in this position so that you can carve, cut, groove, or whatever on the piece. The most common thing to do is to route coves in a spindle. You see this most often on furniture.

 

[john lucas]

I just posted a photo of my indexing jig on the photo section.

 

[Randy Rice]

Indexing Alternative

Take a look at the Vicmarc 100 chuck or the Grizzly knockoff as an alternative. They have indexing built into the chuck.

 

[Wilford Bickel]

The new Teknatool Supernova 2 chuck also has indexing holes for a pin built into the back cover plate.

Wilford

 

[crashgtr]

There have been some good posts on making indexing attachments to a lathe. Most go between the faceplate, or chuck and then you rig up a pin to index on the plate. The first one I made was a plexiglass circle. I just cut notches at the right places with a handsaw.
Vicmarc 120 chucks have index holes in the back. You would agian have to rig up some sort of pin to catch the holes.

Liz Indexing is most commonly used with the lathe off. You can move the turning a certain number of degrees and then lock it in this position so that you can carve, cut, groove, or whatever on the piece. The most common thing to do is to route coves in a spindle. You see this most often on furniture.

Thanks for the info- I guess I need to take some more courses!

Liz

 

[john lucas]

Liz if you have project in mind that requires indexing I will try to design an indexer for your lathe. I believe you said you have a jet mini. I have 2 of them right now so figuring out an indexing system would be pretty easy.
I thought it would be a challenge to take a jet mini and improve it so I'm modifiying things that I didn't like about the original. I've already made an adapator for vacuum chucking. I'm working on a new clamp for the tailstock. The tailstock lock always slips on all of them I've turned on so I'm making one that won't slip (I hope).