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Robust Light Kit, anyone have one?

Damon McLaughlin

Damon McLaughlin

Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Messages
307
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415
Location
Eastern Washington
When I placed my order for an American Beauty I added Robust's light kit to my order. For a few days now I have been wondering if I should have ordered a second light as the articulating arm has a mounting hole for it.

Does anyone have the light kit on their Robust, and if so do you have one or two lamps mounted? Just wondering if the second light is worth adding onto the order.
 
Yes I have the one light kit and it works well. I don't think a second was an option when I got my Robust. I am not sure you can have too much light, especially if you turn dark woods Allyn
 
Thank you guys for your feedback. Sounds like I'll probably add a second light to my order.

I had no idea that the shade mount magnifier existed, I just got my first set of bifocals and I'm not used to them yet.
 
Damon McLaughlin said:
I just got my first set of bifocals and I'm not used to them yet.
Click to expand...

I got my first bifocals 25 years ago at age 45. Wore them for about 15 years and hated them in the shop. I went back to single vision glasses completely in the shop. I figured out how far my eyes were from my work on the lathe and had the eye Doc write a prescription for that exact distance. They work great and I would never go back to multi-vision glasses in the shop. I can see my work really well while turning, with no distractions.
 
My new (first) bifocals make me feel dizzy, just not used to them. In the shop I'm sticking with my variety of reading glasses. I have them at different strengths and use what's appropriate depending on the task at hand. The bifocals were prescribed so I could see the road and the spedometer, I'm wondering if the airmen at the eye clinic on base entered the prescription correctly into the computer. Going to have to go back and check next week.
 
Damon McLaughlin said:
My new (first) bifocals make me feel dizzy, just not used to them. In the shop I'm sticking with my variety of reading glasses. I have them at different strengths and use what's appropriate depending on the task at hand. The bifocals were prescribed so I could see the road and the spedometer, I'm wondering if the airmen at the eye clinic on base entered the prescription correctly into the computer. Going to have to go back and check next week.
Click to expand...

I had my eye doctor do a prescription that would focus at 34” for my safety glasses.

One problem with using bifocals with the near vision at the bottom is they cause you to hold your head at an odd angle.
Sometimes It is not a problem turning because everything is usually below eye level.
One of the trifocals lenses popular with computer users is the have close focus at the bottom for reading and several option for having an intermediate window either at the top or srounnding the reading window.
 
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When I got my bifocals, they told me 'They will take some getting used to..." Boy was that an understatement.... The focal area for close up vision is about the size of a pea, and things still are not clear, but better than without. Also the depth of focus area was greatly reduced from maybe 6 inches to about 2 feet, to about 12 inches. I need to get new glasses, and will most likely get one set just for close up work. I use 2 lamps, one on the headstock, Moffatt type, and the other a floor lamp with a very wide bulb (Blue Max lamps). Natural spectrum lighting. I may end up looking into dental/medical lights on the elbow arms. They stay in place and have excellent light spectrums that allow you to see in pretty much natural lighting...

robo hippy
 
If you don't tell the optical shop where you get your glasses what you want they will assume that you want close up and intermediate areas to be the smallest size. If you go for style instead of function you may get narrow lenses where the close up and intermediate areas can't be made very large. I wear trifocals and get large lenses with ample size windows for the close up and intermediate distances. A good shop also knows how to adjust the glasses so that you don't have to tilt your head at uncomfortable angles to read. If the glasses aren't adjusted right you could wind up with the transition line right in the center of your normal field of view or worse having one eye seeing through the distance vision lens and the other eye seeing through the intermediate distance lens. If your lenses have a lot of correction you can also be bothered with chromatic aberration when not looking straight ahead. Using polycarbonate lenses might help the situation.
 
I have had progressive lenses for probably probably 30 years or more. I find them to work perfectly in the shop and I don't even know that I'm moving my head so that I can look thru the part of the lens that I need to. I have never had bifocals and went directly to progressive because of all the work I was doing on the computers, etc. For me it was really easy to get use to them and would never go to a bifocal or trifocal ever.
 
Steve Doerr said:
I have had progressive lenses for probably probably 30 years or more. I find them to work perfectly in the shop and I don't even know that I'm moving my head so that I can look thru the part of the lens that I need to. I have never had bifocals and went directly to progressive because of all the work I was doing on the computers, etc. For me it was really easy to get use to them and would never go to a bifocal or trifocal ever.
Click to expand...

Exactly my experience, though only 16 years so far. I put the progressive glasses on at the optician and drove home. Used continuously -- even for finer work like wooden frames ship modeling.
 
I took a look at my glasses. The ones I got from the air force base are bifocals. Retirees only have a choice of one, maybe two, frames. I still haven't taken them in to see if they prescription is correct.

The glasses I received from the VA are progressives, those are the ones that almost make me dizzy. I think I figured out one of my problems. I usually wear my reading glasses half way down the bridge of my nose. That is where I was wearing my progressives and when I push them up close to my eyes then I don't have as much difficulty seeing through them. Its still going to take time to get used to them. Because I work at different focal lengths, depending what I'm doing, I find myself going back to using different strength reading glasses for different tasks. When I was at the VA getting my progressives I told the eye doctor that I wanted the focal point to be just shy of an arm's length. Its no where near there, its much further away. I can get another pair next year and will see if I can get it closer.
 
If you intend to do tall hollowforms I can recommend the steady rest and outboard tool rest attachment as well as the remote foot switch to stop the lathe without the need to remove your hands from the boring bar. These are things that I added later, but If you don't have a set of Greenlee chassis punches installing the the remote foot switch will be a lot more work and not as neat. If you do it yourself, the inverter cabinet is 11 gauge steel and you can probably find a half inch conduit knockout punch with splitter (actual hole size is around ⅞" if you think that you can drill it) on eBay for around $50.

Installing the outboard attachment is straightforward, but takes a little extra time to get it lined up to a gnat's eyelash if you are a perfectionist. There is what I guess that you could call a pivot pin (if you can call a 1½" X 9" solid steel cylinder a "pin") that was a rather tight fit, but you can use a large screwdriver to open up the gap at the clamping bolts. I made a minor modification by adding a stack of several plain thrust bearings and a bit of moly grease at this pivot joint. The outboard assembly is really nice and it is also essential if you want to turn really large diameter pieces at the end of the lathe. It's a lot heavier than I anticipated so it adds about 100 pounds to the lathe weight.

The steady rest is very likely the heaviest one that anybody makes. It is very solid and smooth running. As with any steady rest, the wheels should only make very light contact with the turning. If you set it so that the wheels are pressing with any appreciable force on the wood it will actually become a source of vibration because it will cause the wood to flex.

I'm sure that you're already getting the gas assist strut for the tailstock swing-away ... but, if you forgot, make sure that you get it. It's worth its weight in gold.

I got the mobility kit because I roll my lathe out of the garage most of the time to turn on the driveway apron. I replaced the screw jack with a hydraulic jack ... makes it much faster.
 
Thank you very much Bill for your suggestions. I did order the light kit, steady rest and the tailstock swing away with gas strut. My budget is maxed out but I keep mulling over the outboard kit or bed extension (I got the standard bed length). I have one beautiful and stunning redwood burl that is 31" in diameter and would make for a nice wall hanging. I don't know if I would ever need the outboard kit again and that is a lot of money to spend for something that I may rarely use. Is the outboard kit easily removable so that it can be stowed out of the way?

The bed extension is something I may use more often as I have an articulating as well as a captive hollowing system and I like to do hollow forms once in a while. I may need the extra bed length depending on the size of the piece. I have also done some nice 30 to 40" tall weed pots, which again would require the bed extension.

Lots to think about. Maybe if I can sell my Powermatic 3520C I'll feel better about spending a little bit more with Robust.
 
Actually when you remove the steel post for the outboard tool rest you don't even know that the outboard turning attachment is there because it is all beneath the swing away tool rest assembly and it folds up so that it all fits very compactly in place.

I've thought about the bed extension, but I haven't really needed it. For hollowing, the outboard tool rest easily takes the place of a longer bed because the trap for the boring bar can be placed in the outboard tool post.

You never know what you might want to turn in the future. Your new Robust can expand that envelope.
 
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