bed extensions and mini lathes - easy to use/detach?

[ericdockum]

Hi all, I am new to turning, and of course have a couple of questions around practical experience of bed extensions.

The Background
I have a small workshop, so I cannot practically accommodate a larger lathe in a fixed position, as it would take up too much space.
I have also had a few spinal operations, so I tend to limit anything I have to lift to about 20kg.
I would probably be looking at making smaller items, so would not need a huge diameter capability. But I would like to be able to work on items longer than 12”, up to 3’ if possible.

So:

A mini (or midi?) lathe would seem to be a good idea, reasonably light, I could lift/slide it a short distance off the bench to a trolley at the same height, and then wheel it away for storage.
I could put some flush fittings into the bench so the lathe could be bolted down in use, thus leaving the bench surface clear when the lathe is removed. I have a bench grinder and a carving head set up like this already.
I see there are bolt on bed extensions available for some mini lathes that would extend the length, but detach so that the individual parts are within my lift capability of 20kgs.

The questions:

Does anyone have a bed extension on a mini lathe that they often attach/remove? How easy is it? Does it need tricky alignment to set up each time, and is it easy/quick to separate?
Or is it perhaps sufficiently awkward that it ends up staying permanently bolted together? From the pictures it is usually 2 bolts, but they are possibly difficult to get to underneath the bed.

The mini lathes seem to come with rubber feet. In practice is it best to bolt them down, including the bed extension?

And of course - where to get one? there doesn't seem to be many second hand compared to the larger sizes that I can't lift....

Is this the start of a slippery slope?

Any suggestions gratefully received..

Thanks,
Eric

 

[tekno.mage]

Our club has the Axminster AT1416VS lathe and extension bed. We normally use the lathe short bed, but thought the extension bed would be useful if we had a demonstrator visiting who wanted to turn longer items.

The short answer to your question is maybe... The bed extension is easy to attach and detach - it just uses a couple of bolts. However, alignment of the two parts is much harder! When we first fitted the bed extension around an hour's worth of hand filing of both bed and extension castings was required to allow the tailstock and banjo to slide easily over the join. Re-assembly now is fiddly, but possible. It would help if there were some kind of locating pins between the lathe & extension instead of just trying to get the two parts to line up correctly with the bolts. It helps a bit if you lock the tailstock over the join before finally tighening the bolts.

 

[woodfarmer]

I wonder if it would be possible to put a beam above your workbench and then lift the lathe with a hoist out of the way when not in use. If rubber foot mounted presumably it would not need bolting down. Guess it depends how much height you have.
My personal opinion (and that is all it is ) is a bit of weight in the lathe helps vibration in use.

Instead of a beam an A frame each side of the workshop with a beam above. lathe bolted to a hefty plank which can be lowered onto a couple of horizontal supports which are permanently attached to the A frame. so no need even for a bench.

If you can't visualise what I mean, willing to draw a diagram.

 

[jpt]

I know someone who does your second option. He only has a small garage and his wife insists her car is garaged overnight. To overcome the lack of space he has installed exactly what you say a metal A frame each side taking a large metal beam across the garage. He has an electric pulley connected to this which goes down and connects onto the lathe bench. So that when he wants to use it he lowers it down, after moving the wifes car, and when not in use it is hauled up so the front of the car goes underneath it.

john

 

[woodfarmer]

Thanks, nice to know not all of my ideas are daft

 

[ericdockum]

Thanks for the info and ideas gents, Indeed the option of looking up and hoisting the whole deal to the rafters is interesting.

I will have a think about that, and look at the roof, I suspect it might be a bit much weight wise. It is however a good suggestion

Of course if you are going to hoist it up out of the way, why buy a mini lathe and bed extension, why not get a potentially cheaper, more powerful and easily available larger lathe? And of course a stronger roof....

Interesting also to hear the experience of actually fitting up the bed extension. I had noticed that they didn't have any real keying arrangement to locate the lathe and the extension together, which made me a little suspicious that it might not be easy to get them to reliably fit.

Food for thought indeed, thanks gents.

Have to make a decision soon though, Christmas is coming, (or actually already arrived in my local supermarket!).

Cheers,
Eric

 

[tekno.mage]

Interesting also to hear the experience of actually fitting up the bed extension. I had noticed that they didn't have any real keying arrangement to locate the lathe and the extension together, which made me a little suspicious that it might not be easy to get them to reliably fit.

Eric

Quite correct that there is no real keying arrangement, and while the top surface of the bed & extension do line up correctly fairly easily just using the supplied bolts, the difficulties we experienced with ours that required a lot of hand filing when the two were first put together was with the rest of the casting - the tailstock and banjo also need the inside of the slot between the bed bars to line up correctly where the two parts join - and I think a lot of the problems came down to poor finishing on these parts of the castings. Once we had this sorted, re-assembly is much easier, but fiddly, as lining the two parts up using just the bolts is not as easy at it would be if there were some kind of keying arrangement. Having said this, if your main use would be with the lathe in one main configuration and you only took the extension off or put it back rarely, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

[ericdockum]

Thanks again for all the comments, I just thought I would close out with what my plan is…

I have made a rolling bench on 4 heavy duty castors, that is cunningly made the same height as my workbench. This will allow me to move a mini lathe across the shop into an area where it can be stored, and back to the bench for use. I can then lift one end at a time to put it on the bench. That means I stay in my lift limit because of my back…

In the base of the rolling bench I have storage, which can carry the bed extension, chuck, chisels and dust mask etc. when in use the rolling bench (has locking castors) can position at right angles to the fixed bench and provide additional workspace, so that when using the lathe I still have a reasonable work surface available for tools, and the essential cups of tea.

I really liked the idea of hoisting it into the roof space, and had a real careful look at this, but in the end I think this works out better in my situation.
I suspect I will have to think about the job scheduling to minimise the rig up/down of the bed extension, but that should be possible. Initially anyway I will be doing short stuff between centres.

SWMBO insisted the rolling bench be painted up and I use some old matching cupboard doors that I had, so this project has taken a lot longer. Plus a stinker of a cold means I didn’t want to start on the lathe while I felt bad.

Also family matters have taken a lot of time…., but maybe next week I should be about ready to give it a go.

 

[Dalboy]

Instead of keep moving the lathe from bench to trolley bench why not have it permanently fitted to the trolley bench with wheels that can be moved out of the way when using it( I have seen tables and other woodworking type benches that use this system where the wheels fold out of the way If I can find an example will post it)

 

[Blucher]

You are asking about lathe bed extensions. I am seriously considering having a go at doing what Akin has done. I am not to certain about how this will hold up to any excessive weight/heavy vibration (when roughing out) etc. due to my inexperience. I just thought it might be something you could consider doing too. What is the general opinion of this in place of the professional extension unit, particularly if you cant get hold of the proper manufactured cast iron version. Can any of you more experienced lathe jockeys confirm whether or not a 15" long bed made from wood is going to be up to the job.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDD_9FR22P4

or maybe take a look at this one for some inspiration

http://lumberjocks.com/CartersWhittling/blog/27811