After 33 years with my Woodfast, a Vicmarc VL240 is now on the way!

[Odie]

Odie, you must be in heaven with all these new problems to think up solutions for. "It's what you're good at, Butch"--The Sundance Kid, r.i.p.

Hello Dean......

Ha,ha......It does give a guy a certain sense of satisfaction to come up with solutions that solve troubling problems.

....and, it also gives you plenty of aggravation along the way!

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

I see. The Rikon headstock is square, so where it meets the ways the "corners" on the ways are exposed. That's where mine gums up.

Grabbed a photo so I could show the difference.

 

[Mark Jundanian]

Question - with the pivot HS, will the swing away TS serve a purpose?

One advantage of a swing away is that it lets you slide on other equipment (e.g. hollowing rig) without having to remove/lift off the TS.

 

[Odie]

Grabbed a photo so I could show the difference.

View attachment 79594

I see.....and suspect any sliding, or sliding AND pivoting headstock would be subject to debris getting inbetween the mating surfaces. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, but there should be some effort to keep those surfaces clean.

=o=

 

[Odie]

That shelf with the metal plate is great for storing magnetic jigs, plus there is space furthest from the headstock for the light.....when that is appropriate.

=o=


Here's a little tip for you guys....

See those plastic mini-clamps hanging on the dowel?

They are used on turning tools to show that the tool hasn't been used since it was last sharpened. I have a habit of sharpening several tools at a time, and occasionally at a later time, I've forgotten whether it is a freshy sharpened tool or not. This is the solution to that.....no guesswork!

 

[Larry Mercier]

plastic mini-clamps hanging on the dowel

Odie, your ability to see a solution to a problem, as presented here, is impressive.

 

[Odie]

The first bowl (maple burl) is coming along very slowly, but I'm feeling very good about the Vicmarc's performance so far.

I keep stopping to contemplate and modify my old tooling to adapt to the Vicmarc.

The interior was turned at 15° headstock setting. Wonderful!....very easy on the back. It's an inward slanted wall bowl.....pretty easy. When I do my undercut rim, I might need to swing the headstock a little further.


There is no indexing hole for a 15° setting. The only need for accurate headstock settings is 0° and 90°, so I decided to eliminate the need for the index pin and put some rubber tubing on it. It now won't reach the index hole. I won't be getting an outboard rig, and when I need to use the tailstock, I'll use the index pin then.


The headstock mating surfaces appear to be somewhat the shape of an upside down tophat, and all surfaces mate with a corresponding machined surface on the bedway casting.....so, lots of surface area contact......internally, it's sort of like a piston in a cylinder with the brim of the tophat resting directly on the machined surface of the bedways. Looks like some great engineering went into the design of this VL240 lathe.

=o=

 

[Odie]

Click for exploded view of VL240 headstock:

Vicmarc Machinery VL150 Series Owner's Manual (Page 18 of 32) | ManualsLib

www.manualslib.com