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

Dean Center said:
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.
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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! :)
 
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Kent Reisdorph said:
Grabbed a photo so I could show the difference.

View attachment 79594
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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=
 
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=
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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! :)
 
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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 a 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.

20250918_213409.jpg 20250918_213454.jpg
There is no indexing hole for a 15° setting. The only need for accurate headstock settings is 0° and 90°, so I decided to take the index pin out of the equation and slide some rubber tubing over the indexing shaft.....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 for accuracy.
20250918_215121.jpg

The headstock mating surfaces appear to be somewhat in the shape of an upside down tophat, and both surfaces mate with a corresponding machined surface on the lower 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 top machined surface of the bedways. Looks like some great engineering went into the design of this VL240 lathe. :)

=o=
 
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You can see here just how much the headstock was intentionally shaped to access the back side of a bowl. My old Woodfast lathe was good, but this is another level of accessibility. (Something like the Powermatic 2520B is just horrible in this regard.....but the 3520c addresses this by extending the outboard bearing housing.)

=o=
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The whole setup looks great Odie! I like how you are taking it slow in setting things up the way you would like them. So many of us rush to try something new without first spending time setting things up and getting used to it.
 
Odie said:
decided to take the index pin out of the equation and slide some rubber tubing over the indexing shaft...
Click to expand...
Is the pin easily removed?
Rather than pull off that rubber tube when you need indexing, and then put it back on. Could you just leave the pin out (and safely stored) when you don't want indexing. The hole could be covered with a piece of tape or plugged with a rubber stopper, if you're concerned about sawdust getting in.
 
Gabriel Hoff said:
The whole setup looks great Odie! I like how you are taking it slow in setting things up the way you would like them. So many of us rush to try something new without first spending time setting things up and getting used to it.
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You're right about that, Gabriel...... I'm naturally slow in just about everything I do anyway......I guess that's an asset in this case! :)
Mark Jundanian said:
Is the pin easily removed?
Rather than pull off that rubber tube when you need indexing, and then put it back on. Could you just leave the pin out (and safely stored) when you don't want indexing. The hole could be covered with a piece of tape or plugged with a rubber stopper, if you're concerned about sawdust getting in.
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Hadn't thought of that Mark.....that would work too.

=o=
 
Odie said:
I'm very lucky to have purchased this offset tool rest attachment.....it's perfect for this need. I bought it several years ago from Brent at Robust. It's very well made....very strong!......and, it allows me to work in close to the wasteblock.
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Great idea, thanks. My first thought was to make one but I think I'll just order one:

Odie said:
that locking handle for the Vicmarc banjo sometimes gets in the way. Even Woodfast was wise to that problem, and drilled/tapped another hole for the lock down handle.
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Yikes. Fortunately cast iron is real easy to drill and tap. (The PM banjo I have came with three tapped holes. Send a note about all these things and tell V to get their act together. :))

I can see the problem with the stop bar. My PM lathe doesn't have a bar but a paddle switch in little magnetic box with a cord long enough to position the switch anywhere reasonable. I usually keep it on the side of the bed a little way to the right of where I usually stand where I can turn it off with my leg if needed. A positionable switch like that might be a reasonable addition for some lathes.

JKJ
 
John K Jordan said:
Fortunately cast iron is real easy to drill and tap.
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Yeah, but, I've only got one shot at getting the hole drilled perfect, so that it matches the hole in the adaptor sleeve and perfectly aligns with the very center of the tool rest post .

I suppose the only way to do that, is to solidly mount the banjo to my drill press....and, don't even think of trying to do this with a hand held drill.

Any suggestions on how to do this?

Might think of building a onetime-use mount somehow.... ?

=o=

Edit: Woah there Nellie........just got an idea.....the light bulb just turned on!!!! :)

Maybe I ought to just get a set screw, or cut down bolt.....and, use the original tapped hole when the handle gets in the way. :)
 
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Odie said:
Yeah, but, I've only got one shot at getting the hole drilled perfect, so that it matches the hole in the adaptor sleeve and perfectly aligns with the very center of the tool rest post .

I suppose the only way to do that, is to solidly mount the banjo to my drill press....and, don't even think of trying to do this with a hand held drill.

Any suggestions on how to do this?

Might think of building a onetime-use mount somehow.... ?

=o=

Edit: Woah there Nellie........just got an idea.....the light bulb just turned on!!!! :)

Maybe I ought to just get a set screw, or cut down bolt.....and, use the original tapped hole when the handle gets in the way. :)
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There must be a local machine shop in Missoula that could drill the hole, then you tap it. A one-time investment cost.

I think drilling that hole in the natural horizontal banjo position would be safest, which means using a mill to drill.
 
Observation:

The bowl I'm turning in post #167 had the least amount of detectable vibration (according to my vibrometer) somewhere around 5-600rpm. In the past, similar chunks of wood to this one would likely have turned best at around 7-800rpm. I'm not quite sure why this is so. It might be that there is some difference in this particular piece of wood.......or, something else is at play. (BTW: The lathe is now anchored at all four corners by cement anchors.)

For the newbies tuned in: The best tearout free cuts are obtained with the least inherent vibration of the bowl. The best way to reduce that, is to adjust the rpm accordingly. Even if you can't detect the vibration at all with your hand, if it's there, it's still going to interfere with the "perfect cut". This may be true, but there are a number of other factors that will be a component of that equation......among those are the sharpness of the tool, and the turner's tool handling skills.

=o=
 
Well for me as good as any lathe is or can be, by the very nature of wood turning being freehand no lathe will ever be perfect. But by combining experience with a well-made lathe, we can get close. So perfection comes in the marriage of turner and lathe? maybe.
After many years of turning, I decided to design and build my own lathe, as specific as I could to my requirements, driven by thoughts of "I've got this" ," I can do this" along with a lot of engineering experience, and yet I have modified it 1/2 dozen times from the original. What was I thinking? :)
So I reckon you will overcome any perceived shortcomings, it is part of being a wood turner and here collective wisdom always chimes in with ideas and that too is part of being a wood turner.
 
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