Question about banjos offered with General 260 lathe.....

[Odie]

Question about banjos offered with General 260 lathe.....

I'm wondering about that short "dogleg" banjo in the photo here.

I can understand getting your tool rest up to, or close to the centerline of the spindle......but that short banjo probably won't do it.

Soooo......What is it's purpose?

Dumb people want to know!

=o=

 

[Steve Tiedman]

Is that just the banjo for their smaller model?

Fo some unknown use down in the 7:00-8:00 region of a large diameter piece? I can't think of a reason for it to be on that machine, unless the banjo, sans rest, was used for some other purpose, holding a jig or fitting of some kind.

Context? Is this a photo you found somewhere, or...?

 

[Barry Larson]

Question about banjos offered with General 260 lathe.....

I'm wondering about that short "dogleg" banjo in the photo here.

I can understand getting your tool rest up to, or close to the centerline of the spindle......but that short banjo probably won't do it.

Soooo......What is it's purpose?

Dumb people want to know!

=o=
View attachment 82014

Odie:
Originally the General (Canada) was offered as a HD 12 inch lathe. Four inch riser blocks and extended banjo was also offered which increased the swing by 8 inches (as per my General catalogue from 1995). Later (circa 2000) the capacity was increased to 20 inches (I think) by virtue of new head and tailstock castings again with a suitably extended banjo. I think your picture shows a unit with the extensions (I see joins in both the headstock and tailstock). The banjos are the original (short) and the taller one for the riser blocks. Since the riser blocks were available to convert any 260 lathe the owner likely purchased them later and then would have had both banjos. Hope this bit of speculation helps.

Barry W. Larson
Calgary, Alberta, Canada eh!

 

[Steve Tiedman]

Winner winner! Well done, Barry. I'd forgotten about those options. Yes sir, those are riser blocks at the head and tailstock.

And Reeves drives, the original variable speed.

 

[Odie]

Odie:
Originally the General (Canada) was offered as a HD 12 inch lathe. Riser blocks and extended banjo was also offered which increased the swing by 4 inches. Later (circa 2000) the capacity was increased to 20 inches (I think) by virtue of new head and tailstock castings again with a suitably extended banjo. I think your picture shows a unit with the extensions (I see joins in both the headstock and tailstock). The banjos are the original (short) and the taller one for the riser blocks. Since the riser blocks were available to convert any 260 lathe the owner likely purchased them later and then would have had both banjos. Hope this bit of speculation helps.

Barry W. Larson
Calgary, Alberta, Canada eh!

That makes sense to me, Barry......

thanks

=o=

 

[Odie]

Context? Is this a photo you found somewhere, or...?

Steve.......

It was a lathe that sold recently in the AAW "for sale" listings...

=o=

 

[Tim Hunter]

The riser blocks increase the swing by 8 inches (lathe swing is expressed in diameter).

Tim

 

[Barry Larson]

The riser blocks increase the swing by 8 inches (lathe swing is expressed in diameter).

Tim

Corrected!

Barry W. Larson
Calgary, Alberta, Canada eh!

 

[William Rogers]

AI is not always right, but here is the response

The purpose of the short banjo on the General 260 lathe
is for outboard turning of larger diameter workpieces. It is designed to be used with an optional outboard turning bracket, allowing the tool rest to be positioned well below the centerline of the spindle for certain cuts, particularly on bowl exteriors.

 

[Odie]

AI is not always right, but here is the response

The purpose of the short banjo on the General 260 lathe
is for outboard turning of larger diameter workpieces. It is designed to be used with an optional outboard turning bracket, allowing the tool rest to be positioned well below the centerline of the spindle for certain cuts, particularly on bowl exteriors.

I believe AI is being treated as an undisputable source of information by quite a few people.....and that may be a big mistake. I'm beginning to challenge this assumption after my getting some very questionable answers from AI.

AI can't use any logic to come up with answers because everything in its data feed is taken from other researchable sources that may or may not be reliable.

=o=

 

[Brian Gustin]

I believe AI is being treated as an undisputable source of information by quite a few people.....and that may be a big mistake.

It is (a mistake). It isn't unusual for AI to "hallucinate" an answer that may otherwise sound perfectly correct... until you compare it to known trusted sources of information that quickly prove it wrong. It's great for researching a topic and deep thought web searches that otherwise could take hours to drill down (As in AI can do a detailed search for information when you ask it a quite specific question, but otherwise , it is only able to guess at what you're looking for about as well as a common search engine.) - It all depends on how you phrase your question, and if you phrase your question just slightly differently , it'll give you surprisingly different answers... One who wants to put much faith in AI really should spend quite a bit of time working with it asking it stuff you *already know* and see how changing your phrasing will tend to cause it to give differing answers. Not only does it train YOU how to properly word a question to AI to get the results you want, it also helps you spot where its answers may be questionable. (Ive been working with GPT-5 a while for other general research purposes - completely unrelated to woodturning)

 

[Kevin Jenness]

I used to own one of those 260-20s with the riser blocks. Mine had the short banjo with a 4" high riser post added to it. The outboard table was positioned for a 28" swing. I wound up getting a Oneway banjo as the General got knocked out of position easily. I still have it as an extra on my Oneway 2436, very handy at times.