Question for anyone with wood turning lathe experience

gogofast

Addicted Member
I've been enjoying woodworking for years but never had experience with lathe. Recently, I've purchased an old used Craftsman 12" lathe in decent shape with strong motor. I've done a lot of reading and watched some videos - so, I got the basics down, but had some questions regarding chucks for turning bowls.

Here's a link to the model's manual.
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/487689/Craftsman-113-238180.html#manual

I want to replace the tailstock with live one, and also install a bowl turning chuck. I think MT1 live tailstock can be easily found online, but not sure which chuck to get. I want something around $100. The manual says the spindle is 3/4"-16, I think, but need someone to verify that for me.

The lathe came with a few faceplates with no screw holes. I'm not sure if the former owner used it to glue the wood piece straight to the plate or if it's used for some other purposes, but all the plates are without holes.

Thanks for any advice/input in advance.
 
A plate without holes seems kind of useless! I would not be at home with gluing a piece to the plate. If you have a drill, you could just put holes in it. Which is what I'd do, because I'm cheap.

That's about as much information as I can give.... hopefully someone with more knowledge can chime in.
 
I saw where the manual says the headstock is 3/4-16, but haven't found anything that says what taper the tailstock is. What part of Seattle are you in? There's a Rockler hardware store a couple blocks NE of Northgate that should have a live center and tailstock chucks on the shelf. Take the cup center with you to compare tapers if it's not marked. If you're in the South end, there is a Woodcraft store off the Corson/Michigan exit that should also have these things. Probably also have a variety of 3 and 4 jaw chucks for the headstock as well. For purchases of this nature I prefer to see things in person to get an idea about the quality/functionality of what I'm looking at.

The headstock is easy enough to determine empirically. Measure the outside diameter and count the number of threads in one inch. 3/4-16 is a standard pitch, so quite common.

I don't do much turning, so no real advice there except to say that I would not use an undrilled faceplate except as a disk sander.
 
Faceplates without holes are used for sanding. 7f865f6cec197f5f0455c34c426bfd0c.jpg
I guess you could try drilling holes in it, but they are usually pretty flimsy and I don't know if I'd trust them. You might be better buying one used off ebay.


Rockler at northgate is a pretty good resource for woodworking but is really expensive. They tend to know there shit there and you could bring in pieces to ask them about.

If you have more questions feel free to PM me.
 
I want to replace the tailstock with live one, and also install a bowl turning chuck.

Do you mean you want to replace the lathe center like the part below? The tailstock is the part that holds it, 2nd pic. If there is a dead lathe center in there you should be able to remove it by winding the tailstock in to pop it out. Sometimes they are marked with the taper but which taper is easy enough to figure out.

More info please...


Lathes-Tailstock-font-b-Woodturning-b-font-font-b-Tool-b-font-MT2-Morse-Taper-Dead.jpg



medium.jpg


Morse-Taper-Chart.png
 
If I remember correctly, the common taper on Craftsman lathes is a number 2.
A live tailstock is just a point with a bearing.

The faceplates in 3/4 16 were all over eBay back when I tried to get back into turning 17 years ago.
My lathes are just sitting.

You should try to go to one or two meetings of the Seattle Woodturners club.
Google them.
A fantastic bunch of people with no end of friendship and knowledge.
You could find out everything from them.
They probably have tons of spare parts available or know where to get everything.

They have guest speaker/demonstrators at the meetings.
I got to see the elite turners of the world when I went.
Some absolutely fantastic artists.
Mostly just good old boys that like making saw dust.

One guy was "someone"
Filthy rich.
2 years to make an urn.
His stuff is in the Smithsonian.

I just didn't have time to partake and the weather at my house just puts me off being in the shop outside.
 
Wait.

I looked at the manual you linked.
You have a newer style large

Your centers use a number 1 MT. shank.

The spindle is a 3/4 16 thread.

Snoop eBay for parts.
 
Thank you all for the inputs. It was kinda strange that this guy had 4 different size faceplates without any screw holes or the hole in the middle for vacuum.

Looks like I should take both ends and whatever I can take out to one of those places mentioned. Tailstock came out easily, but I wasn't able to take out the center spur. Looks like it is somewhat stuck in there. I'll have to probably punch it out using a long metal rod.
 
The center is supposed to stick somewhat.
That's what the taper is for.
Usually it takes a tap to knock it loose.
If it's never been removed, it may take a few good taps.

The pressure when in use makes the taper hold and stick.
Taper is old school quick change method and even when used a lot, it takes a tap to knock loose.
 
Oh, if you look at the parts list for the large in the manual you listed, you will see the flat plates as sanding mounts.

Accessories got lost. People use lathes for different reasons.
I don't know if face plates are standard equipment on any basic wood large kits.
Bowl turning is one specialized area of large use.
Basic spindle turning is the fist step in learning to use a large and that only takes end points and tool rest and basic tools.

There is no end to specialty things you can do with a large
No end of special tooling.
 
Oh, if you look at the parts list for the large in the manual you listed, you will see the flat plates as sanding mounts.

Accessories got lost. People use lathes for different reasons.
I don't know if face plates are standard equipment on any basic wood large kits.
Bowl turning is one specialized area of large use.
Basic spindle turning is the fist step in learning to use a large and that only takes end points and tool rest and basic tools.

There is no end to specialty things you can do with a large
No end of special tooling.

Wood turning always fascinated me. I've done some spindle turning for tool handles and table/chair legs, and quickly found out different characteristics of wood species. I know that bowl turning takes much more skills and hopefully I'll get there with some practice and learning.
 
Do you mean you want to replace the lathe center like the part below? The tailstock is the part that holds it, 2nd pic. If there is a dead lathe center in there you should be able to remove it by winding the tailstock in to pop it out. Sometimes they are marked with the taper but which taper is easy enough to figure out.

More info please...


Yes, the cup center. Mine came with dead center, and I read that you're supposed to apply wax, but it's kinda painful to work with it.
 
Dead center is the cup center.
Dead mean it doesn’t turn.
A live center is just one that turns, as in, it has a bearing.

Or, dead center means the end that doesn’t have a drive. The motor end is live, the other end is dead.

With a face plate, you can start a bowl like a spindle, using the dead cup center to stabilize the block until it’s round and fairly balanced. Then you pull the dead center tail stock away and turn with the bowl blank running only mounted to the face plate. Thus the screw mounting is important.
 
The center is supposed to stick somewhat.
That's what the taper is for.
Usually it takes a tap to knock it loose.
If it's never been removed, it may take a few good taps.

The pressure when in use makes the taper hold and stick.
Taper is old school quick change method and even when used a lot, it takes a tap to knock loose.

Using the proper tapered drift knocks things free much more easily.
 
Well, everything I ordered arrived in the last few weeks. Unfortunately, the live center for the tailstock is not gonna work with my lathe. In the manual, it says MT1, but it turns out the hole in the middle of the tailstock spindle is not exactly MT1 - it's smaller. For some reason, the size of the hole is different from the spindle on the other side.

I also ordered a few other things including a cole jaw and wood branding kit.

Here are a few pictures of a bowl set I finished this evening.

These are 7" bowls made out of figured maple rounds I picked up last month. I picked up 5 very large green rounds of maple that some guy was offering for free nearby. I chopped 'em down with a chainsaw, planed and cut to smaller rounds, had them rough cut last week, and nuked 'em in microwave 10 times for 90 seconds each. It's a trick I learned from youtube and it really works great. For maple at least, no cracking whatsoever. Just some warping but it's easy to fix from rough cuts. Finished with natural oils and then beeswax. The figure doesn't really show in the pictures, but I really like it.


maple bowl a.jpg maple bowl b.jpg maple bowl c.jpg
 
Cool beans.
Thanks.

By the way, I got a Nova G3 chuck with an adapter, and so far, it's working flawlessly. I love this little chuck. It is perfect for turning small bowls and plates. I just wish I had a bigger lathe to turn large bowls.

For the live center that doesn't fit the spindle, I'll probably widen the hole with a drill and see if that works.
 
Now you need to turn some tractrix horns for the audiophile crowd and make some money with that thing ;)

tractrix150radian.jpg 54584-solid_wood_tractrix_horns_for_tweeters.jpg
 
Thanks.

By the way, I got a Nova G3 chuck with an adapter, and so far, it's working flawlessly. I love this little chuck. It is perfect for turning small bowls and plates. I just wish I had a bigger lathe to turn large bowls.

For the live center that doesn't fit the spindle, I'll probably widen the hole with a drill and see if that works.

Which hole are you proposing to enlarge with a drill? I'm confused. If it's the one I'm picturing in my mind, it's a tapered hole. Merely, enlarging one end with a straight drill won't do anything except cause problems down the road.
 
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