Lathe tool identification

I'm assuming that a live center is being used. It is a pointy thing that fits in a hole drilled in your stone and has a taper that fits in the tail stock. Bearings are used to allow spinning.

I'm afraid my stomach tightened right up when I saw that lathe covered in abrasive dust.

Do you use carbide or something else to turn stone?

Wes S

Hahaha! I know what you mean about the dust, it sticks to the grease and oil and makes a lovely grinding paste!

I too thought about a live centre but the image shows something different to what I have seen. The tools used are exactly the same as for metal turning. HSS can be used on the softer stones but TCT works better and lasts longer especially for the harder stone. You can also use masons chisels inserted in a long bar to do freehand stuff using the tool post with a bar in it as a rest, sort of like wood turning. You have to be very carefull though!

If you look at my website second picture down on the projects page you can see some bits on a fountain that where turned by another company on a very large lathe.

The square black thing on the tailstock end of the stone piece is probably a piece of metal that has been center drilled to accept the live center in the tailstock and distribute forces. That might be glued to the stone or fitted into a recess in the stone to ensure that nothing can slip sideways.

I assume the large squares on both ends are part of the stone. If not they could be hardwood or some such material with recesses to accept the stone.

I agree that the stone dust looks bad for a nice lathe. Seems like some better cover could be arranged to keep the dust off of the ways.

"rayt" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

If you look closely at the end, you can see the layout lines the machinist drew to place the square metal piece. My guess is that it is glued to the stone.

What a perfectly terrible way to treat a lathe. :-) ...lew...

I don't even like to see steel, iron, or wood chips on my lathe.

He should get a woodworking type vacuum system for the good of his lathe AND his lungs. Wear that face mask and eye protection.

First I've heard of turning limestone or sandstone that way, I've read of turning alabaster with woodworking lathes and tools, though. Looks to me like the tailstock center is up against a metal(?) pad there that's either keyed into a square hole or stuck onto the base somehow. If it were stuck on there with an adhesive, the turner would have to be very careful not to get a tool stuck or the workpiece might go flying with bad consequences. You could use a regular 60 degree ballbearing center if the pad were countersunk to match. Would be a few minutes work on a lathe to do that. Wonder what SFM they use for stone?

Stan

I've turned both alabaster and marble on a metal turning lathe. (note, be sure to put lots of plastic sheeting and other stuff to protect the ways and all). A regular 60 degree center puts too much stress on the work. I've used a 60 degree cup point in a live center without difficulty. For larger work, I would machine a bigger cup or use a live tailstock chuck. As for the picture, it looks like he's using some kind of a close fitting wooden cup (happens to be square) which has a metal center. The metal center in turn is held by a regular tailstock dead center point. The holder doesn't look any standard lathe work holder... probably something the turner makes as needed to fit the job at hand.

Boris