Novice Q: which machine?

Yes, although the log splitter will be an interesting challenge in work holding and threading -- I'm envisioning turning it between centers that are spherical instead of the usual conical, and wondering how you'll hold the pointy end. Or perhaps making a taper turning attachment.

Threading is considered to be advanced machining to some. I like it, but I still can't do it repeatably without go/no-go gauges or the part that I'm trying to mate to.

A mini lathe may have trouble with the log splitter -- that's pretty big, particularly if it's steel or cast iron. You could probably coax a bigger mini-lathe to do the job, but it'd be uncomfortable.

After getting an inexpensive import lathe, all I can say is that I wish I'd been more patient and gotten a good used professional one. But I think I could do it on my Smithy, so you could probably do it on something equivalent.

O.K. That sounds like a lathe -- with threading gearing for inch threads.

Hmm ... a bit trickier.

A bit more material to remove than a mini lathe would be happy with.

and the thread is a bit more of a trick, since it requires both threading capability (likely a coarser thread than the mini lathes are likely to handle) and a taper attachment which can be used at the same time.

I don't think that they are available with taper attachments, so I don't think that you can make the splitter with them. And I don't think that they cut coarse enough thread pitches as well.

Good Luck, DoN.

Are you contemplating turning the 3/4" dia. shaft to 1/2"? If so I think I would leave the grinder shaft as is and if you needed a smaller grinder just buy one that is smaller. Cheap HF grinders with good wheels installed work just fine.

If you are going to make a shaft extender to mound a grinding wheel this may cause some problems as you will be extending the wheel farther from the bearing. Probably OK for a buff wheel but not good for grinding due to vibration problems and I mught be a little worried about a wheel coming loose on you with such a set up.

Neither a cheap HF lathe or a mini would be really good at this project. You need a good size lathe with a taper attachment for such a project. I would think and even with one of those it would be a real tricky setup. Probably a lot cheaper and easier to get one prefab.

The splitter wouldn't be too hard to make by offsetting the tailstock, assuming it moves far enough or you can cobble up something. I made a tapered mandrel to wind conical wire wood stove handles that way. This job doesn't require a precision thread form or pitch, on my mandrel it's just a semicircular groove cut at 4 threads per inch. When you cut a thread this way the pitch will be wrong because it should be measured straight down the central axis and the lathe lays it out along the conical surface instead.

Roughing a 4-5" cylinder of steel down to a cone in any finite length of time will take a reasonably powerful and rigid lathe. I'm not familiar with the smaller imports but it would be a workout for my old

10" South Bend which is about equivalent to this in capacity: this in features: The spindle adapter shouldn't be too bad except for threading a blind hole internally. That will go easier if the lathe has back gears or at least a low speed around 60 RPM or less. You will want to cut both threads without loosening the chuck jaws, which could make fitting the thread snugly to the 3/4" shaft difficult. If you finish the thread with a bottoming tap the adapter may not run true.

Personally I'd follow Roger's advice and get the right wheel.

These two jobs define a pretty reasonable hobby lathe, but not a cheap one.

jsw

Yes a lathe. And no..a mini lathe wont be turning a metal cone 4-5" in diameter down to a point.

Lots of good surplus lathes out there. Id try to find a decent Logan 11" lathe if I were you.

Gunner

One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Gunner Asch

If you just need to reduce it, and not thread it, let the motor be it's own lathe. You just need to mount it securely, then fashion a cutter mount that is rigid and can move parallel to the shaft with some accuracy. You should be able to cobble something together from scrap on hand.

The splitter wouldn't be too hard to make by offsetting the tailstock, assuming it moves far enough or you can cobble up something.

Asuming you could offset the center 2-21/2 inches, and mount a 12 inch long steel bar between them, you would only be able to get to about a 1" diameter on the small end before you had to stop cutting the taper between centers as you would have no more center on the tail stock side.

This would mead that you would then have to truncate the cone and make the tip seperatly and then attach it.

Making the cone tip would not be too dificult until you consider the threading. To thread, you need to use the carriage rather than the cross slide which is going to mean a taper attachment or a CNC, and this is going to get real dicey near the tip.

Now consider the fat end of the cone. You need to face, drill and thread this end. Whne do you do this? The only way I can thingk to do it would be to do it first and then screw in something like a trailer hitch ball and then fabricate some sort center with a concave tip to accept the ball. This would also require some sort of clever dogging pin to spin the cone on the lathe.

In total it would take a whole lot of time to make all of the tooling, and then you are going to need a whole lot of skill and a really good tool to be able to do this.

Not sure how much one of these things cost to by one from a manufacturer but it has to be a whole lot cheaper than trung to make one by turning cranks on a lathe.

I am wondering how a blacksmith might approach making one of these. Those guys can be really clever and they might be able to forge some sort of auger to split firewood

Another way would be to invesment cast it. It would probabily be much easier to deal with wax or foam to get the shape you wanted, but then it would still be more costly than buying one off the shelf

I don't follow your objections. Why would there be no more center on the tailstock side when the small end diameter is at 1"?

My wood stove handle winding mandrel tapers to 1/4" to form the ring that goes around the mounting screw on the stove. I could have cut it smaller, maybe down to 1/8", by using a half center:

down to the "half moon" dead centers.

The nut sorting gauge here was turned between centers to 1/4" OD at the ends and then threaded starting at the tailstock center:

was nothing dicey about it, just normal threading to a shoulder. I've cut an 0-80 thread on a shaft that was supported by the tailstock center.

When the work is angled by offsetting the tailstock, the tool bit side will be cut parallel to the ways. You thread it the same way you thread a cylinder. The tool bit alignment is a little different but the operation isn't.

I don't think you need to thread all the way to a pointed tip. I might grind a spade drill bit form on the end and press the log against it to drill a pilot hole. A half-round gouge-chisel shape that tapers to a point also makes an effective wood drill. The reamer blade on a Swiss army knife is a good example.

If you want you could chuck the big end and file the point sharp, then cut the threads with a triangular file the same way you fix the mangled lead screw on an old wood augur bit, hold a constant angle and let the existing thread groove guide the file as you rock it over the work to trace out the next segment. Once you have the starting groove you could run the lathe slowly. This is how threading used to be done and it isn't really all that difficult.

WARNING: File left-handed on a lathe to keep your arms away from the chuck.

On the big end I'd drill and tap whatever thread it mounts on in use, then make a plug with a standard 60 degree recess for the headstock center. It definitely doesn't have to be a ball and socket joint, the traditional 60 degree point and hole work fine at an angle if kept greased. This is a good use for a beat-up center from the second-hand store, or an Enco cheapie, or even a home-made one held in a collet.

You can use a collet and a faceplate at the same time if the spindle adapter clears. Unscrew the faceplate to pop the adapter loose. This is why I like old lathes with threaded spindles, they are so adaptable to odd setups.

The driver is simply an offset tapped hole for some bolt that will ride in a slot in the faceplate. Yes it slides back and forth in the slot, but cast iron is forgiving and you can discard the bolt afterwards.

If this splitter is for a car axle you could torch out the lug hole section of an old wheel and weld it to the cone. Then you need only a small center hole in the cone and a drive bolt in one lug hole.

To reduce center wear I would cut away most of the steel in steps while it's running straight and only finish and thread it at the angle. When I turned cast iron spheres I made a spreadsheet giving infeed from the maximum diameter versus distance from the right end and used it to turn the blanks (dumbbells) down in steps. The increment between rows was a formula variable so I could rough in large steps and finish in small ones.

jsw

The log splitter would be an interesting and challenging project, but I wouldn't classify it as a "novice" project unless a 9" or bigger lathe with taper attachment was available.

It isn't a precision thread nor does it need to fit anything, so it could be made with very primitive methods. Such things were made by machinists and artificers before there were engine lathes or electric motors. It just took a while.