Oval Turning Lathe

This Old House toured a factory which included an oval picture frame lathe machine. A 2 or 3' frame was mounted and spinning. It was dizzying to watch, going roundNround, upNdown and even sideways. But when you focused on the toolrest, it was clear the work was all passing the same point in the same direction. From a distance there was "no WAY" that thing was going to work!

Joel. phx

Saw an oval turning attachment for a Schaublin 70 lathe working once... It was really sort of surreal.

I built an adjustable oval turning fixture from a sheet & a half of plywood for making a dining table top. It would make any size oval from about 8"X6" to 4'X8'. The woodworking magazine where I saw the plans showed an overhanging router mounted to make the cut as the top section of the fixture was turned but I didn't trust my setup there so just mounted a pencil to the overhead arm and drew the ellipse on the wood & then sawed to the line. (another one of my one use projects that's still taking up space in the shop somewhere.)

Also, at one time one of the novelty catalogs was selling an "executive toy" thing that had two intersecting slots w/a handle coming off a sliding piece so that you could basically move the handle in a circular pattern which the two slots would allow though they were inlet in the small board at right angles. Kind of hard to describe.. Steve Monroe

Not if the person you're describing it to knows what it is! ;)

You got it Joel. Thanks for the reply. (and I was hoping I wouldn't be talking to myself there. ) Steve Monroe

When we were making them in the sixties, we called them bullsh*t grinders. The instructions said to put what needed to be disposed of in the middle and turn the handle.

Thanks guys, I haven't seen one of those in years.

-Dean Horstman