[TheForge] Twister (Was:: housekeeping...)

[Jerry Frost]

From: "Ries Niemi" <rniemi at fidalgo.net>


>
> Very few lathes have real brakes- mine is pretty 
> hefty, and all it has is a foot brake, which uses 
> plain old brake pads. Its inexact, to say the least.
> There are a very few big industrial ones out there 
> with motor brakes, but its not a usual feature.
> Also, unless your lathe is really big, its kinda fast 
> for twisting.
> Be careful.
> The slowest my big lathe goes is 40 rpm.
> My twister runs at 14rpm, with about a 3 1/2hp motor 
> geared down to that speed- lots of torque is good.
> Not to say you cant do it with a lathe, but its not 
> what I would call "perfect". Maybe for little stuff- 
> 3/8" square or so.
> But my twister will do 1 1/2" square cold, bigger 
> stuff hot.
>
>  Ries Niemi
> Industrial Artist
>


Good points. I haven't used this one for twisting and 
to be honest don't know what it's lowest speed is. We 
used the one in high school shop class pretty regularly 
but in back gear I don't think it turned 5-6rpm and the 
brake stopped it cold. The shop teacher wouldn't accept 
twists made on the lathe for a grade. He didn't mind us 
selling class work in the least though.

Perfect was too strong a word, especially with purpose 
built machines in use.

Darn! Now you have me hoping it'll work. <mutter mutter 
grumble>

Frosty
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