A Few Add-Ons for My Wood Lathe

I made a few small additions to my lathe the past few days that I thought might be worth showing off in the hope that it might give others an idea for their own lathe, or give the very bored a bit of reading to keep them sane in the dark days between the end of the NFL season and first pitch of the MLB season.

There is nothing groundbreaking here. Just some ideas that I have wanted to act on for a few years now and never had the time. And I apologize for the moody lighting. I still need to install LED strips on this side of the shop. It is not really that dark, but the work lamp I use right above the lathe created a rather moody atmosphere. Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day, so maybe my lathe was just “in the mood.”

Bits and Bobs Caddy

The first item is incredibly simple. There are a few bits and bobs that I am always misplacing or knocking on the floor. Pencils, rulers, depth drills, wax…you know what I mean. I also have all of my pipe making drill bits in a block of wood ready for use which creates a top-heavy nightmare of flying bits from time to time.

So this is just an old cigar box bottom (there will be a cigar theme to this post). I mounted a block of wood to the bottom with some wood screws. The block is sized to fit snugly between the ways of the lathe. I have a long extension that I rarely use, so there is plenty of room for this to sit out of the way. And it is easily removable for those rare times I need the full bed.

Sand Paper Dispenser

Second, I finally upgraded my sandpaper box after 3 years. I use rolls of Klingspore Gold J-Flex cloth backed paper for all my lathe sanding (no affiliation, just a great product). I almost immediately discovered that the 4 rolls I use fit nicely in a Don Pepin Garcia Black 1979 box (great cigar, again no affiliation) that nicely nests out of the way right next to the control box.

I used some hockey tape to make a band to hold the “in use” pieces of paper. To do this I just ran the tape around sticky side out and got it as tight as I though I would need, then covered the sticky side with another layer of tape sticky side in. It’s a neat trick I picked up somewhere an dit has lasted for a long time. The problem is that I pull on one roll and all the rolls spin, and I need to find scissors to cut off a piece. So after thinking about if for a few years I made some upgrades.

First, I put a 5/8 inch diameter dowel through the box to keep the paper roll off the bottom. While this allowed the roll to turn a bit better, it also allowed the companion rolls to turn more easily, so I would up making a bigger mess that I started with.

The solution was simple. I turned a few hardboard disks and drilled 5/8 inch holes in the center to make spacers that allow the rolls to slip past each other. You can see one of the 5 spacers peeking out between the rolls in the picture below. But I still needed to hunt for scissors…hopefully a pair that I use for sandpaper and not the first pair I encounter. So one more upgrade.

I mounted a coping saw blade to the top edge of the box. Now I just need to push down on the box top and I can cleanly tear off a length of paper with no additional tools needed. I thought about mounting the blade to he box top so I could tear upward, but figured I was much more likely to cut myself on the blade, so it is now hidden below the paper that juts from the box. It works really well, and only took me 3 years to get around to doing.

Lathe Ways Guard

The final addition is something I stumbled upon during a visit to Home Depot yesterday. Anyone that does any sort of finishing on the lathe knows that you should lay a towel or something across the ways to protect them from oils, water during wet sanding, super glue, epoxy, or whatever arcane finishing substances you secretly use to obtain that signature finish. I don’t like using a towel, especially during wet sanding. It gets all gummed up with finish and whatnot (a lot of technical terms there) and hold moisture against the ways which is exactly what I am trying to avoid. There is a product out there that is essentially a terry towel with a plastic backing , but I hate spending $40+ on what is essential a disposable item. Enter the stair tread.

This rubbery plastic linoleum like thing cost about $7, I neglected to take a full length picture, but it is wide enough to cover a stir (duh). I sliced a piece off long enough to cover the ways when I have a slimline pen blank mounted.

As you can see, it slide in nicely and provides great protection, It should be easy to clean and even if it gets gummed up I have more than half the tread left to cut a new piece. Plus I can always spend another $7 if need be.

So there you have it. Not bad for 2 days work. Okay maybe half a day if you take out all the other nonsense I did. I have many projects like this that have been accumulating in the back of my mind over the years, and now in retirement I finally have time to tackle them. Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this sort of post or if you have ideas for alternative approaches. Also please check out my revamped website at www.canerodpipes.com There is not much there right now, but a few hints of things to come.

But despite the joy of endless workshop tinkering, I really have to get back to these.