USS Constitution - Model Shipway’s 5/32” = 1 ft. (1:76.8) Kit No.: MS2040

[JSGerson]

I have a small (not micro) wood lathe that I bought about 20 years ago from Micro-Mark, but it is designed for full size work, It is beefy and powerful. It could twist snap small stock wood with ease if not careful. I might have attempted the stanchions if I had one accessory: a four fingered chuck. Most of my stock wood is square cross section. I have attempted to buy one from Micro-Mark in the past, but they did not offer one that could fit my lathe and I could not find any elsewhere. Now it appears they only sell Sherline products.

Jon

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

That's quite the interesting setup - three jaw cucks on both sides of the lathe? I suggest you invest in a four jaw (self centering) chuck for the drive side of the lathe and a live center for the other end. With those two changes, you should have no problem turning wood. Had you had nothing but the four-jaw chuck, you could have made quick work of the center bolsters, even if your only cutting tool was a small file.

As I said at the other site, very impressive work considering the tools you're handicapped(?) with. But I'll ask again here, how do you lower the cutting tool on that Dremel setup? Hopefully not by loosening this knob and lowering the Dremel manually?

 

[JSGerson]

Peter, as I mentioned earlier, I tried buying a 4-jaw chuck but couldn't find one that fit my lathe. The set up you see in the image above was just to hold the 2nd 3-jaw chuck from rolling around on the bench.

As for the Dremel drill stand, there is a incremental depth stop on the right side. This limits the drill's vertical motion to a set height. The problem with it, is that it can only move the stop by 1/8" jumps as indicated on the scale. Any finer adjustment gets clunky. I either have to adjust the initial height manually by the knob you saw on the left side or adjust the height of what ever I'm drilling. There are no fine adjustment screws. Like I said, a poor man's drill press.

Note, that my Dremel drill stand is the "old" version I bought at least 15 years ago. The newer ones can be rotated 15 degrees at a time and have a variable continuous depth stop. Mine is strictly a vertical or horizontal setup.

 

[Der Alte Rentner]

I feel your pain. Part of the reason I switched from the Proxxon to the Sherline lathe was exactly because I could not get a self-centering four-jaw chuck for the Proxxon. I went down every rabbit hole suggested by contributors at MSW, and looked at countless YouTube videos explaining how you could get spindle adapters to fit standard available four-jaw chucks to the Proxxon proprietary spindle, but ultimately gave up.

I'm given to understand that the micro mark lathe use standard sized fittings. You should be able to find a 4-jaw chuck and, if need be, a spindle adapter for it.

I asked Gemini, and the A/I agent agrees.

"To mount a 4-jaw self-centering chuck onto your Micro-Mark MicroLux 7x16 mini lathe (Model 82995), you will need a compatible 4-inch plain-back chuck and a spindle adapter plate (backing plate) designed specifically for 7-series mini lathes."

SoS deleted the link to Little Machine Shop for the recommended chuck. Confirm the diameter and number of threads on your spindle, and shop four jaw chucks at Amazon.

I asked Grok the same question, got a similar answer. No adapter should be necessary because a 1 inch by 8TPI spindle nose seems to be the standard. I therefore reiterate, check Amazon for self-centering four jaw chuck's, check the specs to make sure they have one inch by 8 TPI spindle.

 

[JSGerson]

Thank you Peter for your efforts. Let's hope I find what I need. BTW, I just finished reading your long for the last month. It seems I never got notified of your postings. Beautiful work!!!

Jon