THO Game Calls Forums
The Art of Handcrafting Custom Game Calls => General Call Making Discussions => Topic started by: Ron Schuna on December 04, 2016, 11:37:12 PM
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When I bought a used jet mini lathe, a mt2 5/8" expanding mandrel was included. In order to use this mandrel, the original owner stacked washers on a bolt and tightened it into the lathe. My question is this... can I just tighten this in place using my Penn State collet chuck?
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I would use the draw bar, as it is meant to be used. It will be the safest use.
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The Pen State collets are designed for a straight shank mandrel only. The #2 MT shank will not fit any PS collet I am aware of.
Use a piece of "All Thread" (correct thread size/you cut to Length) (Lowes or Home Depot) as a draw bar for your mandrel.
Fred
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Thanks for the replies.
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Ron, I use a draw bar made of all-thread, a couple of nuts and a knob I made. I measured the all thread to length (Goes about an inch into the knob) and cut it. I turned the knob on the lathe with the small end the right size to fit into the headstock turn handle flat area. It has a hole drilled into it which allowed me to drive the all-thread into it, along with the nuts which I loctited and jammed together on the end of the all-thread - right at the edge of the knob so the metal of the nut contacts the metal in the lathe. I epoxied that whole assembly together, but the nut/all-thread assembly was very tight going in as well. I actually turned the knob on a scrap of the all-thread chucked up in my lathe drill chuck.
Makes using the drive bar extremely easy with mandrel.
The little wrap of tape centers the all-thread in the headstock shaft so the knob does not have a lot runout while in use (the all-thread is a little undersized from the ID of the headstock shaft).
(http://i1365.photobucket.com/albums/r747/Jeremy_Chinn/20161206_205647_zps4pry9e0q.jpg) (http://s1365.photobucket.com/user/Jeremy_Chinn/media/20161206_205647_zps4pry9e0q.jpg.html)