Lathe for sale and a few other things to mention
Posted: Thu May 28, 2020 11:34 pm
If anyone interested I am selling an old Atlas 6" lathe. Would be best if someone came and got it but I can ship it anywhere in a number of separate packages if interested. This is the type of lathe that I used for the first decade plus of my flute and bagpipe making career. Currently it is listed on Craigslist for $1200. Shipping would be extra, including a crating charge. It includes 3 and 4 jaw chucks, and Jacobs chucks for the tailstock and the head stock. The heast stock one is threaded internally. I wish there was one for the Myford lathe!
The Craigslist listing is here: https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/tls/ ... 74375.html
For years I have used my friends Alden and Cali's laser engraver to label my flutes. then came the Pandemic in February and by early March, I joined everyone else in sheltering and home and isolation. For years I have been wanting in-house capacity to do this and finally have something that is working great. For a while I was hoping I could get one of these Silhouette Curio machines to work on a rounded surface and I am still pursuing modifications to that machine for engraving rings. Then the great Highland Bagpiper and friend of mine Murray Huggins informed me he was in a similar predicament. He invested in an inexpensive Chinese-made XY table and it engraves his chanters just fine. His mark is a little more linear than mine and I was always under the assumption that I needed something with a rotary axis like onthe machine I have been using. I considered one of these - simply converting the Y axis to a rotary axis.
About 4 months ago I saw a promotion for a rather poorly named but interesting concept of a tripod mounted laser engraver with a long focus of 200mm called the Laserpecker (see http://www.laserpecker.net). I saved the ad for the Kickstarter campaign as an image, more out of the humor about the brand name but then remembered it. Early in May Amazon started shipping these so I went ahead and ordered one ($321) and it arrived Saturday. There are 2 versions and the newer one isn't out yet. Unfortunately I found that the one I had produced laser dots that were .3mm across, equivalent to 86 dots per inch. The new one will be twice the resolution. However I was able to coax an acceptable result out of it. Then Sunday night someone commented on my image and mentioned a hack that he tried - simply attaching a magnifier lens over the laser window to focus the point into a tighter dot. I jyst happened to have a 50mm diameter lens with 100mm focal length in fused quartz that a local glass grinder gave me. This reduced the focal length of the laser unit to 78 mm and the resulting DPI is around 216 - better than the Pro version (the same hack will be useable on the Pro). Once I adjusted the focus on the test pieces I built a simple device consisting ofr an inexpensive XY table to hold the laser and a spindle that holds a flute head joint for the correct label position and alignment. Both are mounted onto a piece of 3/4" plywood. The XY table is useful for focusing and for centering. I located this in the workshop right next to one of the exhaust fans right next to the door to blow out the resulting wood smoke.
The results are good and sharp - and in some ways better than what I was getting with the expensive unit. Someone should be around when the unit is operating due to fire hazard thus while its operating, i am in there doing something else like tuning and voicing. I only have laser glasses for now and sitting at my tuning and voicing bench the lathe I use for boring blocks all light from reaching my eyes. A beep tells me when it is done. Its wonderful to have this in-house capability finally! Pictures below! I plan to upgrade to the Pro with even higher resolution.These are very well thought out tools and are excellent for this purpose.
Casey
Here is the Engraver setup. The LP is controlled by an app on an iPhone, iPad or Android via Bluetooth. It doesn't work off a Mac or a PC. Artwork can certainly be designed on these platforms and transferred to the tablet.
Here is a closeup of the added lens - here inelegantly mounted with some duct tape. Some day I'll make a lens holder that will allow lenses of the same diameter but different focal lengths. Lens can be easily purchased at Edmunds Optics.
Here is a nice sharp result in Boxwood. I've removed the "Washington" under the "Kingston" and stylized the icon in the middle (this is based on a columnal of a fossil sea lily that I have been studying for years in my paleontological life).
The Craigslist listing is here: https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/tls/ ... 74375.html
For years I have used my friends Alden and Cali's laser engraver to label my flutes. then came the Pandemic in February and by early March, I joined everyone else in sheltering and home and isolation. For years I have been wanting in-house capacity to do this and finally have something that is working great. For a while I was hoping I could get one of these Silhouette Curio machines to work on a rounded surface and I am still pursuing modifications to that machine for engraving rings. Then the great Highland Bagpiper and friend of mine Murray Huggins informed me he was in a similar predicament. He invested in an inexpensive Chinese-made XY table and it engraves his chanters just fine. His mark is a little more linear than mine and I was always under the assumption that I needed something with a rotary axis like onthe machine I have been using. I considered one of these - simply converting the Y axis to a rotary axis.
About 4 months ago I saw a promotion for a rather poorly named but interesting concept of a tripod mounted laser engraver with a long focus of 200mm called the Laserpecker (see http://www.laserpecker.net). I saved the ad for the Kickstarter campaign as an image, more out of the humor about the brand name but then remembered it. Early in May Amazon started shipping these so I went ahead and ordered one ($321) and it arrived Saturday. There are 2 versions and the newer one isn't out yet. Unfortunately I found that the one I had produced laser dots that were .3mm across, equivalent to 86 dots per inch. The new one will be twice the resolution. However I was able to coax an acceptable result out of it. Then Sunday night someone commented on my image and mentioned a hack that he tried - simply attaching a magnifier lens over the laser window to focus the point into a tighter dot. I jyst happened to have a 50mm diameter lens with 100mm focal length in fused quartz that a local glass grinder gave me. This reduced the focal length of the laser unit to 78 mm and the resulting DPI is around 216 - better than the Pro version (the same hack will be useable on the Pro). Once I adjusted the focus on the test pieces I built a simple device consisting ofr an inexpensive XY table to hold the laser and a spindle that holds a flute head joint for the correct label position and alignment. Both are mounted onto a piece of 3/4" plywood. The XY table is useful for focusing and for centering. I located this in the workshop right next to one of the exhaust fans right next to the door to blow out the resulting wood smoke.
The results are good and sharp - and in some ways better than what I was getting with the expensive unit. Someone should be around when the unit is operating due to fire hazard thus while its operating, i am in there doing something else like tuning and voicing. I only have laser glasses for now and sitting at my tuning and voicing bench the lathe I use for boring blocks all light from reaching my eyes. A beep tells me when it is done. Its wonderful to have this in-house capability finally! Pictures below! I plan to upgrade to the Pro with even higher resolution.These are very well thought out tools and are excellent for this purpose.
Casey
Here is the Engraver setup. The LP is controlled by an app on an iPhone, iPad or Android via Bluetooth. It doesn't work off a Mac or a PC. Artwork can certainly be designed on these platforms and transferred to the tablet.
Here is a closeup of the added lens - here inelegantly mounted with some duct tape. Some day I'll make a lens holder that will allow lenses of the same diameter but different focal lengths. Lens can be easily purchased at Edmunds Optics.
Here is a nice sharp result in Boxwood. I've removed the "Washington" under the "Kingston" and stylized the icon in the middle (this is based on a columnal of a fossil sea lily that I have been studying for years in my paleontological life).