holding big stock on lathe

[mtraven]

I am in the process of rebuilding my mower deck for my ford 1320. She needs a new set of wheels and I wanted them to be the last set she sees. Seeing how oem wheels run $100 a piece & are likely to break down again...and I have a lathe so why not make them? I found a deal on some 6" CR stock: 2peices of 5" length for $100, I pick it up on friday. I intend to make 4 wheels of 2" width and 6" less what I take off to true it. My lathe has a 16" swing, but I don't think my chuck is large enough to handle it. It will be close, but even if it is, the jaws will be real close to disengaged & I don't think that's an appropriate way to hold it.


Had a few different ideas to mount it properly, but wanted to see how some of you might do it? The more detail the better! thanks!

time is of the essence seeing how the lawn is growing & cutting 4 acres with a hand mower ain't fun at all.


ps...I have a couple old brake rotors that seem prized for a faceplate if that sounds like a good direction.

[mike4]

Do you have a drillpress , if so as you are making wheels then just drill a 1/2 or 3/4 hole through the centre and put a grade 8 bolt through the hole with about 4'' of thread extended .
Put a couple of nuts on the thread after tightening the bolt .
Drill a centre hole in the head of the bolt deep enough for a live centre to help support the weight and start turning your wheels .

I have done this with pieces of 6' steel around 5 or so inches long when making bearing housings and just had to restrict the depth of cut to where the part did not stop turning while cutting.

Michael

[scotplant]

My lathe has a 16" swing, but I don't think my chuck is large enough to handle it. It will be close, but even if it is, the jaws will be real close to disengaged

could you not remove chuck jaws and turn them round and hold it with the stepped side??
Tom..

[J Tiers]

Mine is a 10" machine, and I would have no problems holding the part.

One way, with a chuck, is to use the outside jaw setting on a 6" or larger 4 jaw. That would require two setups per wheel.

Another is as above to drill and use some sort of mandrel, like the bolt.

Another is to mount on the faceplate, preferably on some sort of spacer.... hold-downs through the lightening holes (if any) or purpose drilled holes for hold-downs. That lets you bore the center hole AND turn the full outside in one setup.... not required for mere mower wheels, but useful for pulleys and other things where the two must be concentric.

[gwilson]

I turned some 6" brass rings on my 10" Jet lathe back about 1975. They were hub bands for an 18th.C. style carriage. I could chuck them,but had to make a special tool to reach out and around those ring castings. I couldn't back the criss slide enough to get at the outside surfaces of the hub bands.

Fortunately,the castings were just real soft yellow brass,and I got the job done. The wheel hubs are still on the coach to this day.

I'm wondering if you also have a 10" lathe,Tiers,who could you get at the O.D. to do any turning on real metal,like steel?

As for the 16" lathe,old timers would have worked out a way to just securely bolt the wheels to the face plate. Early on,few ever even had chucks.

[J Tiers]

A very simple trick for turning a max diameter part is to use a boring bar.

naturally for 6" dia in a 10" machine, there is no need to resort to any such measures, as there is at least 2" radius left outside the part. Not for LONG parts, but shorter stuff you can reach with carriage located so the part is not over the crosslide. Pulleys, wheels, etc. No propeller shafts....

But I have worked on 10" diameter pulleys on the 10" lathe. Put them on faceplate, and used boring bar or other semi-tricky setups to reach the work area. The 10" nominal Logan actually turns a part just shy of 11".

I forget what I did to work on the pulley V-groove, I think for that I must have retracted the compound and crosslide almost to max, because I do recall what tool I used.

[Lew Hartswick]

If youre cutting 4 Acres with 6" diameter wheels you need a bigger
mower.
...Lew...

[Carld]

I have a 13" lathe and turn 8" work as long as it's not to long.

If your going to make wheels out of 6" stock are you going to band saw them to 2" disc's? If so just chuck one up as straight as possible and face one side, flip it face the other side and bore the hole for the bushing or bearings.

I don't see a real problem doing the disc's. It's a mower and the OD concentricity is not that important.

[garagemark]

Here's a dumb question: Why true up the 6" CR in the first place? These are not high speed wheels. Why not just cut your 2" slices, center drill them and bolt em on? Unless you need to cut bearing pockets or something else, I can't see the need for perfect deck wheels. 2" Slabs will last forever, or until the center hole wears out. Then simply sleeve them again and again.

I may have missed something though.

Mark

[lakeside53]

I interpreted the OP question as a holding for a facing/boring operation.

Surely the 16 inch lathe can handle the stock if the jaws are turned around. My 14 with and 8 inch chuck can do it in a heartbeat. I've used expanding mandrels where the faces and OD of 7 inch stock needed to be done in one setup.