I bought my lathe about 2 years ago. The switch has been pretty much a rigged system since. It did not come with the switch holder. I bought one off of Flea bay, and was exited to get it. Then I came to the realization that it was meant for a lathe that used a starter. I am using a levered switch. The belt will slip if I get to aggressive, so there is not worry about burning up the motor. Back to Flea bay for another switch mounting arm. I have had the switch taped to the first arm I bought for quite some time now, and figured I should take some time and make it right. While surfing all the home made tools, I saw Franks safety lock out system for the levered type switches. So I am making one for my lathe. It keeps one from turning on the lathe accidentally, and from going into reverse, if turned off in a hurry.
Here are some pictures.
I did not do a lot of planning before I started, so things get a little tricky as I go, but I think it will all work out in the end.
I am making it with two layers, because that is the material that I have, and the switch sets up pretty high. I still need to finish out the two arms and pin them to the top piece. I don't know if I left enough room to make it flop up and down properly yet.
Also when I bought the lathe it did not come with the covers for the base. I bought some on Flea bay and they needed a little work to get the hinge pins to line up for the door and the holes in one of the covers. The cover was easy enough, just mount it to the mill bed and bore the existing hole a little off set from where is was. The door on the other hand took a little more care to bore the holes off set from the originals. With a bit of fiddling and the use of the horizontal head, and the boring head, I got it done. Now I won't have to clean out from under there anymore. I did not take any pictures of that fix, but will take some of the finished product, in the future.
I am also going to use some JB weld to fix the belt cover, that was poorly repaired, by brazing, by a P.O. and is now broken again.
More to come!
