Metal Shop
Lathe Project

Date July 30, 2004
I have started a lathe.  I am planning to make it roughly according to Dave Gingery although I am planning to make it in lost foam to get it done quicker!
This is the base support.  Two are needed for the lathe.  You can see the foam more clearly here.
Here are the first pictures.
This is the bed.  I used a foam that I had never tried before.  I got it at a craft store.  It is like the green floral foam.  It is harder than regular EPS and very easy to work with.  We'll see how it casts.
This is the bed as cast with the sprue and riser attached.  As you can see the finish is rough, but not too much different from the "normal" lost foam finish.

Note:  I weighed the foam before casting and it weighed 1.2 ounces.  The final casting with sprue and riser are 125 ounces.  So The metal needed worked out to be 100 times the ounces.
Here is a shot of the bottom of the bed.  It is beefier than Gingery plans...I made it out of 1/2 inch foam.
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8-02-2004  Here are the bases cast with the sprue still on.  I knocked the risers off already.  The foam weighed .8 ounce and the casting like this weighed 83 ounces.
Failure!
The foam got distorted as I put the sand around it.

Two pictures of the compound slide.
compound swivel base
Update 8-14-04

Here is the carriage foam.
Update 8-15-04

Previous two pictures as cast with sprues and risers attatched.
compound swivel base
compound slide
8-26-04
I took a break from the lathe and made this plaque for our house number.  If you want to see more details about how it was made, click on the picture!
Click for more details!
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