Ok maybe not exactly simple because a little bit of lathe work is involved, but check out what I've just done. 1, Take a useless discarded pair of discs (You'll have to put up with the english spelling). Here's a sample:
But wait, there's more! another quick lathe job and hey presto! a little tubular bush, the end sized to fit in the holes in the disc.
And you got a Mart-O-Matic WHEEL BOLT PATTERN DRILLING JIG! And yes, that is sellotape used to centre the disc!
man I need a lathe! anybody know how to convert a cheapo drill press into some sort of lathe for less than perfect work? Looks good Mart
Excellent idea, Mart. I'm going to find an old mid-70s F-150 rotor to harvest a drill jig for the five-on-5-1/2 inch pattern. Please check your e-mail. I'm about to post a Jaguar-specific question I hope you can answer. TIA Mike
Mart, one of my joys in life (I don't get out much) is too find a good use for something that ordinarily might get thrown away. Now I'll have a good excuse to get a larger lathe....that little 10" Atlas just ain't gonna hack it! Thanks for the idea. -Bob
You continue to amaze Mr. Mart.... Sellotape = cellophane tape? Nice to know there's a use for all those discarded and n.g. rotors et al out there. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [ QUOTE ] man I need a lathe! anybody know how to convert a cheapo drill press into some sort of lathe for less than perfect work? [/ QUOTE ] No offense, but less than perfect ain't gonna cut it for wheel bolt patterns etc. If you were lucky enough to find a rotary table for not too much you could do a lot with it and a drill press. You may want to think about the Harbor Freight combination mill/lathe. A chunk of change, but it looks to me to be a very flexible unit. You may want to look close, I understand from other posts that some of these offshore mill/lathes can have plastic gears - not good. There are a lot of really good smaller lathes out there, the Craftsman 6 x 18" for example and you can do a lot of stuff with these. I would estimate that 60-65% of the lathe stuff I do could be accomplished with a 6" swing lathe. (American lathes consider a 6" swing lathe one in which you can machine 6" diameter material. The British guys consider a 6" swing lathe to be one in which you can machine 12" diameter material. As well as there is some confusion about swing diameters here in the USA so when you're calling about a lathe, be sure to find out just what's what as far as what diameter you can machine.) Don't be afraid to buy a damaged lathe. The lathe is about the only tool that can replicate itself and once it's up and running in basic form, you can knock out a lot of repair parts - including gears which are no big deal if you know a few tricks about indexing for them.) Frankly, I don't know what I would do without my lathe. More than likely I'd still be running my sailboat and thinking about hot rods....
Mart,These posts are why I like the HAMB so much!I am impressed more by ideas like this than any other.Thank You for another great idea!!
Thanks fellas. Goes without saying the disc needs to be the type that slips over the wheel studs, rather than the type that bolts on behind with separate bolts. Koops: Yeah, Old Rusty has to double as a photo backdrop as I'm such an untidy worker there aint a square inch of horizontal surface on the workbench. C9 yeah, Sellotape is the generic adopted name over here for celophane tape. It's just the old fashioned clear stuff, Do you call it Scotch tape?? I parted the front face off the disc on the big lathe (a vintage Hendey), but I tidied the cut and turned down the bush on a Myford lathe, beloved of UK model engineers for years. Removing the face could have been done easily with hacksaw, grinder or jigsaw even, it's very soft. So in reality you's only need a little lathe for this job, (or a buddy with one) Mart.
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