Bootstrapping a Jewelers’ Lathe Part VI – The RezLathe headstock, Mark One!

September 30, 2009

This is the post where everything finally comes together. I was up until now using pieces of a old kitchen cutting board for my test stand. While it was indeed made of hardwood I did not know what type, and I wanted my design to be reproduceable. I spent two entire crafting sessions (about 3 [...]

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Bootstrapping a Jewelers’ Lathe Part V – Achieving an operational headstock!

September 26, 2009

I’m almost done with the headstock! My last post showed the headstock using a fan motor and a cordless drill chuck joined with a shaft coupler to be possible. My next step was to make it a bit more practical to build, by designing in some tolerances. The people who designed this fan motor were [...]

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Bootstrapping a Jewelers’ Lathe Part IV – Getting Shafted (just right!)

September 25, 2009

Moving right along for the lathe development: This chuck and shaft it came from a cordless drill I bought for $2 at a Navajo flea market. Not having a gear puller, I was forced to cut the gear out off its shaft by using my Dremel abrasive cutoff wheel. I really did not want to [...]

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Bootstrapping a Jewelers’ Lathe Part III – The Inflexible Right Hand Rule

September 15, 2009

Today I wired up my rebuilt drill motor on its test stand, and then tried testing it. It works! But I don’t like it! I had guessed correctly that the electric drill parts were internally wired through the well known AC/DC universal motor circuit. The stator and the rotor are operate through series connections, with [...]

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Bootstrapping a Jewelers’ Lathe Part II – remounting the drill parts as a powered headstock.

September 13, 2009

If ever you want to create a working prototype of anything mechanical, I have found that solid hardwood is the very fastest way to temporarily mount parts in a secure and safe manner. Compared with reconstructing an entire carbon brush assembly, salvaging of the rest of the drill was relatively easy. The plastic case was [...]

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Bootstrapping a Jewelers’ Lathe Part I – recreate a shattered carbon motor brush housing

September 12, 2009

I resolved to spend as little money on tools as possible until Christmas, because some members of my family had talked about purchasing together some tools that were out of my range. Still, I could not resist getting a few things so that I could continue to make progress. I bought a ring stretcher to [...]

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The Tony Stark approach to jewelry making… every task has a tool!!!

September 12, 2009

I have to confess: Although I do want to learn some traditional manual techniques for silversmithing so that I can understand the basic process involved, I still am driven to automate a manual technique as soon as I understand how it is done. Part of this comes from my software design experience… the best programmers [...]

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Really Groovy Hand Lathing (OR: Flex-Shaft Plus Carbide Cutter = Lathe?) With Rainbow At Dinnertime.

September 6, 2009

While waiting until Labor Day weekend was over so that I could access the public library’s laser printer for creating etching patterns on some PNP-Blue resist sheet, I had been giving some thought to creating findings. The one finding I needed most was earring wire. And after surfing exhaustively I did not see any fine [...]

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All Pitted Out! (Or: Finishing The Finish On Fine Silver Ingots)

September 5, 2009

Hi! Not having heard any answers from anyone in cyberspace, I decided to visit my jewelry supply store yesterday about 50 miles away. The owner was a lifetime silversmith who now was one of the partners of the store. I was hoping that if I could show him the ingots, he could tell me how [...]

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It’s The Pits! (Or: First attempt finishing fine silver ingots.)

September 3, 2009

Folks, what am I doing wrong? I must confess I am somewhat disappointed with my first attempt at polishing. What I did was apply each side of the ingot to the following grits on a power sander for 30 seconds each: 60, 80, 100, 120, 150, 220, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000, and 2000. For [...]

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