Make717 Lathe Cabinet

I've written several posts previously about the Make717 makerspace, a local group of which I'm a member. The makerspace, in space donated by Thaddeus Stevens College, brings together a lot of different equipment that would be expensive to purchase for a home shop: metalworking lathe and mill, 3D printers, laser cutters, CAD workstations, an extensive electronics bench, and more. I've been involved with the group since almost the beginning, and have made a few pieces of shop furniture for them (a workbench and a pair of hardware cabinets that took four blog posts: 1, 2, 3, 4).

Now, I've taken on a project involving a tiny Sherline lathe. It's a fine piece of equipment!

The genesis for this project was a wonderful grant that Make717 (which is a 501c3 non-profit) received via the Lancaster County Library System. Part of the grant is for presentations at each of the country library branches, demonstrating how to use various tools and equipment. The leaders of Make717 asked if I wanted to be the "lead" on the project to demonstrate metalworking, and I jumped at the chance.

The first part was researching what equipment to purchase for these travelling demos, and the lathe above was the clear choice. Then I learned how to use it and designed a demonstration project, and in October did a trial run at a Maker Faire at the local Barnes & Noble bookstore. It all went well!

In the photo above, the lathe is mounted on a wooden base. That's the first task that every Sherline owner has to undertake, and the one pictured above is actually version 2, modified based on what I learned at the B&N event. Compared to the first version, this one has the lathe moved all the way to the right, so the handwheel is out in free space. The other modification was to add that handle on the left side.

The Sherline instructions have dire warnings about lifting the lathe from the motor, saying you could crack the casting that holds the motor. I took that to heart, added the handle, and also a warning label of my own - "NEVER LIFT FROM THE MOTOR! USE THE HANDLE!"

The other thing I learned from the B&N event was that having multiple boxes of tools and gear was kind of a pain. I decided to build a base for the lathe that would hold nearly everything we need for the demos, and also serve as a useful storage space for when the lathe is in the makerspace. It also could raise the lathe to a back-friendly height for use. Here's what I came up with:

The plastic storage bins on the left are mounted on drawer slides, using the exact same technique I detailed in Part 2 of the saga of building the hardware cabinets. On the right is a single deep drawer to hold power cords and larger junk, including the display board I made for the demo:

Each drawer can fully extend, and I used a combination of the bins that came with them and simple plywood frames to define the space:

Of course, the lathe base is sized to fit on top of this cabinet. 

The base is held in position by a pair of knurled brass thumbscrews, made by me. These also hold in place a Lexan shield that keeps metal chips from flying onto folks watching the demo:

The thumbscrews have steel threads from a commercial screw, and will be useful as demo pieces in their own right, for discussions of the various operations used in making them.

So, it's all done and ready to go. In January, the demos will begin. I'll post dates on my Facebook page as I learn them - come see us!