Old friend has a machining lathe...

[thd9791]

Hey everyone

So...an old friend of the family came over for dinner, saw the resin cast of the luke ROTJ I made, and was like hey....we could turn this...I have a small machining lathe....(hes a 60 year old craftsman but hes had a stroke recently so it will be the two of us doing this) so I thought about making a shared stunt..so we could just slide a graflex clamp onto it afterwards and not worry about a box..

It's only a 10-12" lathe and the saber is a bit longer...so my question for people who have done this sort of thing before...

material? (Aluminum or ? where to get the right stock...what size?

Which leads to my next question - how should we break up the pieces? I'm not sure how to thread things...

Thank you!

Tom

 

[Sean]

I'm kinda in the same boat as you are. getting the stock is not a big problem. and I thought threads on a piece of metal would be fairly strait foreword. but I'm learning it's not. so I wish you the best on this. but I look at it this way.I'm learning something new. and i hope you get lots of help and advice here.and I can look in and learn more....

 

[Luke0312]

Look at where some other makers such as Russ or Romans split theirs.

As for turning the threads on the lathe, unless he's a really good machinists, I'd skip it. Drill and tape the ends of each piece and connect them with all-thread. Smaller common size taps aren't expensive like the larger die you'd probably need to clean up the threads you turn and with a small tap, it can easily be done by hand.

 

[thd9791]

Thats a good idea, threading the inside...not sure how to drill through the entire body lengthwise...

The resin cast I had was an entire piece minus the top plate. I'm thinking of making it in two or three pieces....the emitter down to the middle of the windvane..bottom of windvane and body.....maybe a separate pommel..people who have done this....did you hit each bevel seperately to make the grip rings or just a really..really sharp angled tool really deep?

 

[Luke0312]

Thats a good idea, threading the inside...not sure how to drill through the entire body lengthwise...

I didn't mean drilling through and threading the entire body. Just drill and tap maybe 3/4" into each end of the parts, use a piece of all-thread about 1-1/8" long (so it bottoms out on one piece) and screw them together.

As for how to do it, just chuck up the part you're going to drill, put the bit in your tailstock and run it into the part. That way you know you're drilling the center, then take it out and tap it by hand.

There may be an easier way, that's just what I'd do.