Fellows,

Thanks for your rod wrapper answers in the recent past.

My bed has now been chosen. It will be extruded aluminum channel 9' long. Comprised of two parts, the main section will be 6' and I will have a 3' extension. Most of my blanks are two piece averaging 3' 6" to 4' long. The longest single piece blank I would use will be 8' in length. Can I get away with making and using just four uprights for supporting the blanks?

Thanks again,

Dan Miller

.

Yes

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Dan,

Four rod supports should work just fine. I built five for my homemade wrapper but tend to overbuild stuff by at least 20%, according to family members.

I found myself making multiple "re-designs" of various items, but it was a very worthwhile project. What method are you using to attach the sections?

Good luck with it.

Stan

Stan,

My bed will be extruded structural aluminum channel designed to fabricate machine guards, tables, automated machinery, etc. The shape is 2" x 4". It has " T " channels running its entire length to fasten down my uprights with using 5/16" bolts. There are two 1/4" dowel holes running up the center of these aluminum extrusions. I will simply plug in dowels and join the sections together.

My headstock will be a Unimat 3 lathe. I will fabricate a "pocket" or ajoining "platform" so the lathe will align up with the bed. It will plug into the bed using the dowels holes as well. Setup and knock down will take place spanning two desks.

Tony Hill has posted some photos of his inline skate wheel uprights and contact with Tony has also been very rewarding. Tony has advised that he does not use an upper retaining third wheel. Running his wrapper at higher speeds than I will., he has had no problems with blanks jumping out of his rollers. He suggested that the large diameter helps. I have a bunch of these wheels in size 74mm with matching ballbearings. Using 1/4" thick, 4" aluminum angle and upright extensions of 5" x 7" aluminum 1/4" plate, I will make my roller uprights. I have a milling machine so this will help in my fabrication.

My idea is to use a Dremel model 217 variable speed foot control to run the Unimat motor with as well as ajust the different belt drive pulleys to arrive at my chosen speed range. Playing around with sewing machine motor foot controls has shown me that the Dremel control is just so much better for this application. I have since trashed out the sewing machine foot controls.

This is a wrapping only lathe. I have proper large lathes for other rod building operations.

Thanks for your comments.

Dan Miller

Dan
Sounds like your all set. As soon as you can put up some pictures, I would like to see this when done.

Bill,

Would you say that I can get by with four uprights? My longest blank would be 8' maximum. The vast majority of rods I will build will be 2 piece with maybe 6' sections at the most. I could see using only three uprights with care but thought that the fourth would be handy now and then.

I can see that the smaller in diameter, longer blanks need more support. That is why I think I will turn to using four uprights once in awhile.

Just as a thought, where would you draw the line at using four uprights?

Thanks,

Dan Miller

Yes. In this case I would say more is better. Ya never know when some one wants a 8-10 ft one piece ? If you think your going to maybe build a lath, make a couple extra ??

Bill,

Take a look in the photos section about page two. The Doug Cox wrapper uses a similar style of extruded aluminum structural channel that I am working with. I will use aluminum 4" angle and some 1/4" plate to construct the uprights. Inline skate wheels will be used as rollers. My headstock will be a small lathe.

Dan Miller

I got skate wheels once. Did not like them Check these out. They look pretty nice
[www.herbach.com]

Bill,

Those wheels look pretty good. I can find a matching O-rings at a local supplier.

What objection do you have against inline skate wheels?

Dan Miller

They were too thick and the bearings were just a metal tube ??? Maybe some do have real bearings ? These wheels look like they have real bearings in them, and cheap. I have the screen door wheels on mine but I had to play and fill the grove to put an o-ring in.

Dan,

I'm hoping after completion, you will find one little thing that is just not right. Though the correction will require starting over from scratch, being the perfectionist we all are, you will realize the need for the slight modification and justify it, in order to create the perfect lathe.

Then you can post the beta model on the Buy/Sell board. - I'll be watching...

(Good Luck - sounds like a very nice piece of equipment)