Radius Turner

This is one of the custom tools built to help make the Pirate Ship. The project took two days of machining and a whole lot of thinking to complete. The turntable rotates on some needle thrust bearings. The bearings are sandwiched between a 3/16” stainless steel plate and the turntable body, three screws hold them together. The carriage mounts a carbide insert cutter. The carriage is adjusted with three M12 cap screws, it can be adjusted to cut concave and convex curves.

A handle with a brass sphere at the end is used to rotate the turntable. The brass sphere was the first thing the radius turner made. I find it ironic to use the tool to finish its construction.

One error I made was making the turntable too tall. It had clearance under the chuck until I put the external jaws on and tried to use it at the chucks largest setting. Instead of taking the radius turner apart I used an end mill to lower the turntable. I plan to remount it n the lathe and clean it up and build a new carriage. The carriage I made was out of the only 3/4" plate I could find.


Project completed
12.6.2009