I bought a used wood lathe this week. Wood turning is another hobby from my youth that I've been wanting to get back into. And it'll also be useful for my scratch built rockets.
Case in point: I needed some centering rings to mount the BT-50 motor tubes in the BT-52 cluster tubes. Now these are some pretty delicate centering rings, 1.140 OD x 0.970 ID. That means they are only 0.085 wall.
1st Lathe Project!
I made a mandrel using a piece of BT-50, slid the centering rings on and secured them with a couple wraps of blue painters tap. Then put this assembly in the wood lathe, sanded the ring OD with 80 grit until it was close, then finished the OD with a file.
Easy Peazy...
Once I get my lathe tools I'm wanting to make some wooden mandrels so I can make more pieces parts like these.. as well as nose cones, transitions, etc.
Here's the mandrel with rings, & the rocket cluster section. See how the rings are too big for the BT-52 cluster tube.
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Here's the lathe it's a Jet JWL-1236. It's really in excellent shape. And the guy I got it from was 4 miles from my home.
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Here's the BT-50 Mandrel and Centering Rings, before and after
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Now the rings fit great.
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Check out how thin the rings are.. The ring at the top is a std BT-50 to BT-60 which is what I modified.