Advice on my lathe, please

[WabbitPoo]

I have a B&Q lathe (blush). I recently purchased one of these to make one of their pen kits

However my lathe has no obvious way of attaching the mandrel to either the head or tail stock - instead I have simple spikey things which stick into the end grain of the workpiece (sorry - woodturning newbie here!). Is there a fancy attachment for lathes that allows "anything" to be attached via some sort of clamp system, or is the lathe just cr@p?

 

[Jasonb]

The spikey bits are known as centers, a drive center at the headstock (motor) end and dead or live center at the tail stock. These usually fit into a taper in the head/tail stock and have a tapered end like the lefthand end of the pen mandrel in your pic.

Is it possible to post a link or pic of your lathe just to check but you should be able to tap the drive center out with a metal rod passed through the spindle from the left hand side of the head.

You may find that the taper in the head is not the same as your mandrel but this can be solved by using Morse taper sleeves that will adjust the size.

The morse taper on the end of the mandrel is the standard way of attaching things to your lathe together with the thread on the spindle( assuming your lathe has one)

Jason

Jason

 

[Hitachimad]

If its a budget lathe, it may not have a morse taper.
On some very basic ones the centre (motor end) will screw onto a threaded shaft, and the tailstock cant be changed at all. You can get accesories for these like chucks and faceplates... but quite limited to things like pen mandrels etc.

 

[WabbitPoo]

If its a budget lathe, it may not have a morse taper.
On some very basic ones the centre (motor end) will screw onto a threaded shaft, and the tailstock cant be changed at all. You can get accesories for these like chucks and faceplates... but quite limited to things like pen mandrels etc.

yes thats what I have - are you saying there is an attachment I could maybe screw onto the threaded head stock which could then accept the tapered end of the mandrel?

thanks for the replies. I posted it in woodworking as I reckoned it would need wood turners to see the post.

This is the head stock

This is the tail

This is how the head attaches which I think is 18 or 19mm in diameter.