*OK, I’m about *10 hours in now ( maybe 8 productive and two wasted on one bad measurement….don’t ask) and I have the structure built and mounted. Everything fits and it is very stable. The drum spins almost perfectly true and the dust collection assembly went more easily than I had expected. I haven’t completely decided on the type of elevator I will use but I really like the positive locks at the sides. I plan to sand thin marquetry and a little tilt could cause a disaster.

This photo shows the clamping mechanism to the ShopSmith but a similar arrangement could be worked out for any lathe. It also shows a little stroke of luck I had. My arbitrarily chosen clearance above the tubes was made without thinking about the carriage being there. I cleared it by less than 1/8". Fortunately a miss_ is _as good as a mile.

Dust collector sitting in place. It can point either way and I may well use it pointing out over the powerhead to better support the hose. I still need to make a couple of little skirt pieces that will contain the dust and also chock the pipe in place. Don’t be too concerned about the apparent misalignment (gap under the drum) it’s an illusion, I checked.

This one shows the feed side with the hinge assembly. The piano hinge / torsion box combination should keep the alignment once I get it all trued up but I still like the locks. She doesn’t look like much but that’s the way my prototypes are. A little putty and paint and I think I will be able to live with this one and not have to do it all again just to be prettier. It_ is_ a tool after all.

Next up is to install the DC skirt / chocks and to make some elevators. I’m leaning towards two as I can fine tune by locking one side and advancing the other a hair before locking it in the case that I encounter a little twist.

My velcro and sandpaper http://www.grizzly.com/products/Hook-Loop-Conversion-Kit-for-Model-G1066/H5037 arrives Friday as do a bunch of golfing buddies from Victoria so I may or may not post a test drive in the next few days. We’ll see.

Thanks for dropping in. I hope this will inspire some ideas and maybe spawn a few more home-builts.

That’s it for now.

Questions, comments, critiques….always welcome.

Paul